French ( or ) is a
Romance language, belonging to the
Indo-European family. It descended from the
spoken Latin language of the
Roman Empire, as did languages such as
Italian,
Portuguese,
Spanish,
Romanian,
Catalan and others. French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other
langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (
Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also
influenced by native
Celtic languages of Northern Roman
Gaul like
Gallia Belgica and by the (
Germanic)
Frankish language of the post-Roman
Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous
French-based creole languages, most notably
Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as
Francophone in both English and French.
