Excerpt from Macmillan's Progressive French Reader, Vol. 2: Second Year, Containing Fiction In Prose And Verse Historical And Descriptive Extracts Essays, Letters, Dialogues, EtcThe principal element of the French language is Latin, but Latin words, be it at once understood, have entered into the composition of French at different periods and by different processes.I. In the first place we have a stock of Latin words amounting to about four thousand, and forming the sub stratum of the whole language, which the different Celtic nations and the Franks who subsequently settled and ruled in Gau], under the pressure of the superior power and civilisation of the Romans, gradually adopted instead of their own native language.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.