Langues d'oïl

Langues d'oïl (which literally means in English: "languages of yes") is the linguistic and historical name for the Gallo-Romance languages which developed from Latin in the northern territories of Roman Gaul that now are occupied by northern France, part of Belgium and the Channel Islands.

• Romance languages
  • Gallo-Romance languages
    • Langue d'oïl or Oïl languages
    • Langue d'oc or Occitan language

Oïl
Langues d'oïl
Geographic distribution:	Northern and central France, Belgium, Switzerland
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Romance Oïl
Proto-language:	Old French
Subdivisions:	see below
The geographical spread of the Oïl languages (other than French) can be seen in shades of green and yellow on this map

Meanings and disambiguation

Langue d'oïl (in the singular), Oïl dialects and Oïl languages (in the plural) refer to all the ancient northern Gallo-Romance languages as well as their modern-day descendants. The most widely spoken modern Oïl language is French, and others include Norman, Walloon, Picard, Gallo, Poitevin-Saintongeais, Champenois.

They share many common linguistic features. One of these is that Oïl (pronounced [wil], or [wi] as in modern French oui), was the ancestor of the word for yes used in all the Oïl languages (oc was and still is the word used in territories to the south, and that is why the Occitan language is also called langue d'oc (literal English translation: "language of yes")).