Talk:Franks/@comment-106.193.196.64-20170811083026/@comment-82.240.72.102-20171231213136

Most of the population actually spoke the local dialect (which still wasn't french but well, something more latin than franconian), the Frankish minority spoke their Germanic dialect, up to a certain point. And anyway, you have to make a distinction between the early Franks (a germanic tribe that conquered the Gallo-Roman territory) and the mixed people that will be called "Franks" in the following centuries (who considered themselves civilised, and who conquered Germanic tribes). Franks were a Germanic tribe only in the beginning. Well, French have been influenced by a lot of Frankish words anyway.

Also, consider that the area called France today actually always had a lot of languages/dialects. Even in 1400 each region had their own language/dialect, with for example the whole south didn't speak any oil language. It would be difficult to choose a language even if the civilisation only concerned France as West Francia.