2. THE LANGUAGE.--After the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar, Latin became the predominant language of the country; but on the overthrow of the Western Empire it was corrupted by the intermixture of elements derived from the northern invaders of the country, and from the general ignorance and barbarism of the times. At length a distinction was drawn between the language of the Gauls who called themselves Romans, and that of the Latin writers; and the _Romance_ language arose from the former, while the Latin was perpetuated by the latter. At the commencement of the second race of monarchs, German was the language of Charlemagne and his court, Latin was the written language, and the Romance, still in a state of barbarism, was the dialect of the people. The subjects of Charlemagne were composed of two different races, the Germans, inhabiting along and beyond the Rhine, and the Wallons, who called themselves Romans. The name of _Welsch_ or _Wallons_, given them by the Germans, was the same as _Galli_, which they had received from the Latins, and as _Keltai_ or Celts, which they themselves acknowledged. The language which they spoke was called after them the _Romance-Wallon_, or rustic Romance, which was at first very much the same throughout France, except that as it extended southward the Latin prevailed, and in the north the German was more perceptible. These differences increased, and the languages rapidly grew more dissimilar. The people of the south called themselves _Romans- provençaux_, while the northern tribes added to the name of Romans, which they had assumed, that of _Wallons_, which they had received from the neighboring people. The Provençal was called the _Langue d'oc_, and the Wallon the _Langue d'oui_, from the affirmative word in each language, as the Italian was then called the _Langue de sí_, and the German the _Langue de ya_. The invasion of the Normans, in the tenth century, supplied new elements to the Romance Wallon. They adopted it as their language, and stamped upon it the impress of their own genius. It thus became Norman-French. In 1066, William the Conqueror introduced it into England, and enforced its use among his new subjects by rigorous laws; thus the popular French became there the language of the court and of the educated classes, while it was still the vulgar dialect in France.