Ethnic Origins of the French 

In Greek, the word used for France comes from the word for Gaul, "Γαλλία"(Ghallia). And the people are called Γάλλοι (Ghalli). So basically, the Greeks still call France Gaul.

The French have three main sources for their origins: The Gauls (who were Celts), the Romans who occupied it for about five centuries, and the Germanic Franks who replaced the Romans around 400 AD. The fact that French is a Romance language is an indication that the Roman contribution might be the most important one.

personaly i would like to hear more about the occitans.

My surname is Huguenot with a Dutch twist. Greetings from South Africa.

France is the soul of Europe: a complex mixture of latin, germanic and celtic influences.

I love how Britain and France have one of the biggest rivalry in history while being so close deep down.

The French are Celts, Germanics, and Iberians who spoke the "most Germanic" Latin. The Brits are Celts and Germanics who spoke the "most Latin" Germanic. hahahahhahah

Living in cultural Occitania, I can tell that Occitanian dialects have complitely been replaced by French. Though, its culture seems to remain a little, with accents/cuisine/historical city names/expressions etc. , we can even chose to learn the regional Occitan dialect (Nissard) in my school for example. It's good to have a common language but it's kinda sad that most of the others disappeared.

The frenchs are 60% celts, 25-30% germanic, 5% Romans, 5% iberic. In the larger northern part (the 3/4) of France (north of the 45th parallel), the frenchs are 60% celts, 35% germanics, 5% romans. In the most southern part of France (south of the 45th parallel, so the 1/4th of the country), the frenchs are 60% celts, 10% germanics, 15% iberics, 15% romans. Of course, these proportions change a bit in Bretagne, Flandres, Alsace, Basque, and french Catalogne. So Frenchs are mainly a CELTO-GERMANIC people... whose language is mainly of latin origin.

Southern France was a Greek colony and when I visited Cote d'Azur I felt like I was in my home. Thanks for everything my French friends and I would like to tell you that you have a special place into every Greek's heart. Stay strong brothers and sisters

Many Afrikaners in South Africa have French Huganot ancestors. This explains surnames such as Du Preez and De Villiers. Also explains place names such as Franschhoek (French corner) and why wine is a big deal in SA.

Very interesting, objective, well done!

This channel should really be over 1 million subs now, so many awesome, high quality vids.

I’d really like to see a “who are the Iberians” video

I loved the history and maps presented in this video! I’m descended from the Huguenots and love learning more about how my ancestors traveled through Europe to safely practice their faith here in America (albeit through indentured servitude to Queen Anne). For my family, it was a faith journey. They married within their faith, rather than culture or people group. Excellent video. Thanks!!

Thanks Mason! Great video. The pacing and phrasing of your narration keeps getting better and better! It’s much easier to keep up with the pace now. Don’t be afraid to slowing down even more. But this was really interesting and dealt with lots of aspects of “French history” - language, religion, migration, and more. Not just blood types and genetics (although that’s interesting too). Good stuff.

As a Spaniard from the north (region of Navarre) I'm very close geographically to France. My mom & her family grew up there in the French Basque coast of Biarritz, Bayonne and Anglet. Much of the French food and ways of thinking were brought when they moved back to Spain. France is amazing. If you want to improve your level of English and you have a good level of French then you start with a good base. Humanely speaking French people are remarkable. Their culture and language is worth learning. Not just because the French speak it. There tens upon tens of millions of Africans, Canadians...that speak French. French is actually their mother tongue. No wonder French is together with English the only other international language in diplomacy and international relations.

Vive la France! 🇫🇷

French are a (mainly) celto-germanic people whose language is (mainly) from latin origin. According to many studies, I would say that our global genetic ethnic origins (varying according to different regions) are : 1) 50-60 % celtic (Gauls and Bretons) 2) 25-30 % germanic (Franks, Burgonds, Alamans, few Saxon) 3) 10 % celtiberians and celto-ligurians 4) 5 % roman (italics and etruscans) 5) 2-3 % scandinavian (Vikings, Jutes) Whereas our language origins and influences are : 1) 60-70 % latin 2) 20-30 % germanic (10 % of the words, and 15 % coming from pronunciation) 3) 10 % greek and others.

Argentina is the third country in number of French descendants. Those people came from Southwestern France, mainly Basque Country , Béarn and Gascony

All love to my dear French comrades!

I am part french my ancestors where from Limousine and moved to Argentina during the early 1900s I think, they didn’t flee France they where actually really rich but came to Argentina to become even richer.

The traditional elites of Belgium were not the Walloon, but rather French-speaking Flemish. Historically, in the Catholic Germanic-language areas along the Rhine (such as Flanders, The Rhineland-Palatinate, Luxembourg, Alsace), the upper classes spoke French. This is still the case in Luxembourg. Elites stopped speaking French in Germany in the late 19th Century and in Flanders after World War 2. In Alsace, being part of France, the urban population are now almost completely assimilated Francophones, and only the elderly still speak Alsatian (Alsatian is a dialect of the Swabian language historically spoken in South-Western Germany and still spoken in Switzerland today). Brussels is mainly populated by Francophones of Flemish descent (and immigrants from North Africa). Luxembourg is the last place where you still see the phenomenon of French being used as an elite language by a Germanic-language population, but it's increasingly being replaced by English.

The Hugenots were often hightly skilled and better educated than average at that time, Protestant northern Germany took them with open arms which contributed to the steep economic rise of that region. You can still find a lot of French last names going back to that time period, while the few French names in the Catholic parts of Germany and Austria usually go back to the Napoleonic Wars.

Northern French:Germanic and Celtic with a small amount of Roman. Bretton is mostly Celtic and Alsace is mostly Germanic. Southern France:Mostly Celtic and Roman with some North African and Greek. A large amount of the modern French population is not the natives but Spanish,Portuguese and Italian immigrants.

Alsace has changed hands between Germany and France several times, would you do a history of the people who live there?

many hugenottes also fled to prussia, Frederick the great inviting them, and live in Germany now. You can often hear their French Heritage in their surnames!

The ethnic origin of the vast majority of French people is Celtic. Not to be confused with their language, which is a Roman legacy.

France in Norwegian is --> Frankriket. Frankriket translated to English is --> Frankish kingdom/realm or kingdom/realm of the Franks

Love to our French brothers from Greece! In Greek we France as Ghallia and the French people as Ghalli.

Many people of French-Canadian ancestry(including myself) are direct descendants of Hélène Desportes, the first French baby born in Quebec.

Well made video which does a very good job in explaining the French both in terms of diversity and yet making a coherent and influencial nation. Maybe I would add that the French revolution, Napoleon and the subsequent republics put a lot of effort to centralise France and in playing down regional diversity. My comments coming from a Frenchman now living in Canada, born in Paris from a Breton mother and a Basque father, so basically typically French in origin. Oh and now that I am 71, i am yet to wear a French bérêt or eat frog legs but I had a number of stripey jerseys over the years :-

4:30 My country 🇱🇺 being acknowledged for once, thanks Masaman

I am 50% French. I purchased 2 different companies' tests to check my DNA through saliva. They came back with the same result. I was.......34% Danish and 3% Norwegian. Wait, what? After some talk with my parents, we realized that since my French side is from Normandy, I must be more Viking than Gallo-Roman there. Even after a 1000 years of presence in France, some Frenchmen can trace their roots to oddly unexpected origins including Scandinavia. Never felt more French though......because being French is not ethnic

The French are a mixture of Celtic, Greek, Roman, German and Nordic. France has always been a melting pot. After WW1 large numbers of immigrants came into France mainly from eastern Europe. They assimilated very easily and became French very quickly. In the 1950/60s large numbers of immigrants came from France's former colonies. Today large numbers of Algerian's have settled throughout the country.The comments about the French Canadians not mixing with others is not correct. The people of Quebec are a mixed group as well. They include French, native, Scottish and Irish. Saint Patrick's day is a major event in Quebec due to the fact that so many of people of Quebec are part Irish. In recent years large numbers of Italians also moved into Quebec. So Quebec like France is a melting pot. Even those who speak French are part something else.

I was hoping for a bar graph of germanic celtic italic and greek admixture by region but I guess I'll suffice with this great video

As a french man from southern background and speaker of occitan i approve this video!

One inquiry toward a French subgroup which I am interested is the French who migrated across the border into Germany (esp. the Saar) and Huguenots who also were exiled in huge numbers into Prussia and much of northern Germany. Many prominent Germans in History have French surnames. The elites of the most dominant nations of pre-unification Germany, Prussia and Austria, also favored the French language and culture. Another aspect of interest of French Huguenot migration is the impact of French Protestants in the Americas, esp. the USA. Many Presidents (such as Franklin DELANO Roosevelt) and early American heroes (Francis Marion, Paul Revere) were of Huguenot descent.

Frankish hasnt vanished from the French language at all! Over 1000 words are of frankish origin. Not to mention the pronunciation, the word order and the conjugation of verbs.

hm, ok, it's interesting however, I'd like to add some precisions about what you say and what I know regarding my roots. I don't come from University, I'm just a random french dude interested in history (so, I'm not an autorithy regarding this topic, get your on infos on your side, ppl). First of all : your introduction about the fact that there can't be ethnic data base (it's basicaly illegal here) is true but it mostly come from the fact that we were an occupied country during the world war II and also the fact that France was in europ the second or first (?) jewish homeland. It's super complicated to explain in just few sentences but there was in the XIXth century an expression which was "happy like a jew in France". There was a(nother) wave of anti-semitism in europ in the late XIXth, France wasn't spared, the Dreyffus case happened, spliting the public opinion and later the law of 1905 divinding any religion from the state... so yup, no ethnic or religious database here. Because of secularism and ethnic or religious persecutions.. so, yeah, we don't like databases not because we're one of the crossroad of europ but.. mostly because of a Hitler and the colaboration with the ennemy. Second, regarding the Gauls : Gauls were just tribes with their own specific political agendas. And some will say that the "gallo-roman culture" is just a very late invention from historians (still from the XIXth century) and there is no evidence that France can advocate to be the fair child of those diversed and divided tribes. About the Frank thing : we're talking about the Francs Saliens, which means the Franks from the marshes, so... a dutch tribe of Franks whom helped the Roman empire as military auxiliary until the day/week/year the roman empire falled appart. Then those warlords took over the land for themselves in the name of rome and its "new religion" : christianism. Fun part of this is : there is no evidence of massive invasions (there is no archeological evidences of changes in the funeral rituals in that time while romans liked graveyards and franks and german tribes prefered to be burnt) but yes, some ppl prefered to be buried as frankish soldiers in that time, probably because of.. taxes (?) yup, Franks were not hit by the taxes so... I let you imagine how Frank everybody wanted to be (fun fact : in french, to be "franc" means, to be "honnest", lol). Regarding the colonies : the colonies are just a Roman word which sum up it all. There is a lot to say but I'm not writing a thesis :) just know, for your basical knowledge that, in 1998, France became world champion in soccer with a man nammed Christian Karembeu (neo caledonian). one of his ancester was exhibit in a cage to a universal expo in Paris in the early XXth... so yeah, we were opened to racial mixity but meh, not so much I won't comment the usual fight with the Brits (too long story, too much legends and too much private jokes and bitching at each other) However I saw in your video a Nationality thing : here is a (very !) big spread in europ : how do you become a citizen ? In France, we've chosed the right from the soil and in Germany, they've chosed the right from the blood. Which mean : if you've borned on a french soil or from a one of your french parent, you're french. In Germany, it's only a parent thing. Maybe it changed but really it means a lot of things regarding how you inherit a nationality, its history, it's roots. Sorry for my poor english and high five if you could reald me to this end.

Super intéressant! Merci! J'ai fait un test ADN et cela confirme ce que tu dis. Je suis née au Nord de la France à la frontière avec la Belgique. J'ai : 49% de Britannique (Celte britton) 38% Nord Ouest (Germanique) 7% Italique (Romain) 2% Ibère. 5% Europe de l'Est ( Hongrois du aux guerres Napoléonienne , confirmé par un arbre généalogique) Donc je suis 100% Européen et 100% Français!!! Enjoy!!! Merci de ton travail.

So, genetically speaking, could the French “nation” be subdivided into regional groups? For instance the southern French sharing a common genetic background and phenotype? In comparison to northern French, like you mentioned. Are the southwest genetically related closer to Iberian peoples? The East closer to Germanic groups? I am still curious on how the French “nation” plays out on an ethnic genetic map. It has always intrigued me. I do believe there to be somewhat of a French “phenotype” at least from my own anthropological studies. I can often spot when someone is French usually by their facial features, which are similar to German and English but not quite the same. Southern French do appear closer to Italians and Spanish but still not quite. Any thoughts or further video explanation on this? I know this subject is taboo and illegal in France so perhaps the data is simply not available yet.

221 yes ago, something GREAT happrned the French landed here in Alexandria and Egyptology was founded. Rest in Peace Emperor *NAPOLEON* & scientist Jean-François Champollion .

Well that's nice, but no haplogroups? Would love a part/video on their genetic composition!

As a Spanish speaker I have an easier time understanding Occitan than Standard French

Great video. I would like to point out that culture, language and ethnicity can be very different, and this is the case for France. - Romans were major contributors both culturally and linguistically , but not ethnically - Germanics were major contributors culturally, and very minor contributors in terms of demographics (5% to 10% of the population) - The bulk of the French is thus ethnically of Celtic origin The reason for that is that in Gaul agriculture was very developped. They had invented the barrel, and had a very comprehensive network of roads - two elements showing that agriculture was already an industry, i.e. it was not merely to sustain local / tribal life. Also the main political organization of the Celts was federations of tribes, which also shows coordination at a large scale - although a very loose one. With the high level of agricultural output, the Gaulish population was between 9 and 11 millions people at the time of Caesar's conquest (which , incidently, began when the Sequanes wanted to migrate because they lacked room). This is a very high number, and it has been questioned, but there are a lot of arguments in its favor. In comparison, the romans conquerors settled very little of Gaul because they were already in their demographic winter ; and the german conquerors were very few in number in comparison because their agriculture was less developped. Less than 1 million Franks, Burgundians, Wisigoths, Vandals are estimated to be the germanic demographic participation.

*franks *burgundians *ancient greeks *romans *celtics *ligures *normans *İberians Are origin of the french people

I respect the aknowledgment of the luxembourgish language, now an outsider knows about the true heir of Francia.

3:46 the Kingdom of Cyprus!! The Frankish have built so many great buildings in Cyprus (many of which were unfortunately destroyed by the Turks) but still their contribution was great.

English and French are actually extremely close languages. As close as two languages of distinct families can be. English is german spoken by latins, and french is latin spoken by germans.

Excellent video. One thing I don't agree with, however, is that the phenotypes of people are 'different' between northern and southern France; I've spend considerable time travelling in France and I would not be able to distinguish between someone from Toulon in the southeast from someone from Paris simply by their phenotype. That said, there are more people of recent Spanish and and Italian descent living in the south, so perhaps this is what you meant.

My grandma on my mother's side is descended from Hugenots that fled to Swabia.

I am an American with French-Canadian, Portuguese, and English ancestry. I'm conflicted...

The real question is... Who are the French Canadians?

Love your channel and I appreciate your commitment to historical accuracy. That being said, French-Canadians are compromised of two French cultural groups, the Quebecois, and Acadians.

Dear French people: may I ask: why do so many people not care to preserve their cultural & ethnic heritage in your country? I feel like it’s against human nature to think this way... Also (not just directed towards French): what is so bad about wanting to preserve somewhat of an ethnostate ? Think about it this way - if all people groups from all nations of all ethnicities were to intermix, the result would NOT be many ppls so very cherished “diversity” - the ultimate result would be everyones genetics being completely the same (essentially) & homogeneous. It’s like having say 50 different colors of paint 🎨 keep them *mostly* separate (I’m not saying intermixing should be at rates of 0% - just that it should be limited) and all the different unique diverse colors will maintain their special characteristics (analogous to human genotype & phenotype). But if you mix all of the colors of paint together, the result would be one single homogeneous color - diversity would be completely lost Also, mixing colors that are quite similar to one another would have the effect of these colors not changing much (ie. northern France = sky blue + England = slightly darker shade of sky blue) but if you one unique & limited color (ie southern French = “regular” blue) in huge amounts with some other very different color (ie Algerian = yellow-orange) then the result inevitably is the original unique color(s) being forever altered, and thus a net loss in diversity I’m not saying intermixing should never occur - I actually think it occurring to some limited degree is a very positive thing - but when it occurs in mass, involved people groups are forever changed and some type(s) of human-kinds’ unique heritage is lost. I admit that this notion is indeed somewhat racist, but I don’t think that this type of racism (when it’s relatively mild, and doesn’t hurt others or cause significant resentment/hatred towards ethnically different foreigners) is a bad thing - at all. So many Westerners have been brainwashed to think that “racism” in all forms is essentially the epitome of evil. I think people with such notions lack independent critical thinking abilities (also, though, some people couldn’t give a damn about cultural heritage & ethnic diversity) I think that it’s a very positive thing for any/all nations to be “somewhat racist” - only this way can you effectively preserve one’s ethnic heritage, as well as Earth’s overall + greatest possible degree of diversity. In this area I think the Japanese & South Koreans have the right attitude--they are kind, respectful, & welcoming to people of all races/ethnicities, but very much limit immigration, and don’t think of people who do not look ethnic Japanese/Korean as actually being fully 🇯🇵/🇰🇷. In other words, they value preserving their genetic/phenotypic heritage, and haven’t been taught to believe that there’s anything wrong with wishing to do so. It’s a shame that European nations don’t value ethnic heritage as much as people generally do in the Far East, nowadays. I surmise it has a lot to do with Europe 1) being heavily influenced by American culture (where ethnic diversity is highly celebrated & encouraged. Which I personally think makes sense & endorse, since the original traditional ethnic heritage--that of each unique type of Native American tribe/nation--has been completely destroyed anyway, unfortunately) and 2) European society teaching all ethnic European people never to hold such nationalistic notions (+ and having all white people feel guiltly about the past) since they associate this with Hitler’s ambitions of trying to create a “pure Aryan race” Europe, and thereby engaging in mass genocide while attempting to achieve this goal. People generally do not understand/realize that maintaining an ethnostate A) doesn’t mean you have to completely 100% get rid of foreigners-allowing people of other ethnic backgrounds to obtain citizenship and live in peace with everyone else would be fine & harmless if they were kept a large minority, and B) “xenophobic” sentiments come in degrees - being slightly xenophobic is WAY different than wanting the genocide of all peoples of different races/ethnicities in one’s nation (aka having notions extreme to level of Hitler) It’s worth people considering: if Toyko Japan were less than 50% ethnic Japanese - just like London England is now less than 50% ethnic English - would you consider this to be a good thing? What is the result of such a huge degree of “multiculturalism”? Is it not the complete alteration/destruction of a core aspect of Japanese (Toyko fake example) or English (London ACTUAL real-life example) culture and heritage?? Is it not a huge net loss of human diversity from the world?? I think it’s very unfortunate that so few other ethnic European people realize this... people either cannot get over the “RACISM BAD” hurdle, or are not willing to publicly admit & discuss their admittedly slightly racist (yet arguably a good kind of it) notions/beliefs--and for a reasonable/forgivable reason - they inevitably will be absolutely crucified by our politically correctness dominated society 😪 I’m curious: in the event that anyone actually read this whole comment, do you agree or disagree with my ideas/beliefs? I’m always willing to listen to alternative opinions!

I higly doubt there are much of Romano - Galic genes left. I think modern day France population comes dominatly from Germanic tribe Franks, which means Frech, Germans and Brittons are all same people, with exception from population that has its roots in Africa.

Would love a video that focuses on the bretons, since i have some breton ancestry, and im sure alot of french people here also do, so would be interesting. Great video once again!

That's cool from the author of the video to acknowledge the 'Franco-provençal' or 'Arpitan' linguistic region, which is different from Northern France and the Occitan region (I am from Lyon personally, city historically in the Arpitan part).

Fabulous! Very dense amount of interesting info well-presented. Thank you.

I always thought them frenchies might be different than Latin Spaniards and italians. Even though it is a romance language it seems so different than Spanish or Italian.

Funny point to mention. The city of Marseille, on the mediteranean coast, has been founded by greek settlers. Very good video, as a frenchman I appreciate it. This is a disgrace that te regional languages are disappearing. I am in favor of bilingual policy. We must have a connection with our identity through the language. Merci à toi Masaman, et pour que vive la France 🇫🇷 vive le Roi ⚜ !

The comment section proves that I should never look in the comment section of a Masaman video. It’s sad how Anthropology has to be political nowadays.

Brilliant, amazing video!!! Congrats!! Kudos to you!

And keep in minds that there where local tribes in this territory BEFORE the celt even arrive

Kermit and Gary aren’t safe from the French. Jokes aside I like France, nice country with fascinating history

The French are mainly Celts because the Roman were just a few to move in Gaul. The Germanic tribes were not populous compared to the gallo roman population, not more than 10%, 20 % for North France. Even the celts were just a few when they came in France and assimilated the indigenous paleolithic tribes.

As a native Lorrainer (Lorraine being a region in eastern France), I would add that some parts of France, mostly at the East, were incorporated quite lately into the French territory. But due to powerful policies, even those areas were pretty well transformed into French regions as well

Bonjour,I am a descendant of France through my mom.she told me before but I completely forgot. I feel lucky🍀😍

"Francia" is spelled in Latin; therefore it's pronounced "frankia." There was neither a soft C nor a K in Latin. The C was always hard, and the S was used for the other sound.

French-Algerian, Anissa Kate, is HOT! 😍

Frankish Kings were never pagan, the first one was Clovis and he converted to Christianity early on in his reign

Vive le Québec libre !!!

Your knowledge is music to my ears. ❤

So many French have come to live in small villages in Québec that it almost feel like a second wave of colonisation. Also, you said marriage with native was rare in french colonies, it certainly wasn't here in Québec, in fact it was heavily encouraged in the early days, as it was less expensive than importing french women.

There are significant French diaspora communities in Latin America, such as México, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina.

My mom is of Creole descent which is French Origin. When u look at the history of Louisiana u think of African, Native American, and French or Spanish. I want to travel to France.

Actually native French (from mainland France) are mainly a Bronze Age mix composed of Iberian-like and British-like people (and probably German-like). More British-like in northern and eastern France, more Iberian-like in southern and central-France. You can see it on the latest genetic study on the French called "The genetic history of France" (The methods of this study are far from being perfect, especially in the most southeastern corner of the country, but on the whole it gives a pretty decent idea of the French and it corresponds to native French results you can see on websites dedicated to dna results).

Millions of Romans settled in France and Spain, thats why Italians, Frenchmen and Spaniards look very similar as opposed to the average "Celt" in Scotland or Ireland. Also Spanish and French are all Italic languages directly descended from Latin, thats further evidence that their ancestors were the Latin-speaking Romans who populated the 2 regions for the 700 years they were Roman Provinces. We are a big Roman family ❤️🇮🇹🇫🇷🇪🇸🇵🇹❤️

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ Sacre Bleu !!!

One of the most attractive women I've ever met was Tahitian/French. I met her in Viet Nam. Even after all these years, the memory of her is still amazing. Charleston, SC had an early settlement of Huguenots that helped built the city. Their influence today can be seen throughout the city.

Frances position on not recording ethnicity has nothing to do with Frances original ethnic makeup. Its because of the separation of church and state initiated by the French Revolution. This was done at a time when France was a wholly ethnic European state. Since mass migration these rules have worked against the indigenous French in a way never intended by its lawmakers.

Oïl is pronounced like "oil", not "will".

Hello - thank you for this video ! Some Additional remarks - there were peoples before the celts arrived : basks people are said to prelive the celts but also the Ligurians in the south - it has to be mentioned that Greek influence was really strong in Gaul - as most towns on the Mediterranean coast were founded by Greek settlers (Nice, Marseille, Antibes and Hyères were all Greek port colonies from the Asian town of Phocea - and when phocéens left their city after the Persian wars, many settled in their western colonies - it’s now clearly established that Greek language was widely spoken in marseille till the second century which proves a long and permanent influence - many Gallic tombs show exchange with Estrucan, Greeks and later romans - Germanic influence was already strong when Jules Caesar invaded Gauls : northern france had more Germanic influences and south Gauls was already clearly romanized so that that Gallo Roman culture became obvious after the conquest of Caesar Germanic Franks influenced heavily early France and gave birth of what would become the French royalty, the establishment of power in and around Paris and made france a central power in Western Europe But migrations never stopped: still possible to see many Viking and Saxons influences in northern french territory If we come back to modern times - till recently the most numerous community of origins were people from Portugal (more than 1.5 million people ) but over the years people from Italy are more numerous though it has been constant over different periods of times (even in Middle Ages) If you consider all people of Maghreb as one , they are today the most numerous influential groups : Algerians, Tunisians and morticians make up at least a group of more than 3 million people and their influence can be traced to gastronomy to language Over the last decades, a visible African influence is also obvious especially in Paris. Should not be overtaken : Asian people of different countries : China and Vietnam mainly

Luxembourgian is a Moselle Franconian dialect, like the neighbouring German dialects too. Even some Rhine Franconian dialects are close enough to be mutually intelligible.

Great vid ;) As a guy from the northern tip of France, I'd add the ch'ti language which has Dutch influence with a dash of beer. You'd have trouble understanding half of a sentence even if you were French. Though as I recall a bit of this population identifies as Dutch, the region isn't asking for independence (contrary to the Bretons and and the Corse who have active groups wanting just that)

Occitan language is soo beautifull , needs to be perserved also the breton. French people from the north i think they are more descended from germanic tribes and celts while the South French people are more descendent from the mediterraneans. Thanks for the video

My grandma and grandpa on my mother’s side are both descended from Huguenots who fled to East Prussia and northern Germany, I myself moved very close to the German French border (Rhine Moselle valley) some years ago (which used to be French territory several times in history).

The Gallic Empire wasnt really an ethnic secessionist empire. Postumus was of a Germanic, not Gallic, extraction and was essentially just an ambitious general with a lot of regional power who lost faith in the central government during the turbulence that was going on at the time (especially some disastrous defeats in Persia)

It talked mostly about history. It could have talked about haplogroups, genetic studies and so on, just like in the video about italians.

Waterloo, he was defeated. They won the war

Dont’ worry, we ourselves make fun from english people as well... ;-) By the way, your vision of ‘beret’ as a symbol of France is completely outdated... We invented democracy, photography and cinéma, automobiles, airplanes, hélicopters, submarines, and even the relativity (truly discovered by Poincare, not Einstein...). Not just fashion and gastronomy. Otherwise, your channel is great and always interesting. Beau travail. Greetings from France. ;-)

In my estimation then, the French are Celto-Germanics (or White as we most commonly understand it), with ancestors mainly from France. They certainly are not African, Middle-eastern, or whatever.

The celtic and then frankish influences were more important in the Oïl languages. Yet, OC (occitan) and Oïl languages are two branches of the same tree. They simply diverged over time. It is so true that the passage from Oc to Oïl is visible on a map, with "transition languages" instead of a strict linguistic border. The Croissant is a central France region materialising that transition. Even Northern Occitan in Auvergne is showing aspects similar to Oîl. Then there is the Arpitan, aptly named Franco-Provençal, in the centre and (south-)East of France, which also shows transition from Oc to Oïl in many aspects. One remarkable difference between Oc and Oïl languages is, for example, the treatment of root words beginning with "ca-" : in Oc, it remains "ca-", in Oïl it becomes "cha-". "Cha-" is also observered in northern Occitan, when "ca-" would be expected.... Then, further north, the Croissant also shows interference between Oc aspects and Oîl aspects. In Arpitan (franco-provençal), "cha-" is found just as in Oïl languages, but a number of other aspects are also common with Oc. In a nutshell, all these languages are gallo-romance languages, akin to each other, forming a linguistic continuum, meaning that they have never been totally foreign to each other but simply diverged at some point, and followed their own way. This probably eased the passage from local dialects/languages to standard French. As for peripheral languages (celtic, germanic, italic), they reflect medieval migrations or invasions from neighbouring civilizations during late antiquity and early medieval ages.

you had the gaul to do this comprehensive origin video

Suppression of free speech by banning all talk of a native french people in France is alarming. Since when is it okay to steal the land and culture from people especially one who contributed much to the world? As long as its Europeans its okay to overlook this then?

I was hoping you would discuss their genetics.

I’d love to hear more about the Portuguese and how similar/different they are to the other descendants of the Romans

You should read wikipedia about the Halstatt Culture which predates Romans and Etruscan as far back as 12,000 BCE. Mostly Celts whose culture was more sophisticated than we realize

Excellent and correct video. Now concerning the languages spoken in France, until the beginning of the 19th Century, the country was "a mosaic" of languages and dialects. Since the mid-70s about, there is certainly a revival of many of those dialects. My own mother grew up in two languages, French of course and Gaelic. Unfortunately, she never taught me Gaelic.