The French language is counted by linguists among the Latin-derived Romance language sub-family of the Indo-European language family.
French ( le français [ lə fʁɑ̃sɛ ] or la langue française [ la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz ] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . French has evolved from Gallo-Romance , the spoken Latin in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul . Latin ( Latin : lingua latīna , [ ˈlɪŋɡʷa laˈtiːna ] ) is a dead classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages .