French language in the XVI Century: le grand routier de mer

Abstract

The 16th century Portuguese itineraries to India and to Brazil were translated into French (1610) by J. H. van Linschoten. These itineraries are considered to be fundamental for facilitating European Sea Expansion in the XVI century to Oriental India. The itineraries which were selected as a corpus for this research were translated into Middle French and published in Le grand routier de mer (1610). Middle French is a language in state of transformation. Its features mark the moment of affirmation and unity of the French Nation and the French language as a national idiom. The French texts of the Roteiros da Carreira da India are a wealthy source for many linguistic facts in relation to this historical moment of the idiom.