The Angoumian is a geological group restricted to the northern Aquitaine Basin in France. The group consists of two fossiliferous limestone formations deposited during the Turonian .
91-681: The name Angoumian, in French Angoumien , is derived from the Angoumois region around the town of Angoulême in the Charente . The formation crops out in the surroundings of Angoulême, but also reaches farther south into the Dordogne ( Périgord , i.e. Périgord Vert & Périgord Blanc). The Angoumian is usually divided into two formations, a lower Angoumien inférieur and an upper Angoumien supérieur . Some authors even attribute
182-464: A beachrock facies, indicating a littoral position of the deposits. The bioclasts are very rounded and are composed of the debris of echinoderms , rudists, single corals (polyps), and milioles. These rather massive calcarenites can reach a thickness of 12–15 m in places and sometimes are affected by cross-bedding . They occur somewhat southeast of the La Tour Blanche anticline and
273-484: A regressive trend. This fact combined with the generally warm climate during the Turonian allowed the temperature of the sea-water to reach unprecedented values on the inner shelf of the northern Aquitaine Basin (peaking at roughly 10 °C above today's ocean temperatures during the lower Angoumian) – together with the reigning calm conditions an ideal environment for the widespread expansion of rudist reefs. During
364-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process
455-451: A calm and not very deep depositional environment ; they comprise lamellibranchs , acteonellidae , nerineoidea , chaetetids , miliolids, and others. In some places, the top part undergoes a facies change to more agitated conditions, especially towards the West and near Périgueux (deposition of cream-coloured, coarse, bioclastic limestones, which are much less recrystallised; their grain size
546-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,
637-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
728-436: A massive, homogeneous, normally 8–10 m thick, chalky , rudist -bearing limestone of pure white colour. The massive bed stands out geomorphologically , sometimes forming small cliffs in the countryside. Generally this rock is quite soft (it can be cut with a handsaw), it was therefore quarried extensively for building stone with hundreds of small quarries in operation; most of them have closed down by now. The massive member
819-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
910-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
1001-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and
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#17327654725091092-526: A second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only
1183-941: A second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as
1274-498: A tectonically disturbed setting possibly related to the rising Mareuil Anticline . Small strike-slip faults can be observed near Brantôme which mostly show a horizontal movement direction pointing to the SSE, rarely to the SE. There is also a fairly common occurrence of slickolites (a special kind of stylolite ), which indicate the direction of pressure solution in the rock. This direction
1365-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in
1456-461: A very hard limestone or of an ocre calcarenite appear. This horizon is the upper limit of the quarrying activity and was called chaudron (kettle) by the miners. In addition to the usual fauna, it also comprises small biostromes of Biradiolites angulosus . The common facies can change quite suddenly (within less than 500 m) into a coarse, weakly cemented, bioclastic facies ( Pierre de Cheyroux ) consisting of white to yellowish calcarenites —
1547-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French
1638-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English
1729-573: Is affected by important thickness variations (its total thickness normally can vary from 5–12 m, sometimes even reaching 15 m), caused either by tectonic disturbances or by post-depositional erosion (for instance, in the Mareuil Anticline , the upper Angoumian discordantly overlies the lower Angoumian, occasionally even cutting down into it). The chalky limestones are mainly composed of rudist debris with comparatively little cement . The rudist debris consists almost exclusively of
1820-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given
1911-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including
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#17327654725092002-462: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share
2093-436: Is characterised by the incorporation of fine debris and by a benthic microfauna consisting of foraminifera such as miliolida and textulariida . The first rudists ( Sphaerulites patera and Biradiolites lumbricalis ) start to appear in this level. Some rare cephalopods have also been found (such as Romaniceras deverianum or Lecointriceras fleuriausianum for instance). These fairly thin beds then give way to
2184-399: Is dominated by rudist biostromes. The rudists are represented by Durania cornupastoris , Praeradiolites ponsi , Radiolites praesauvagesi , Radiolites radiosus , Radiolites trigeri , Biradiolites quadratus , Biradiolites angulosus , Vaccinites praepetrocoriensis , Vaccinites petrocoriensis , and Hippurites requieni var. subpolygonia. The benthic fossils present indicate
2275-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in
2366-503: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
2457-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from
2548-422: Is mostly vertical, i.e. merely representing the overburden of the overlying strata. Yet significant aberrations from this direction can be observed as well, proving that the group was also under the influence of directional stresses. The lower Angoumian is coeval with the upper two-thirds of the middle Turonian, the upper Angoumian is equivalent to the upper Turonian. The Angoumian therefore represents approximately
2639-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in
2730-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for
2821-420: Is over 2 mm and they can show large cross-beds). The second member demonstrates pronounced thickness variations (from 8 to 12 m). In contrast to the first member it is composed either of micrites that are slightly debris-bearing, or of microcrystalline limestones rich in debris. Both rock types enclose the same fauna as the first member. The second member likewise can change its facies to calcarenites of
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2912-471: Is quite prominent and contains the foramnifera groups rotaliida , discorbidae , and textulariida with the species Valvulammina picardi or Arenobulimina sp. as well as the ostracode species Bairdia , Cythereis , and Pterygocythereis . After the generally transgressive Ligerian (in comparison with its underlying Cenomanian ) dominated by open marine deposits, the Angoumian clearly shows
3003-576: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
3094-597: Is the carbonate equivalent of a sandstone . The term calcarenite was originally proposed in 1903 by Grabau as a part of his calcilutite , calcarenite and calcirudite carbonate classification system based upon the size of the detrital grains composing a limestone. Calcarenites can accumulate in a wide variety of marine and non-marine environments. They can consist of grains of carbonate that have accumulated either as coastal sand dunes ( eolianites ), beaches , offshore bars and shoals, turbidites , or other depositional settings. This article related to petrology
3185-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure
3276-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in
3367-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially
3458-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism
3549-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of
3640-462: The Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as
3731-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
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3822-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
3913-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
4004-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
4095-649: The Ligerian (in French Ligérien ) to the Angoumian and then call it basal Angoumian . The Angoumian sensu stricto conformably overlies the Ligerian and closes with a hardground towards the overlying Coniacian . (Represented on French geological maps as unit c3b ) The 15–20 m thick lower Angoumian, also called Angoulême Formation , starts with a 5–6 m thick, thinly bedded, microcrystalline limestone of white to creamy colour. This limestone
4186-723: The Massif central . This is recorded in the sediments, which at first took on a clastic character and later underwent profound alterations, breccifications and hardground formation. The total thickness of the Angoumian varies between 35 and 60 m with a higher accumulation rate occurring on the southwestern side of the depositional area (towards the centre of the Aquitaine Basin). The Angoumian forms part of two very open synclines striking NW-SE (the Combiers-Saint-Crépin-de-Richemont syncline in
4277-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
4368-539: The Périgueux anticline , proving that these major structures were already beginning to rise during the Turonian. The lower formation finishes with a few metres of thinly bedded, yellowish, microcrystalline limestone rich in bioclasts (lamellibranchs and echinoderms). This member shows cross-bedding and is affected by hiati as observed in Brantôme . The common rudist-bearing reefal facies can completely change in
4459-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
4550-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
4641-836: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
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#17327654725094732-703: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
4823-917: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
4914-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of
5005-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained
5096-414: The NE) and WNW-ESE (the Gout-Rossignol-Léguillac synline in the SW) respectively. The group is therefore mainly flat-lying, yet in some places (like near Champeaux it dips 5° to the SW. Only near Beaussac a greater dip (of about 30°) can be found caused by local faulting. Nearby in the Aucors quarry, a slump overlies the rudist reef, followed by a grain flow . These synsedimentary structures point to
5187-507: The beachrock type. (These calcarenites persisted near Paussac and near Toulon ( Périgueux ) right from the lower Angoumian onwards). The upper Angoumian closes with about 5 m (to as much as 15 m in places) of grey to yellow, platy, marly limestones interlayered with yellow marls . Enclosed fossils are again rudists ( Praeradiolites praesinuatus , Praeradiolites praecoquandi , Vaccinites petrocoriensis , and Hippurites requieni ), and chaetetids ( sponges ). The benthic microfauna
5278-404: The centre of the Aquitaine Basin. On the high(er) energy side of the individual reefs, the more clastic dominated members formed, whereas in the calm inner lagoon, the cryptocrystalline and micritic members were deposited. By the end of the upper Angoumian (Bourg-des-Maisons Formation), the regression became noticeable as the northern part of the Aquitaine shelf started to fall dry due to uplift in
5369-555: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Calcarenite Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) sand -size (0.0625 to 2 mm in diameter), carbonate grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either corals , shells , ooids , intraclasts , pellets , fragments of older limestones and dolomites , other carbonate grains, or some combination of these. Calcarenite
5460-404: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
5551-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French
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#17327654725095642-489: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
5733-406: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
5824-439: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,
5915-715: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being
6006-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
6097-424: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon
6188-501: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,
6279-428: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what
6370-413: The lower Angoumian (Angoulême Formation), a muddy, calcareous lagoon had established itself on the inner shelf with a low to moderate energy level. The lagoon was fringed or interspersed with extensive rudist reefs shedding their debris mainly towards the open sea. A major reef extended from Périgueux northwestwards thus isolating an inner platform northeast and east of Périgueux from an outer shelf towards
6461-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by
6552-589: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;
6643-570: The other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French
6734-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
6825-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
6916-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
7007-432: The species Biradiolites lumbricalis accompanied by minor Durania cornupastoris , Praeradiolites peroni , Radiolites peroni , Radiolites ponsi , Radiolites beaumonti , Radiolites socialis , and Hippurites requieni . In some places, undamaged rudists (mainly the small-sized Biradiolites ) can be encountered in numerous biostromes . Towards the top, the massive bed changes its character and thinner beds of
7098-826: The time interval 91 to 89 million years BP . French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are
7189-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
7280-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
7371-452: The upper Angoumian varies from 20 to 40 m. The type locality is at Bourg-des-Maisons . Its lowermost member of up to 20 m thickness is composed of grey to cream-coloured, rudist bearing, cryptocrystalline limestones . Texturally they are wackestones grading into mudstones . They weather in a nodular and prismatic fashion and are interlayered with microcrystalline limestones rich in fine debris and bioclasts. The fossil content
7462-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by
7553-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
7644-424: The western depositional area, taking on a very hard, finely recrystallised aspect without any fossil debris. This facies change is probably due to faulting . (represented as unit c3c ) The upper Angoumian, also called Bourg-des-Maisons Formation , can be fairly easily recognised in the countryside by its rather arid aspect with a typical flora of junipers and dwarf bushes growing on it. The total thickness of
7735-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
7826-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as
7917-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
8008-451: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul
8099-708: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
8190-594: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
8281-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
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