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110-692: The Western High Plateau lies along the Cameroon line , a series of volcanic swells running from the Atlantic Ocean in the southwestern part of the plateau to the Adamawa Plateau in the northeast. The region is characterised by accidented relief of massifs and mountains. The Western High Plateau features several dormant volcanoes , including the Bamboutos Mountains , Mount Oku and Mount Kupe . The plateau rises in steps from

220-744: 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

330-517: A cloud of carbon dioxide gas that killed at least 1,200 people. The region has cool temperatures, heavy rainfall, and savanna vegetation. The plateau experiences an equatorial climate with a wet season of nine months, and a dry season of three months. During the wet season, humid, prevailing monsoon winds blow in from the west and lose their moisture upon hitting the region's mountains. Average rainfall per year ranges from 1,000 mm (39 in) to 2,000 mm (79 in). High elevations give

440-431: 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,

550-434: A defence against brush fires and dry weather. Raffia palms grow in the valleys and depressions. 6°30′N 10°30′E  /  6.500°N 10.500°E  / 6.500; 10.500 Cameroon line The Cameroon line ( French : Ligne du Cameroun , Portuguese : Linha dos Camarões , Spanish : cordillera de Camerún ) is a 1,600 km (1,000 mi) long chain of volcanoes that includes islands in

660-526: A defence against brush fires and dry weather. Raffia palms grow in the valleys and depressions. Geologists disagree over which volcanic regions should be included in the Cameroon volcanic line. All definitions include the islands and the continental stretch up to Oku. Based on similarities in age and composition, some also include the Ngaoundere Plateau , which extends the line to the east in

770-555: 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

880-729: A major watershed for Cameroon. Important rivers in the region include the Manyu , which rises in the Bamboutos Mountains and becomes the Cross River on its lower course, and the Nkam , which is known as the Wouri River on its lower course. The region gives rise to important tributaries to the Sanaga River . These rivers follow a Cameroon regime, a subtype of the equatorial regime of other southern Cameroonian rivers . This means that

990-705: 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

1100-446: A population of around 5,000 people. Other than Portuguese , some speak Principense or Lunguyê with a few Forro speakers. Bioko is just 32 km (20 mi) off the coast of Cameroon , on the continental shelf. The island used to be the end of a peninsula attached to the mainland, but was cut off when sea levels rose 10,000 years ago at the end of the last last glaciation . With an area of 2,017 km (779 sq mi) it

1210-494: 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

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1320-683: 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 the United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,

1430-547: 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

1540-457: 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 is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As

1650-419: Is Portuguese , but there are many speakers of Forro and Angolar (Ngola), two Portuguese-based creole languages . The economy is mainly based on tourism. Agriculture is important near the north and east coasts, with the chief exports being cocoa , coffee , copra , and palm products. There are large reserves of oil in the ocean between Nigeria and São Tomé which have not yet been exploited. Príncipe

1760-437: 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

1870-472: 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

1980-489: 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

2090-513: Is disputed by scientists who point out that features of the region are quite different from what is predicted by that hypothesis, and that a source in a lithospheric fracture is more likely to be the explanation. One explanation for the origin of the volcanic line is likely leakage of magma from reactivated Precambrian faults, while another scenario is the rising of mantle material from African Large low-shear-velocity provinces travels under Congo Craton and through existing fractures ultimately feed

2200-652: 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

2310-583: Is evidence that a mantle plume has existed in the region for about 140 million years, first remaining in roughly the same position while the African plate rotated above it, and then remaining stationary under the Oku area since around 66 million years ago. In this theory, the abnormal heat rising in a mantle plume would lead to melting of the upper mantle , which raises, thins and weakens the crust and facilitates rifting. This may have been repeated several times in

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2420-556: Is geologically unusual in extending through both the ocean and the continental crust. Various hypotheses have been advanced by different geologists to explain the line. In the Gulf of Guinea, the Cameroon line consists of six offshore volcanic swells that have formed islands or seamounts . From the southwest to the northeast the island groups are Annobón (or Pagalu), São Tomé , Príncipe and Bioko . Two large seamounts lie between São Tomé and Príncipe, and between Príncipe and Bioko. On

2530-563: 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

2640-404: 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

2750-469: 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

2860-828: 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

2970-511: Is primarily gneiss and granite that dates to the Precambrian period . A layer of basalt covers this. Vulcanism has created fertile black and brown soils. Erosion played a large role. The plateau experiences an equatorial climate of the Cameroon type. The area experiences two major seasons: A long, wet season of nine months, and a short, dry season of three months. During the wet season, humid, prevailing monsoon winds blow in from

3080-565: Is produced in offshore wells, processed on the island and exported via tanker. The Western High Plateau, also called the Western Highlands or the Bamenda Grassfields, continues the Cameroon line into the mainland of Cameroon. The plateau rises in steps from the west. To the east, it terminates in mountains that range in height from 1,000 m (3,300 ft) to 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). The plateau gives way to

3190-639: 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 ,

3300-553: 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

3410-554: Is the largest island in the Cameroon line. Bioko has three basaltic shield volcanoes, joining at the lower levels. San Carlos is 2,260 m (7,410 ft) high with a broad summit caldera, lying at the extreme SW of the island. The volcano dates from the Holocene age and has been active within the last 2000 years. Santa Isabel is the largest volcano at 3,007 m (9,865 ft) in height, and contains many satellite cinder cones. Three eruptions have been reported from vents on

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3520-483: 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

3630-492: 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

3740-451: Is the smaller of the two major islands of São Tomé and Príncipe , with an area of 136 km (53 sq mi). Volcanic activity stopped around 15.7 million years ago, and the island has been deeply eroded apart from spectacular towers of phonolite . The island is surrounded by smaller islands including Ilheu Bom Bom , Ilhéu Caroço , Tinhosa Grande and Tinhosa Pequena , and lies in ocean 3,000 m (9,800 ft) deep. It rises in

3850-424: 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

3960-821: Is visible in the Foumban Shear Zone , which was active before and during the opening of the South Atlantic in the Cretaceous period. The western end of the shear zone is obscured by the volcanoes of the Cameroon line, but based on reconstruction of the configuration of South America before it separated from Africa, the Foumban Shear Zone can be identified with the Pernambuco fault in Brazil. A major earthquake in 1986 could indicate that

4070-427: The Adamawa Plateau to the northeast, a larger but less rugged region. The Western High Plateau features several dormant volcanoes , including the Bamboutos Mountains , Mount Oku , and Mount Kupe . Crater lakes dot the plateau, the result of dead volcanoes filling with water. This includes Lake Barombi Mbo and Lake Bermin , which have the highest number of endemic fish species per area recorded anywhere in

4180-672: The Adamawa Plateau ; the Biu plateau of Nigeria to the north of the Yola arm of the Benue Trough, and the Jos Plateau to the west of the Benue Trough. There are varying theories for the similarities between the oceanic and continental volcanoes. The Cameroon line bisects the angle where the coast of Africa makes a 90° bend from the southern coast along the west of the Congo craton and

4290-764: 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

4400-609: 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

4510-517: 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 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

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4620-533: 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

4730-559: 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,

4840-617: The Gulf of Guinea and mountains on the African mainland, from Mount Cameroon on the coast towards Lake Chad on the northeast. They form a natural border between eastern Nigeria and the West Region of Cameroon . The islands, which span the equator, have tropical climates and are home to many unique plant and bird species. The mainland mountain regions are much cooler than the surrounding lowlands, and also contain unique and ecologically important environments. The Cameroon volcanic line

4950-877: 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

5060-626: 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

5170-453: The Pico de São Tomé . The oldest rock on São Tomé is 13 million years old. Most of the lava that has erupted over the last million years has been basalt . The youngest dated rock on the island is about 100,000 years old, but numerous more recent cinder cones are found on the southeast side of the island. Due to the prevailing southwesterly winds, there is great variability in rainfall. In

5280-550: The Santonian age, around 84 million years ago, the Benue Trough underwent intense compression and folding. Since then it has been tectonically quiet. The basaltic rocks in the oceanic and continental sectors of the Cameroon line are similar in composition, although the more evolved rocks are quite distinct. The similarity in basaltic rocks may indicate they have the same source. Since the lithosphere mantle below Africa must be different in chemical and isotopic composition from

5390-713: 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 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

5500-775: 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

5610-497: 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; 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

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5720-427: 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 is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in

5830-455: 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;

5940-474: 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

6050-418: The Bamboutos Mountains and becomes the Cross River on its lower course, and the Nkam , which is known as the Wouri River on its lower course. The region gives rise to important tributaries to the Sanaga River . These rivers have a long high-water period during the wet season and a short low-water period during the dry season. Volcanism has created fertile black and brown soils. The Western High Plateau

6160-412: The Benue Trough between 140 Ma and 49 Ma. One plume-related hypothesis for the later development of the Cameroon Line around 30 Ma is that it coincides with development of a shallow mantle convection system centered on the mantle plume, and is related to thinning and extension of the crust along the Cameroon line as pressures relaxed in the now stationary plate. The traditional mantle plume hypothesis

6270-510: 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

6380-614: 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,

6490-408: 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

6600-416: 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

6710-410: 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 a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as

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6820-402: 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 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

6930-504: The bird species, 16 are endemic and six are near endemic, of which four are only shared with Príncipe. Six species are considered vulnerable , and three are critically endangered (the São Tomé ibis , São Tomé fiscal and São Tomé grosbeak ). Schistometopum thomense , a bright yellow species of caecilian , is endemic to São Tomé. As of 2010, São Tomé and Príncipe , an independent nation, had an estimated population of 167,000, most of whom lived on São Tomé island. The main language

7040-452: The chain is Annobón, also known as Pagalu, with an area of about 17.5 km (6.8 sq mi). It is an extinct volcano that rises from deep water to 598 m (1,962 ft) above sea level. The island belongs to Equatorial Guinea . The average temperature is 26.1 °C (79.0 °F), with little seasonal variation. Most rain falls from November to May, with annual precipitation averaging 1,196 mm (47.1 in) - less than on

7150-404: 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

7260-448: 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

7370-489: 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

7480-406: 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

7590-439: 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 ,

7700-715: 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

7810-417: The great range of altitudes, particularly birdlife. The montane forest is protected by the 330 km (130 sq mi) Basilé National Park and the 510 km (200 sq mi) Luba Crater Scientific Reserve . There has been little habitat loss, and the southern slopes have remained almost completely undisturbed. Although hunting pressure is rising, the fauna in the inaccessible southern part of

7920-503: The island is mostly intact. This includes an endemic subspecies of drill, Mandrillus leucophaeus poensis . Bioko is a part of Equatorial Guinea . The island has a population of 334,463 inhabitants (2015 Census), most of whom are Bubi . The rest of the population are Fernandinos , Spaniards and immigrants from Río Muni , Nigeria and Cameroon . Cocoa production was once the main export, but has declined in recent years. Farming, fishing and logging remain important. Natural gas

8030-519: 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

8140-479: 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

8250-612: 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 ,

8360-479: 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

8470-604: The mainland, the line starts with Mount Cameroon and extends northeast in a range known as the Western High Plateau , home to the Cameroonian Highlands forests . Volcanic swells further inland are Manengouba , Bamboutu and the Oku Massif . East of Oku there are further volcanic mountains in the Ngaoundere Plateau , some of which appear to have similar origins. The southernmost island in

8580-523: The mainland. Annobón has lush valleys and steep mountains, covered with rich woods and luxuriant vegetation. The small population lives in one community, practicing some agriculture but mainly living by fishing. São Tomé island is 854 km (330 sq mi) in area, lying almost on the equator. The entire island is a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean , over 3,000 m (10,000 ft) below sea level, and reaches 2,024 m (6,640 ft) above sea level in

8690-420: 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

8800-534: 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

8910-471: 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

9020-636: The rain shadow to the northeast of São Tomé the vegetation is dry savannah, with only 60 cm (24 in) of rain each year. By contrast, the lush south and west of the island receive about 6 m (20 ft) of rain, mostly falling in March and April. The climate is hot and humid with the rainy season from October to May. The higher slopes of the island are forested and form part of the Obo National Park. São Tomé has never been connected to Africa, and therefore has many unique plants and birds. Of

9130-522: The region a cooler climate than the rest of Cameroon. For example, the average temperature at Dschang in the West Province is 20 °C (68 °F). Toward the north, rainfall levels are reduced as the Sudan climate becomes predominant. The Western High Plateau's relief and high rainfall make it a major watershed for Cameroon. Important rivers in the region include the Manyu , which rises in

9240-471: 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

9350-513: The rivers experience a long, high-water period during the wet season and a short, low-water period during the dry season. The region's rivers ultimately empty into the Atlantic Ocean . The area's accidented geography gives rise to several waterfalls along these waterways. Ekon Falls near Nkongsamba in the West Region is 80 metres high. Crater lakes dot the plateau, the result of dead volcanoes filling with water. The Western High Plateau

9460-470: The shear zone is reactivating. The Benue Trough lies to the west of the Cameroon line. The Benue Trough was formed by rifting of the central West African basement, beginning at the start of the Cretaceous era. A common explanation of the trough's formation is that it is an aulacogen , an abandoned arm of a three-armed radial rift system. The other two arms continued to spread during the break-up of Gondwana , as South America separated from Africa. During

9570-483: The shear zone, and may be associated with the Cameroon line. 3°30′0″N 8°42′0″E  /  3.50000°N 8.70000°E  / 3.50000; 8.70000 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

9680-399: The south to 946 m (3,104 ft) at Pico de Príncipe , in a thickly forested area within the Obo National Park. The north and centre of the island were formerly plantations but have largely reverted to forest. As with São Tomé, the island has always been isolated from the mainland and therefore has many unique species of plants and animals, including six endemic birds. Príncipe has

9790-451: The southeast flank during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. San Joaquin , also known as Pico Biao or Pico do Moka, is 2,009 m (6,591 ft) high, on the southeast of the island. The summit is cut by a small lake-filled caldera , and there is a crater lake on the NE flank. San Joaquin has been active during the last 2,000 years. The southwestern side of Bioko is rainy for most of

9900-414: 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

10010-754: 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

10120-508: 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

10230-485: 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

10340-600: The volcanic activities. The puzzling feature, that the composition of the magmas is the same both in the land volcanoes and the oceanic ones is likely explained by recent studies that show the underlying lithosphere is the same. A gravity study of the southern part of the Adamawa plateau has shown a belt of dense rocks at an average depth of 8 km running parallel to the Foumban shear zone. The material appears to be an igneous intrusion that may have accompanied reactivation of

10450-447: The west and lose their moisture upon hitting the region's mountains. Average rainfall per year ranges from 1,000 mm to 2,000 mm. High elevations give the region a cooler climate than the rest of Cameroon. For example, the average temperature at Dschang in the West Region is 20°C. Toward the north, rainfall levels are reduced as the Sudan climate becomes predominant. The Western High Plateau's relief and high rainfall make it

10560-492: The west. To the east, it terminates in mountains that range from 1,000 metres to 2,500 metres in height, terminating in the South Cameroon Plateau . The plateau gives way to the Adamawa Plateau to the northeast, which is a larger but less accidented region. The core of the plateau is made up of volcanic rock , which is ringed by plutonic rock . The base is crystalline and metamorphic rock . The base rock

10670-532: The western coast along the south of the West African craton . The coastline roughly corresponds to the coast of the Borborema geological province of northeastern Brazil, which began to separate from this part Africa around 115 million years ago. The Central African Shear Zone (CASZ), a lineament that extends from the Sudan to coastal Cameroon, runs under the continental section of the Cameroon line. It

10780-599: 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

10890-402: 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

11000-503: 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 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

11110-594: The world. The 4,095 m (13,435 ft) Mount Cameroon on the coastline, which may have been observed by the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator in the 5th century BC, erupted in 2000. Further inland, the stratovolcano Mount Oku at 3,011 metres (9,879 ft) is the second highest mountain in sub-Saharan mainland West Africa . In 1986, Lake Nyos , a crater lake in the Oku volcanic plain , released

11220-492: The year, with annual rainfall in some locations of 10,000 mm (394 in). The climate is tropical at lower altitudes, becoming about 1 °C (1.8 °F) cooler for each 150 m (492 ft) of elevation. There is open canopy montane forest above 1,500 m (4,900 ft) on Pico Basilé, Gran Caldera de Luba and Pico Biao, with subalpine grassland above 2,500 m (8,200 ft). Bioko has exceptional numbers of endemic species of flora and fauna, partly due to

11330-529: The younger lithosphere below the Atlantic, one explanation is that the source is in the asthenosphere rather than in metasomatized lithosphere. A different view is that the similarities are caused by shallow contamination of the oceanic section, which could be caused by sediments from the continent or by rafted crustal blocks that were trapped in the oceanic lithosphere during the separation between South America and Africa. According to some geologists, there

11440-819: 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

11550-400: 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

11660-708: 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

11770-413: Was once heavily forested. However, repeated cutting and burning by human beings has forced the forest back to areas along the waterways and has allowed grasslands to expand into the area. Sudan savanna forms the dominant vegetation. This consists of grassfields—leading to the name Bamenda grassfields around the city of Bamenda —and short shrubs and trees that shed their foliage during the dry season as

11880-406: Was once heavily forested. However, repeated cutting and burning by humans has forced the forest back to areas along the waterways and has allowed grasslands to expand into the area. Sudan savanna forms the dominant vegetation. This consists of grassfields—leading to the name Bamenda grassfields around the city of Bamenda —and short shrubs and trees that shed their foliage during the dry season as

11990-594: 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

12100-570: 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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