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101-762: The Belfort Gap ( French : Trouée de Belfort ) or Burgundian Gate ( German : Burgunder Pforte ) is the area of relatively flat terrain in France between the Vosges Mountains to the north and the Jura Mountains to the south, connecting Franche-Comté in the West and Alsace in the east. It marks the watershed between the drainage basins of the River Rhône to the west and the River Rhine to

202-744: 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

303-431: 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,

404-471: A decisive conclusion. The wider war had delivered a conclusive result, however, and under the resulting Treaty of Versailles (1871) Alsace and Lorraine were ceded by France to the newly-established German Empire . In 1871, the language border was used to determine the demarcation line between Alsace and Burgundy, and France was thereby able to retain Belfort. It had however become a border town again, and

505-555: 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

606-652: 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

707-494: 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

808-587: 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

909-526: 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

1010-941: 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

1111-875: A series of fortifications was therefore thrown up to protect it from any future German attack. At the outbreak of the First World War , French troops invaded Germany through the Belfort Gap, leading to the bloody Battles of the Frontiers . The most recent military advance through the Belfort Gap was that of the French I Corps in November 1944, under General De Lattre . 47°33′55″N 06°45′15″E  /  47.56528°N 6.75417°E  / 47.56528; 6.75417 French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

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1212-547: 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

1313-437: 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

1414-779: 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 the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French

1515-472: 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

1616-489: 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

1717-430: 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

1818-462: 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

1919-652: 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

2020-503: 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

2121-404: 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

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2222-469: 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

2323-828: 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

2424-576: 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 ,

2525-553: 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

2626-483: 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

2727-492: 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

2828-424: 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

2929-711: The région Alsace and the Territoire de Belfort , north of the région Franche-Comté and borders the departments of Haute-Saône, and Doubs. The passage allows warm Mediterranean air flows to advect northeastwards into the Upper Rhine Plain and the Middle Rhine Valley. Lines of communication that traverse the Belfort Gap include the French Route nationale 83 and the A36 autoroute ,

3030-764: 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

3131-462: 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

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3232-539: 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

3333-485: 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

3434-559: 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,

3535-718: The Holy Roman Empire . Thereafter local subdivisions started to become more important, which on the Arlésien side meant the County of Burgundy , and from 1042 also the County of Montbéliard ( German : Grafschaft Mömpelgard ); the territory on the German side was initially part of the stem duchy of Swabia , later the Alsatian Sundgau ("the southern Gau"). During the Late Middle Ages , in 1324

3636-687: The House of Valois-Burgundy until the death of Duke Charles the Bold at the 1477 Battle of Nancy . His cousin King Louis XI of France immediately occupied the county, but Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg opposed this action, because he was the husband of Charles' daughter Mary the Rich . Though defeated at the 1479 Battle of Guinegate , the French retained the county. Louis' successor King Charles VIII of France , wishing to be free of conflicts over

3737-877: 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

3838-566: The Kingdom of Francia , but the Belfort Gap remained the linguistic border between Germanic and Romance languages . Francia grew to become the Carolingian Empire until it fell apart in the late ninth century, whereupon the Belfort Gap again became a border, this time between East Francia (later the Kingdom of Germany ) to the east and the Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles to the west. By 1033 both kingdoms had been incorporated into

3939-626: 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

4040-695: The Salian dynasty , while the Duchy of Burgundy returned to a cadet branch of the French Capetian dynasty . As a result, the County of Burgundy became a fief of the Holy Roman Empire . At the end of the 11th century Conrad's son Emperor Henry III elevated the Archbishop of Besançon to the dignity of an archchancellor and conferred upon Besançon the rank of a Reichsstadt (imperial city) under

4141-549: The Tour de Nesle Affair . In that same affair, Blanche was found guilty of adultery and was imprisoned for the rest of her life. After quarrelling with his barons, and after a new revolt against the French carried out by John of Chalon-Arlay, Otto IV ceded the county to his daughter as a dowry and designated the King of France as administrator of the dowry in 1295. By marrying their daughter and heir Joan, Duke Odo IV of Burgundy reunited

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4242-520: 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

4343-402: The War of Devolution . Multiple cities surrendered to the French after little fighting, but were returned as part of the wider Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle later that year. France invaded again in 1674 , as part of the Franco-Dutch war , again overrunning the country with little resistance. The Treaties of Nijmegen ended the war in 1678; as part of the third treaty (between France and Spain),

4444-455: 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;

4545-474: 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

4646-502: The Austrian House of Habsburg acquired first the Sundgau and in 1493 the County of Burgundy (more usually known in this period as the Franche-Comté ). Under the 1648 Peace of Westphalia , the Habsburgs were obliged to cede the Sundgau to the Kingdom of France and the Belfort Gap therefore became the border between Alsace and Habsburg Franche-Comté, but not for long: under the 1678 Treaties of Nijmegen France acquired Franche-Comté too. The Belfort Gap acquired renewed significance in

4747-510: 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

4848-614: 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,

4949-458: The County of Burgundy into the Holy Roman Empire (HRE). The county briefly gained independence in the 12th century, before being re-incorporated into the empire by Frederick Barbarossa . As a state of the HRE , the county was granted a high degree of autonomy. The largest city, Besançon , was granted the status of free imperial city . The rest of the county was given imperial immediacy (making it an imperial county ) and its rulers were given

5050-469: The Emperor's direct patronage. Guy of Burgundy , brother of Renaud II , later became pope and negotiated the Concordat of Worms with Emperor Henry V . In the 12th century, Imperial protection allowed for the development of Besançon, but in 1127, after the assassination of William III , his cousin Renaud III shook off the Imperial yoke and refused to pay homage to Lothair III (at the time still Lothair II of Germany). After 10 years of conflict, Renaud

5151-408: 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

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5252-416: 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

5353-424: The area west of the Saône river being allotted to West Francia as the French Duchy of Burgundy, while the southern and eastern parts of the former Burgundian kingdom fell to Middle Francia under Emperor Lothair I . This Middle Frankish part became the two independent entities of southern Lower Burgundy in 879 and northern Upper Burgundy under King Rudolph I in 888. The region that would become Franche-Comté

5454-424: The area west of the Rhine was incorporated into the Roman Empire . When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, the Germanic Alemanni settled in the area immediately east of the Belfort Gap during the ensuing Migration Period , while the Burgundians settled it and established the Kingdom of the Burgundians to the west. In the early 6th century, both Burgundy and Alemannia were conquered by

5555-430: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French County of Burgundy The Free County of Burgundy ( French : Franche Comté de Bourgogne ; German : Freigrafschaft Burgund ) was a medieval feudal state ruled by a count from 982 to 1678. It was also known as Franche-Comté , from French : franc comte meaning 'free count', and

5656-410: The county in order to intervene in Naples , again ceded it to Emperor Maximilian and his son Philip I of Castile by the 1493 Treaty of Senlis . From that point onwards, the County of Burgundy was ruled by Habsburg Spain , who administered it as part of the Habsburg Netherlands . The Spanish Road trade route ran through the county, connecting the various Spanish possessions in the region. As such it

5757-415: The county was transferred to the House of Habsburg , which ruled it until it was conquered by France in 1674. French rule was made permanent by the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678. The area previously formed part of the Kingdom of the Burgundians , which had been annexed by the Franks in 534 and incorporated into the Kingdom of the Franks . The Empire was partitioned in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun , with

5858-411: The county, notably with the family of Chalon, which was descended from Stephen III , count of Auxonne , grandson of William IV and Beatrice of Thiern, the heir of the county of Chalon . In 1237, count John "the Old" of Chalon , transferred his possessions under the French Crown (including Chalon and Auxerre) to the Duke of Burgundy in exchange for wealthy possessions in the County of Burgundy, including

5959-404: 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

6060-436: The duchy and the county under his rule, followed by his grandson Duke Philip I . The personal union was again broken when Philip died without heirs in 1361: the Duchy of Burgundy was seized as a reverted fief by King John II of France , while the Imperial county was inherited by Philip's great aunt Margaret I , a granddaughter of Count Otto IV. In 1382, she bequeathed her estates to her son Count Louis II of Flanders . During

6161-434: The duchy as the nephew of Henry I. This started a war between the two claimants. After a few years of conflict, Robert II prevailed in the duchy; he would later grant it to his son Robert I, Duke of Burgundy , keeping the Crown of his elder son Hugues. Otto-William remained in control of the county of Mâcon, and therferore strengthened its grip in the County, fief of the Kingdom of Burgundy. Otto-William and Ermentrude became

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6262-443: The east. It is thus part of the European Watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea . Its elevation varies between its lowest level in the Doubs valley at 315 m (1,033 ft) in Montbéliard , and Mont Salbert 651 m (2,136 ft). The roughly 40 km (25 mi) wide terrain or according to others the 20 km wide corridor of the Belfort gap connects the French département of Haut-Rhin , south of

6363-448: 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

6464-489: 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

6565-406: 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

6666-439: 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 ,

6767-715: 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

6868-401: 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

6969-424: 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

7070-501: 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 ,

7171-428: 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

7272-485: 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

7373-652: 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;

7474-534: 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

7575-471: 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

7676-598: The progenitors of the Anscarid dynasty . The development of commercial routes across the Jura mountains and the development of salt mines assured the prosperity of the county, and for several decades its towns preserved their freedom and neutrality. The Arelat kingdom collapsed with the extinction the ruling line in 1032. The Kingdom of Burgundy was inherited by the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II of

7777-769: The railway line from Basel to Paris and the LGV Rhin-Rhône high-speed railway, as well as the Rhône-Rhine Canal . The Belfort Gap is first recorded as playing a military role in 58 BC, when Julius Caesar marched his army through it to confront the Germanic chieftain Ariovistus , whom he defeated at the Battle of the Vosges probably fought in the vicinity of modern Mulhouse . Over the following decades

7878-415: The rare (possibly unique) title of archcount . He was succeeded by his daughter, Beatrice II , and her husband Otto I , Duke of Merania ; they were in turn followed by their son, Otto III, Count of Burgundy ( r.  1231–1238 ), and their daughter, Adelaide (alias Alix of Méran, r.  1248–1279 ). The Counts Palatine for many years had to share power with the greater feudal families of

7979-545: The reign of Phillip the Bold , the County was organized into having a council and a parliament — centered in the capital Dole . Louis II died in 1384 leaving no male heirs, so the County of Burgundy formed part of the immense dowry of his daughter Margaret , which in 1405 was inherited by her son, the Burgundian duke John the Fearless . The county and the duchy were again ruled in personal union by his descendants from

8080-471: 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

8181-487: The salt mines of Salins-les-Bains (which became the autonomous Seigneurie of Salins). The authority of John the Old was re-established only by the marriage (around 1239) of his oldest son Hugh of Chalon with Adelaide , the sister of Otto III (died 1248) and heiress of Burgundy. However, this did not prevent a younger son, John I of Chalon-Arlay , from taking control of the vassal states. Otto IV , son of Hugh and Adelaide,

8282-626: The series of Franco-German wars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the Franco-Prussian War , the Prussian army invaded France via the Wissembourg Gap and then swept down the length of Alsace and laid siege to Belfort , hoping to seize the city and then rush on through the Belfort Gap into central France. The siege ended up dragging on for months, and an armistice was signed before it could be brought to

8383-473: The title of Freigraf ( German for 'free count'), from which the French and English names of the county are derived. From 1295 the county began to fall under the increasing influence of France and the House of Burgundy , which ruled the duchy. From 1330 to 1361 and again from 1405 to 1477, there was a personal union between the county (part of the HRE) and the adjacent duchy (part of France). In 1493

8484-466: 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

8585-679: 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

8686-508: 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

8787-485: 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

8888-536: 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

8989-402: 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

9090-460: Was already the adopted heir of Henry I, Duke of Burgundy , so expected to inherit the entire duchy when Henry died. The lands outside the duchy, that Otto-William had acquired through Ermentrude, were organised as the new County of Burgundy. Henry I died in 1002, at which point Otto-William claimed the Duchy of Burgundy. However, king Robert II of France refused to recognise the adoption and claimed

9191-417: 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

9292-819: 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

9393-514: 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

9494-708: 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

9595-502: Was located in the modern region of Franche-Comté . It bordered the Duchy of Burgundy to the west, which was part of France from 843. The territory had previously been part of the kingdom of Upper Burgundy (888–933). The county was formed in 982 by Otto-William for the lands he held in the Kingdom of Arles (outside the duchy's borders). In 1032 the Kingdom of Arles was inherited by Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor , who incorporated

9696-594: 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

9797-570: 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 ,

9898-548: Was the last of the feudal counts of Burgundy. He married first the daughter of the Count of Bar , but the marriage was childless. His second marriage was to the grandniece of King Louis IX of France , Countess Mahaut of Artois . This marriage brought the county under French influence. The daughters of Otto IV and Mahaut, Joan II and Blanche , married respectively Philip V and Charles IV of France , sons of King Philip IV . Jeanne became Queen of France after having been involved in

9999-695: Was then included in Upper Burgundy, centred around the city of Besançon . In 933, with the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, Lower and Upper Burgundy were re-united under King Rudolph II as the Kingdom of Arles (Arelat). In 982, Otto-William (son of Adalbert of Lombardy ) married Ermentrude of Roucy . Ermentrude was a widow, whose previous husband was had been count of Mâcon (in the Duchy of Burgundy) and controlled additional lands around Besançon and Dole . These lands were then ruled by Otto-William in right of his wife . Otto-William

10100-403: Was very important militarily. During Spanish rule, the County was prosperous and had autonomy. Dole's parliament was the political center, and a governor was chosen from the local nobility. Taxes to Spain were low, and there was not much conscription either. The city of Besancon had many fairs and many renaissance structures were constructed. The county was invaded by France in 1668, as part of

10201-431: Was victorious. Burgundy was from then on called Franche-Comté , the "free county". Emperor Frederick Barbarossa re-established imperial influence. Frederick took the brother of Count William IV prisoner, then when William died Frederick married William's niece and heir, Beatrice I (daughter of Renaud III). Upon Emperor Frederick's death in 1190, his younger son Otto I received the county of Burgundy and assumed

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