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117-573: The Daniel-Johnson dam ( French : Barrage Daniel-Johnson ), formerly known as Manic-5 , is a multiple-arch buttress dam on the Manicouagan River that creates the annular Manicouagan Reservoir . The dam is composed of 14 buttresses and 13 arches and is 214 km (133 mi) north of Baie-Comeau in Quebec , Canada. The dam was constructed between 1959 and 1970 for the purpose of hydroelectric power production and supplies water to

234-744: 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

351-537: A briefing on the construction and operation of the facility, a visit of the Manic-5 powerhouse and a bus ride to the base and the crest of the dam, which has a view of the Manicouagan River valley. A lookout five minutes away by car is a popular picnic spot, with a view of the dam, which is lit at night. Although picture-taking is allowed in the visitor centre and outside, cameras have been banned inside

468-431: 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,

585-555: 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

702-620: A minister in Duplessis's government. Johnson died on 26 September 1968, the day he was to preside over the scheduled inauguration of the dam. The facility is owned and operated by Hydro-Québec . During the summers of 1919 and 1920, hydrological studies were conducted on the Manicouagan and Outardes rivers, flowing into the St. Lawrence near the town of Baie-Comeau . The combined flow was then estimated at 40 million cubic meters, making it one of

819-577: A miscalculation prevented the construction of the Manic-4 dam and powerhouse because engineers realized early on that it would encroach on the Manic-3 reservoir. In 1959, the Premier of Quebec , Maurice Duplessis , wanted a US firm to construct the dam but Quebec's Minister of Water Resources at the time, Daniel Johnson was against the idea. Johnson believed that the skill of a Canadian firm and workers

936-705: 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

1053-468: A rapid development of the region. The area's largest cities, Sept-Îles and Baie-Comeau, were now linked to the rest of the province by a road . At the same time, industrial development in southern Quebec required a larger electric supply. Improvements in long-distance electric transmission technologies became significant, with construction of two 315-kilovolt lines, between the Bersimis complex, west of

1170-494: 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

1287-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and

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1404-526: 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

1521-941: 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

1638-474: A stream of water to obstruct its flow and raise its level'). For dam construction, two cofferdams are usually built, one upstream and one downstream of the proposed dam, after an alternative diversion tunnel or channel has been provided for the river flow to bypass the foundation area of the dam. These cofferdams are typically a conventional embankment dam of both earth- and rock-fill, but concrete or some sheet piling also may be used. Usually, upon completion of

1755-420: A surface area of 1,950 km (750 sq mi) and shoreline of 1,322 km (821 mi). The reservoir is a well known area for Atlantic salmon , lake trout and northern pike fishing , although tall trees flooded during the impoundment have not decomposed due to a lack of oxygen, which can sometimes interfere with the sport. The priming of the reservoir also created a large artificial island in

1872-402: A time. Workers had about 150 days — before seasonal flooding — to construct the dam to a height of at least 250 ft (76 m). Before flooding began, engineers planned to seal the diversion tunnels and begin filling the reservoir. To speed the pouring process, concrete was poured in casts by buckets that moved along three cableways suspended above the construction site. The deadline

1989-403: A unit, or prefabricated panels can be joined during erection. When partial cofferdams are used, it may be necessary to compensate for hydrostatic pressure on the deck by shoring the decks. With both complete and partial cofferdams, there is usually a large free surface in the spaces being pumped. Sometimes this can be limited by dewatering one compartment at a time, or in groups, taking into account

2106-547: 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

2223-437: 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

2340-779: 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

2457-472: 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

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2574-489: 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

2691-430: 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

2808-462: 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

2925-652: 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

3042-503: 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

3159-404: 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

3276-488: Is no opening to the interior of the vessel, or the interior is pressurised in this area. The air space is at the pressure of the water surface at the bottom of the chamber. Open top cofferdams allow surface access to the work area below the waterline, and are at atmospheric pressure. Openings through the hull to the interior of the ship are possible. Portable cofferdams can be inflatable or frame and fabric cofferdams that can be reused. Inflatable cofferdams are stretched across

3393-408: Is not practical to put a ship in drydock for repair work or modernization. An example of such an application is the lengthening of ships. In some cases a ship is actually cut in two while still in the water, and a new section of ship is floated in to lengthen the ship. The cutting of the hull is done inside a cofferdam attached directly to the hull of the ship; the cofferdam is then detached before

3510-469: 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

3627-828: 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

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3744-576: 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 ,

3861-553: 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

3978-483: 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

4095-492: 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

4212-424: 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

4329-764: 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

4446-462: 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

4563-539: 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

4680-485: 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

4797-559: 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,

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4914-531: The IJsselmeer in 2023 using a cofferdam, allowing for close examination of the wreckage, as well as to locate and repatriate the remains of its crew. A 100-ton open caisson that was lowered more than a mile to the sea floor in attempts to stop the flow of oil in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been called a cofferdam. A cofferdam over 1 mile long was built to permit the construction of

5031-877: 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

5148-701: The North American Soccer League in the early 1980s. In March 2000, the Canada Post Corporation issued a 46 cent stamp featuring the Dam as part of a 4-stamp Millennium Collection sheet depicting "engineering and technological marvels". The dam is also a tourist attraction. Since the 1960s, Hydro-Québec organizes four daily tours of the facility between June 24, Quebec's National Day , and August 31. Off-season tours can also be arranged by appointment. The two-hour tour includes

5265-626: 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

5382-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin

5499-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

5616-836: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed

5733-703: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French

5850-614: 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,

5967-408: 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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6084-416: 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

6201-416: The Lesage and Lévesque, his former cabinet minister, were strained by Lévesque's recent defection to the separatist Mouvement Souveraineté-Association , a precursor of the Parti Québécois . In his authorized biography, Hydro-Québec executive Robert A. Boyd recalls being woken up at 6 a.m. the next morning by his boss, Roland Giroux . "I've got bad news, Robert...", said Giroux, adding that he just found

6318-701: The Livingstone Channel in the Detroit River. See main article at Stony Island . The museum battleships USS Alabama (BB-60) and USS North Carolina (BB-55) have had cofferdams since 2003 and 2018, respectively. This saves much money compared to towing and dry docking them after the tow and this also provides additional security so there is a low chance of the ships sinking and becoming impossible to repair. Several types of structure performing this function can be distinguished, depending on how they are constructed and how they are used. In civil and costal engineering applications cofferdams are usually made from interlocking steel sheet piles which are driven deep into

6435-410: The Manic-5 and Manic-5-PA power houses with a combined capacity of 2,660 MW. The dam is 214 m (702 ft) tall, 1,314 m (4,311 ft) long and contains 2,200,000 m (2,900,000 cu yd) of concrete, making it the largest dam of its type in the world. The dam was named after Daniel Johnson Sr. , the 20th Premier of Quebec , responsible for starting the project while serving as

6552-498: The Manic-5-PA (PA stands for puissance additionnelle or additional power), was commissioned in 1989, and consists of four Francis turbines of 1,064 MW in total installed capacity. The designers of the Manic-5 decided on an above ground power house that was downstream of the dam for safety and cost. The intake was built on the east side of the dam and supplies two 3,400 ft (1,000 m), long 36 ft (11 m) diameter concrete-lined penstocks (tunnels). Just before reaching

6669-416: The Manicouagan River, workers blasted and dug two 2,000 ft (610 m) long and 45 ft (14 m) diameter tunnels through the gorge's solid granite west wall. Workers used "jumbo" drilling platforms and the tunnels progressed 14 ft (4.3 m) each shift. To facilitate the river's diversion, two cofferdams were built. The first was a concrete arch upstream from the dam site which would block

6786-449: The Manicouagan system, and Montreal, (completed in 1956) lifting another obstacle. In 1955, Hydro-Québec launched a 5-year extensive assessment of the Manicouagan's suitability. These studies demonstrated the exceptional potential of the river and stressed the advantages of building a multi-dam system in order take full advantage of the terrain and water flows. The data collected at the time was so promising that Hydro-Québec did not wait for

6903-432: The Premier lying dead in his bed. Johnson's sudden demise sent shock waves at the work-site and across the province and the dedication ceremony was quickly cancelled. On September 26, 1969, a year to the day after Johnson's death, the new Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand accompanied by Johnson's widow and children, unveiled two plaques and officially dedicated the dam after his predecessor. Both plaques now sit side by side at

7020-440: The adjacent structure. There are two common types of dry chambers used in underwater ship husbandry. Open bottom cofferdams allow divers direct access to the enclosed hull area, system, or opening. The flange sides of the chamber secure and seal against the hull, acting as an airtight boundary. Open bottom cofferdams are typically used as diver work space for rigging or welding and ventilation for welding or epoxy cure, where there

7137-523: The arches shortly after construction. The dam impounded the Manicouagan River, which filled the Earth's fifth largest confirmed impact structure , the Manicouagan impact structure , creating Manicouagan Reservoir. Coincidentally, the reservoir itself is the fifth largest in the world as well. The reservoir has a maximum depth of 350 m (1,150 ft), mean depth of 85 m (279 ft) and contains 142 km (34 cu mi) of water. While draining an area of 29,241 km (18,170 mi), it has

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7254-441: The beam strength loads on the ship induced by the load distribution. Small cofferdams are used for pumping or to allow salvors access to spaces that are covered by water at some stage of the tide. They are usually prefabricated and fitted around minor openings. Diving work on cofferdams often involves clearing obstructions, fitting, and fastening, including underwater welding, and where necessary, caulking , bracing and shoring

7371-460: The bed of the water source in order to create a temporary dam behind which the engineering contractors can carry out their works. After the construction project is complete the sheet piles can then be removed and the area behind them rewetted. A cofferdam is a space between two watertight bulkheads or decks within a ship. It is usually a void (empty) space intended to ensure that the contents of nearly adjacent tanks cannot leak directly from one to

7488-451: The centre of the Manicouagan reservoir by merging two crescent-shaped lakes: Mouchalagane Lake on the western side and Manicouagan Lake on the eastern side. Covering an area of 2,020 km (780 sq mi), René-Levasseur Island is considered to be the second largest island in the world located in a lake, in terms of area (the largest is Manitoulin Island , located within neighbouring Ontario 's portion of Lake Huron ). The island

7605-399: The construction of the dam's other half. Cofferdams are used in ship husbandry to allow dry access to underwater equipment and to close underwater openings while work is done on the fittings inside the ship. This is more common in naval vessels where a cofferdam may fit several vessels of a class. The cofferdam is also used on occasion in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry, when it

7722-535: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Cofferdam These cofferdams are usually welded steel structures, with components consisting of sheet piles , wales , and cross braces . Such structures are usually dismantled after the construction work is completed. The origin of the word comes from coffer (originally from Latin cophinus meaning 'basket') and dam from Proto-Germanic * dammaz meaning 'barrier across

7839-405: The dam and associated structures, the downstream coffer is removed and the upstream coffer is flooded as the diversion is closed and the reservoir begins to fill. Depending on the geography of a dam site, in some applications, a U-shaped cofferdam is used in the construction of one half of a dam. When complete, the cofferdam is removed and a similar one is created on the opposite side of the river for

7956-485: The dam by destroying the surge chamber by remote-controlled detonation, a plan foiled by Morane and his Scottish sidekick , Bill Ballantine. Prior to writing his novel, Vernes spent some time at the worksite, at the invitation of the Quebec government and Hydro-Québec. The book was launched in 1965 at the Hydro-Québec Building in Montreal. Other notable visitors to the construction site included cartoonist Hergé , who left an original drawing of his characters Tintin

8073-404: 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

8190-448: 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

8307-489: 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

8424-516: 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

8541-915: 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 ,

8658-829: 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

8775-415: The hull sections are floated apart. The cofferdam is later replaced while the hull sections are welded together again. As expensive as this may be to accomplish, the use of a drydock might be even more expensive. Cofferdams are also used in some marine salvage operations. Cofferdams have been used to recover aircraft from water as well, as in the case of Avro Lancaster ED603 , which was recovered from

8892-442: The hydrostatic and other loads that they will have to withstand. Large cofferdams are normally restricted to harbor operations. Complete cofferdams cover most or all of the sunken vessel and are equivalent to extensions of the ship's sides to above the water surface. Partial cofferdams are constructed around moderate-sized openings or areas such as a cargo hatch or small deckhouse. They can often be prefabricated and installed as

9009-519: 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

9126-479: 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

9243-612: 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 ,

9360-536: The largest hydrological systems in Canada. Although harnessing of this potential was considered interesting, its distance from major load centres and the lack of roads in the area were identified as major drawbacks, and building dams in the wilderness was considered too costly. After the Second World War, the discovery of large iron deposits on the North Shore and the increased forestry activity led to

9477-479: 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

9594-511: The main deck of a sunken ship is submerged, flooded spaces cannot be dewatered until all openings are sealed or the effective freeboard is extended above the high water level. One method of doing this is to build a temporary watertight extension of the entire hull of the ship, or the space to be dewatered, to the surface. This watertight extension is a cofferdam. Although they are temporary structures, cofferdams for this purpose have to be strongly built, adequately stiffened, and reinforced to withstand

9711-420: 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

9828-617: The new economic strategy of the State", explains historian Paul-André Linteau. This newfound euphoric attitude is found in newspapers of the period. In a series of papers published in Montreal's La Presse , Renaude Lapointe calls Hydro-Québec a "colossus on the march". In this context, the construction of the complex is closely followed by the public and becomes part of the popular culture of that era. For instance, chansonnier Georges Dor penned his 1966 hit song, La Manic , which tells

9945-589: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;

10062-534: 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

10179-419: The other which would result in contamination of the contents of one or both of the compartments. The cofferdam would be kept empty at all times and the ship may have sensors within it to warn if it has begun to fill with liquid. If two different cargoes that react dangerously with each other are carried on the same vessel, one or more cofferdams are usually required between the cargo spaces. When all or part of

10296-479: The others are about 250 ft (76 m) apart. At its thickest point, the centre, the dam is 22.5 m (74 ft) wide while the crest can reach about 3 m (10 ft) wide. Pressure from water behind the dam is transferred from the dam's arches to its buttresses and lastly into the ground or its foundation. The dam was constructed with a high-quality concrete designed to withstand constant thawing and freezing associated with its environment. To further help

10413-669: The penstocks and turbines from water hammer which would occur if the turbine gates were quickly closed and water pressure suddenly increases. The construction of the Daniel-Johnson Dam and the Manic-Outardes complex happened in a larger social and political context of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, a time when recently nationalized "Hydro-Québec rapidly becomes a symbol of the new Quebec nationalism and of

10530-415: The power house and its eight turbines, each penstock splits into four branches. The power house is about 2,500 ft (760 m) downstream of the dam and utilizes two surge tanks for sudden rises in water pressure from the two penstocks. Each surge tank has an 80 ft (24 m) diameter expansion chamber and is about 40 ft (12 m) higher than the actual dam structure. The surge tanks protect

10647-695: The powerhouses since a Radio-Canada television crew entered the unguarded Manic-5-PA and Robert-Bourassa powerhouses in February 2005. The incident led to the resignations of Hydro-Québec's CEO André Caillé , and chairman of the Board André Bourbeau , less than two months later. The dam is about three hours' drive from Baie-Comeau along narrow, winding Route 389 . Hydro-Québec reported 8,217 visitors in 2009. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

10764-471: 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

10881-499: The reporter and his dog Snowy posing in front of a ligne claire depiction of the dam. A colourized version of the autographed drawing is featured at the Jean-Lesage generating station visitor's centre, 23 kilometres (14 mi) north of Baie-Comeau. The hydroelectric project also gave its name to Montreal's first foray into professional soccer , the short-lived Montreal Manic . The franchise competed for three seasons in

10998-471: 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

11115-403: The river, forcing it into the diversion tunnels. The second cofferdam was downstream and prevented water from flowing back into the construction site. Each cofferdam was built on alluvial deposits (loose soil), so they needed to be watertight, which was accomplished with either a grout curtain or deep supporting piles . Once the river was diverted, workers pumped the remaining water out between

11232-490: The story of a construction worker at the remote jobsite who describes his loneliness to his wife in words that captured the collective imagination of the Quebec public. Belgian-born novelist Henri Vernes was also inspired by the gigantic project and made the Manic-5 project the setting of one of his Bob Morane adventure novels . Terreur à la Manicouagan is about an attempt by arch-villain Roman Orgonetz to breach

11349-461: The structure cope with the climate, engineers placed one-inch steel reinforcing bars within the upstream and downstream faces of the dam. The concrete's strength in compression was initially 4,500 lbs. per square inch to meet an estimated 1,500 PSI within the structure. The upstream face of the dam was also coated in asphalt for protection against water. Despite the strength of the dam's concrete, two parallel inclined cracks were discovered on one of

11466-405: The top of the complex. The design was chosen for strength and economical reasons as it used less concrete or material than a gravity or embankment dam . The Daniel-Johnson dam is a 214 m (702 ft) tall and 1,312 m (4,304 ft) long multiple-arch buttress dam. Of the dam's 14 total buttresses, the two that form the centre arch are 530 ft (160 m) apart at their base while

11583-466: 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

11700-432: The two cofferdams in order to prepare the site for construction. Once drained, workers excavated the alluvial deposits between the cofferdams, creating a long pit that was 150 ft (46 m) deep at the centre. This pit was then filled with concrete in the summer of 1962. To prevent seepage in the dam's foundation, a grout curtain was injected in the bedrock and a drainage network with 2,400 ft (730 m) of tunnels

11817-679: 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

11934-508: 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

12051-485: 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

12168-457: The work-site to attend a banquet and a plaque unveiling ceremony. Among the guests were Quebec Union Nationale Premier, Daniel Johnson Sr. , his predecessor, Jean Lesage , and René Lévesque , the former Hydraulic Resources minister responsible for the consolidation of all investor-owned utilities into Hydro-Québec. Photographs taken at the banquet show the three men were in excellent spirits, holding hands and smiling, although relations between

12285-577: The working group to submit their final recommendations. By 1959, a decision was made and construction of a 210 kilometres (130 mi) access road from Baie-Comeau was started. The original project, the Manicouagan-Outardes project, included the construction of five dams on the Manicouagan River ( Manic-1 , Manic-2 , Manic-3 , Manic-4 and Manic-5) and three on the Outardes River ( Outardes-2 , Outardes-3 and Outardes-4 ). However,

12402-536: 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

12519-402: 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

12636-417: 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

12753-426: Was constructed just downstream of the dam to collect water that might seep through. After the extensive preparatory works were complete, the first concrete for the dam was poured on October 3, 1962. Concrete was poured day and night, but was halted during the winter because of freezing temperatures. To organize the pouring, the dam was split into 45 ft (14 m) plots and each was raised about five or six feet at

12870-819: 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

12987-400: 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

13104-652: 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

13221-499: Was met within the 150 days and a total of 1,000,000 cu yd (760,000 m) of concrete was poured. The dam was eventually completed in 1968. On September 25, 1968, the government-owned utility organized a ceremony to mark the completion of the Manicouagan-5 dam. Hundreds of dignitaries, politicians, utility executives, financiers, engineers and journalists were ferried by plane from Montreal, Quebec City and New York to

13338-468: Was named after René Levasseur, the chief engineer responsible for the construction of the Daniel-Johnson dam. Levasseur died at the age of 35, only days before the dam's inauguration. The dam fuels two powerhouses, the Manic-5 and Manic-5-PA. The first powerhouse consists of eight Francis turbines , capable of producing up to 1,596 MW of power, which went online in 1970. The second powerhouse,

13455-594: 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

13572-570: 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 ,

13689-445: Was well suited for the construction of such a complex dam. Duplessis' successor in 1959, Paul Sauvé agreed with Johnson and he continued to pave the way for the dam. Eventually, engineers would choose André Coyne 's design for a multiple arch buttress dam as the most suitable and economical. Construction on the dam's support facilities began in 1959 and the river diversion tunnels and foundation preparation commenced in 1960. To divert

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