168-600: The French language became an international language, the second international language alongside Latin , in the Middle Ages , "from the fourteenth century onwards". It was not by virtue of the power of the Kingdom of France : '"... until the end of the fifteenth century, the French of the chancellery spread as a political and literary language because the French court was the model of chivalric culture". Consequently, it
336-785: A vernacular language is the native language of a specific geographical community, a lingua franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons. For example, English is a vernacular in the United Kingdom but it is used as a lingua franca in the Philippines , alongside Filipino . Likewise, Arabic , French , Standard Chinese , Russian and Spanish serve similar purposes as industrial and educational lingua francas across regional and national boundaries. Even though they are used as bridge languages, international auxiliary languages such as Esperanto have not had
504-470: A 2010 study by IMMAR Research & Consultancy, Francophone newspapers had a readership of 4,459,000 in the country, or 28% of the total, and a majority among readers with a high school or university education. The first French-medium school was established in Egypt in 1836, and the importance of French expanded throughout the second half of the 19th century, until it became the most common foreign language in
672-487: A Francophone identity. Conversely, speaking French was seen as essential by seven in 10, though a third of the population felt that the use of French is declining. In urban areas, the ability to speak fluent French is considered almost mandatory to find employment, especially in specialized white collar fields. French is the first foreign language in Algeria, and is introduced at the primary level. In higher education, French
840-744: 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
1008-525: A common language, and spread across the Arab and Muslim worlds. In Djibouti and parts of Eritrea , both of which are countries where multiple official languages are spoken, Arabic has emerged as a lingua franca in part thanks to the population of the region being predominantly Muslim and Arabic playing a crucial role in Islam. In addition, after having fled from Eritrea due to ongoing warfare and gone to some of
1176-431: 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,
1344-614: A decline in the number of learners of French in Europe, the overall number of speakers is rising, largely because of its presence in African countries: of the 212 million who use French daily, 54.7% are living in Africa. The OIF figures have been contested as being underestimated due to the methodology used and its strict definition of the word francophone. The French Conseil économique, social et environnemental estimate that were they included,
1512-502: 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
1680-407: A global lingua franca. Any language regularly used for communication between people who do not share a native language is a lingua franca. Lingua franca is a functional term, independent of any linguistic history or language structure. Pidgins are therefore lingua francas; creoles and arguably mixed languages may similarly be used for communication between language groups. But lingua franca
1848-531: A great degree of adoption, so they are not described as lingua francas. The term lingua franca derives from Mediterranean Lingua Franca (also known as Sabir ), the pidgin language that people around the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean Sea used as the main language of commerce and diplomacy from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century, most notably during the Renaissance era . During that period,
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#17327721909122016-475: A means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The term is taken from the medieval Mediterranean Lingua Franca , a Romance -based pidgin language used especially by traders in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries. A world language —a language spoken internationally and by many people—is a language that may function as
2184-855: A minority language in the Baltic states and some other states in Eastern Europe, as well as in pre- opening China. It remains the official language of the Commonwealth of Independent States . Russian is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union , its use has declined in post-Soviet states. Parts of the Russian speaking minorities outside Russia have emigrated to Russia or assimilated into their countries of residence by learning
2352-485: A more limited extent, Grenada . French is one of two official languages of Haiti , together with Haitian Creole , which is French-based. French is the language of culture and business in Haiti , and also the main language of institutions. French is used most by the elite and the middle class. Attempts to increase the legitimacy of Creole as an official language and in the media, on radio and television in particular, led to
2520-551: A native language. In medical practices and hospitals, nurses typically communicate with other professionals in English as a lingua franca. This occurrence has led to interest in researching the consequences of the medical community communicating in a lingua franca. English is also sometimes used in Switzerland between people who do not share one of Switzerland's four official languages , or with foreigners who are not fluent in
2688-652: 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
2856-664: A process of change the lingua franca and Portuguese lexicon was replaced with the languages of the people in contact. Portuguese remains an important lingua franca in the Portuguese-speaking African countries , East Timor , and to a certain extent in Macau where it is recognized as an official language alongside Chinese though in practice not commonly spoken. Portuguese and Spanish have a certain degree of mutual intelligibility and mixed languages such as Portuñol are used to facilitate communication in areas like
3024-610: A relative decline in the share of French usage. Most teachers of French suffer from a low level of skills in the language, with nearly 85% achieving a level between A2 and B1 in the Test de connaissance du français (TCF) in 2009. French is the second most common language in Canada , after English , which are the two official languages of the Canadian federation. About 6,827,860 Canadians speak French as their first language, or around 20% of
3192-494: 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
3360-683: A result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,
3528-433: A second language, becoming the main language only in non-Wolof areas. French is the main language of institutions, however. Only half of Dakar residents identify with a Francophone status or feel solidarity with French-speaking countries, but the French language is seen as essential for everyday affairs and education. French was the language of literacy for 37.2% of the population in 2013, followed by Arabic at 11.1%. French
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#17327721909123696-498: A simplified version of mainly Italian in the eastern Mediterranean and Spanish in the western Mediterranean that incorporated many loanwords from Greek , Slavic languages , Arabic , and Turkish came to be widely used as the "lingua franca" of the region, although some scholars claim that the Mediterranean Lingua Franca was just poorly used Italian. In Lingua Franca (the specific language), lingua
3864-588: A sizeable French-language press. A 2014 report published by the National Assembly of France describes it as the most important French-speaking country after France. Nevertheless, Algeria is not a member of the Francophonie. On social media , French was used on Facebook by 76% of Algerians in 2014. French is not official, but The World Factbook cites it as the lingua franca of the country. The French language, restricted to an urban elite during
4032-547: 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
4200-591: A variant spoken in Riau specifically as the basis for " Indonesian " for national use despite Javanese having more native speakers; this standard is the sole official language spoken throughout the vast country despite being the first language of some Indonesians. Swahili developed as a lingua franca between several Bantu -speaking tribal groups on the east coast of Africa with heavy influence from Arabic. The earliest examples of writing in Swahili are from 1711. In
4368-607: A variety of fields and international organizations to communicate with one another. English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the historical global influence of the British Empire and the United States . It is a co-official language of the United Nations and many other international and regional organizations and has also become the de facto language of diplomacy , science , international trade , tourism , aviation , entertainment and
4536-710: A widely studied language in Central Europe and the Balkans, especially in former Yugoslavia . It is recognized as an official language in countries outside of Europe, specifically Namibia . German is also one of the working languages of the EU along English and French, but it is used less in that role than the other two. Today, Standard Mandarin Chinese is the lingua franca of China and Taiwan , which are home to many mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese and, in
4704-457: A working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As
4872-437: 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
5040-486: Is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages. Linguae francae have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages" facilitated trade), but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as
5208-454: Is a mixture of French and English with elements of indigenous languages. French is the sole official language of Benin . According to a 2014 survey, 57.3% of residents of Cotonou over the age of 15 could read and write French. Knowledge of French is considered important for employment, bureaucracy, education but also in everyday life. 34% of the population was Francophone in 2002, up from 23% in 1992. There are strong regional differences, with
Geographical distribution of French speakers - Misplaced Pages Continue
5376-472: 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
5544-489: 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
5712-441: Is also spoken as part of daily life. French is one of two official languages of Comoros , Arabic being the second. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 100% of Comorians in 2014. French is the sole official language of Republic of Congo . 68.7% of the population of Brazzaville aged 15 and older can read and write French. French is the main language in the media, used by 63% of radio and television broadcasters. French
5880-440: Is also the dominant language in the state administrations. French is the sole official language of Democratic Republic of Congo . About half of Kinshasa residents feel solidarity towards Francophone countries, and French is seen as important for education and relations with the government. It is also seen as important to be successful in life, along with English. French is the main language of education after third grade. French
6048-569: Is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggest that Sanskrit was already being adopted in Southeast Asia and Central Asia in the 1st millennium CE, through monks, religious pilgrims and merchants. Until the early 20th century, Literary Chinese served as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in East Asia, including China, Korea , Japan , Ryūkyū , and Vietnam . In
6216-482: Is controversial, and which have sometimes been identified with each other. These are: Ajem-Turkic functioned as lingua franca in the Caucasus region and in southeastern Dagestan , and was widely spoken at the court and in the army of Safavid Iran . English is sometimes described as the foremost global lingua franca, being used as a working language by individuals of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in
6384-652: 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
6552-569: Is equally applicable to a non-creole language native to one nation (often a colonial power) learned as a second language and used for communication between diverse language communities in a colony or former colony. Lingua francas are often pre-existing languages with native speakers, but they can also be pidgins or creoles developed for that specific region or context. Pidgins are rapidly developed and simplified combinations of two or more established languages, while creoles are generally viewed as pidgins that have evolved into fully complex languages in
6720-522: Is from the Italian for 'a language'. Franca is related to Greek Φρᾰ́γκοι ( Phránkoi ) and Arabic إِفْرَنْجِي ( ʾifranjiyy ) as well as the equivalent Italian—in all three cases, the literal sense is ' Frankish ', leading to the direct translation: 'language of the Franks '. During the late Byzantine Empire , Franks was a term that applied to all Western Europeans. Through changes of
6888-563: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
Geographical distribution of French speakers - Misplaced Pages Continue
7056-404: 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
7224-432: Is not a mother tongue to most residents. African standards of French differ from European ones. Some linguists discuss a "second French language" or even an "African French language". According to Paul Wald, "The notion of ownership of an imported language begins when – despite its identification as a foreign and/or vernacular language – its use does not imply a relationship with the foreigner." French can thus be considered
7392-469: 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
7560-828: 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
7728-413: Is one of two official languages of Chad , together with Arabic. Half of the residents of N'Djamena feel solidarity towards other French-speaking countries and wishes for the use of French to expand. French is seen as important in work and education. French shares a place with Arabic as the language of administration and education, as well as in the press; French is dominant on radio and television. French
7896-423: Is one of two official languages of Djibouti , the other being Arabic. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 82% of Djiboutians in 2014. French is the sole official language of Gabon . According to a 1999 survey, French was the first language for 26.3% of Libreville residents between the age of 15 and 25. 71.9% of the capital's residents over 15 years of age could read and write French. Three quarters of
8064-408: Is seen as essential by a large majority, especially for dealing with the government and in education. Two thirds of respondents report feeling Francophone. French plays an important role in all areas of public and private life across the whole country. French is increasingly seen as an Ivorian language, and a local variety distinct from standard French has emerged ( Ivorian French ). In Antananarivo ,
8232-575: 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 ,
8400-553: 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
8568-552: Is the language of instruction in scientific and technical fields. Francophone Algerians can be divided into three broad categories: 'real Francophones', who speak French as part of their daily lives and mostly come from a privileged background; 'casual Francophones', who use the language in certain contexts, alternating it with Arabic, and 'passive Francophones', who can understand French but do not speak it. French television channels are widely watched in Algeria, and Algerian newspapers print their television schedules. Algeria also has
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#17327721909128736-467: Is the language of instruction in secondary and tertiary education. It is also the main language of government, alongside Malagasy. French is the sole official language of Niger . In Niamey , the capital, French is seen as essential for work, studies and administrative procedures. Two-thirds of residents believe that the use of French is becoming more common in the country. French became the administrative language of Rwanda in 1916. The Genocide against
8904-469: Is the main language of education in all regions of Senegal except for Kaffrine , where Arabic remains dominant, with significant Arabic-educated minorities in Kaolack (15.9% to 33.0% for French), Louga (15.8% to 22.7%) and Diourbel (15.0% to 17.2%). This phenomenon is explained by the impact of Quranic schools or Daara in those regions. French is the sole official language of Togo . According to
9072-514: Is the main language of education, the number of French speakers is derived from the average number of schooling years. French native speakers by countries It is estimated that 80 million people worldwide speak French as a main or first language . In Algeria , 69.1% of the population over 15 in Alger , Constantine , Oran and Annaba can read and write French. According to a survey conducted in 2012, fewer than four in 10 Algerians identified with
9240-483: 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
9408-526: Is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups of Pakistan. Malay is understood across a cultural region in Southeast Asia called the " Malay world " including Brunei , Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand , and certain parts of the Philippines. It is pluricentric , with several nations codifying a local vernacular variety into several national literary standards: Indonesia notably adopts
9576-519: Is the primary medium of education and serves as the lingua franca among citizens. Even in countries not associated with the English-speaking world , English has emerged as a lingua franca in certain situations where its use is perceived to be more efficient to communicate, especially among groups consisting of native speakers of many languages. In Qatar , the medical community is primarily made up of workers from countries without English as
9744-492: 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
9912-424: 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
10080-766: Is used as a lingua franca in Switzerland to some extent; however, English is generally preferred to avoid favoring it over the three other official languages. Middle Low German used to be the Lingua franca during the late Hohenstaufen till the mid-15th century periods, in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea when extensive trading was done by the Hanseatic League along the Baltic and North Seas. German remains
10248-764: 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
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#173277219091210416-793: The Carpathian Mountains , the Danube and the Black sea , corresponding to Wallachia and Moldavia . Nowadays, the Cyrillic writing system is used for various languages across Eurasia, and as the national script in various Slavic, Turkic , Mongolic , Uralic , Caucasian and Iranic -speaking countries in Southeastern Europe , Eastern Europe, the Caucasus , Central, North, and East Asia. The Mediterranean Lingua Franca
10584-539: 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
10752-412: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only a second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and
10920-485: 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
11088-441: 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,
11256-467: The French Caribbean , French is the lingua franca in professional sectors and education, even though it is not the native language of the majority. French continues to be used as a lingua franca in certain cultural fields such as cuisine , fashion , and sport . As a consequence of Brexit , French has been increasingly used as a lingua franca in the European Union and its institutions either alongside or, at times, in place of English. German
11424-439: 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
11592-452: The Internet . When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the British Empire . In the post-colonial period, most of the newly independent nations which had many indigenous languages opted to continue using English as one of their official languages such as Ghana and South Africa . In other former colonies with several official languages such as Singapore and Fiji , English
11760-420: 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
11928-406: The Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by
12096-570: The Silk Road , which is why native speakers of Sogdian were employed as translators in Tang China . The Sogdians also ended up circulating spiritual beliefs and texts, including those of Buddhism and Christianity , thanks to their ability to communicate to many people in the region through their native language. Old Church Slavonic , an Eastern South Slavic language, is the first Slavic literary language . Between 9th and 11th century, it
12264-861: 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
12432-689: The provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to
12600-427: The ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in
12768-774: The 12th century AD. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bangalore . Latin , through the power of the Roman Republic , became the dominant language in Italy and subsequently throughout the realms of the Roman Empire. Even after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire , Latin was the common language of communication, science, and academia in Europe until well into
12936-593: The 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Classical Māori is the retrospective name for the language (formed out of many dialects, albeit all mutually intelligible) of both the North Island and the South Island for
13104-455: 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;
13272-500: The 2010 census, 53% of the population over the age of 15 can read and write French. French language is spoken in the overseas departments of French Guiana and the French Antilles , including Guadeloupe , Martinique , and the islands formerly attached to Guadeloupe. There are over a million people living in these departments and collectivities. French Creoles are also spoken on the islands of Dominica , St. Lucia , and to
13440-718: 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
13608-580: The 800 years before the European settlement of New Zealand . Māori shared a common language that was used for trade, inter- iwi dialogue on marae , and education through wānanga . After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi , Māori language was the lingua franca of the Colony of New Zealand until English superseded it in the 1870s. The description of Māori language as New Zealand's 19th-century lingua franca has been widely accepted. The language
13776-647: 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
13944-917: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
14112-687: The Constitution. French is one of two official languages of Cameroon , the other being English. French is the main language in eight of the ten regions of the country, with English being dominant in the remaining two. French is the mother tongue of a vast proportion of young Cameroonians living in urban centers. In Cameroon, 63.7% of the population aged 15 and older in Douala and 60.5% in Yaoundé can read and write French; an additional 13–15% can speak French without being able to write it. To some extent,
14280-538: 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
14448-484: 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
14616-643: The Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as
14784-451: The OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
14952-557: The Portuguese Empire, Africa, South America and Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries. When the Portuguese started exploring the seas of Africa, America, Asia and Oceania, they tried to communicate with the natives by mixing a Portuguese-influenced version of lingua franca with the local languages. When Dutch, English or French ships came to compete with the Portuguese, the crews tried to learn this "broken Portuguese". Through
15120-623: The Tutsi in 1994 and the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front were followed by a period of linguistic upheaval, with the return of refugees from Anglophone countries setting the stage for the officialisation of English in 1996 and the gradual usurpation of French as the language of education, culminating in the decision in October 2008 to make English the main language of education at higher levels, effectively relegating French to
15288-420: The ability to speak French being more common in the south of the country. The Atlantique and Littoral departments have a French-speaking majority. French speakers are more commonly men than women, owing to a disparity in access to education. French is the sole official language of Burkina Faso . In Ouagadougou , 49.4% of the population aged 15 and older can read and write French. At the national level French
15456-491: The adoption of English for this role was being considered by the Minister of Education. In the private sector, French is treated as more than simply a foreign language. French is introduced in primary school, where it is studied for up to 7 hours a week. It is also used as the language of education in many private schools. Moroccans are the largest group of foreign students in France, ahead of the Chinese and Algerians. 50.3% of
15624-702: The audience share of local French-language channels reached 25% in the early 1990s, but hardly reached 3% by the 2010s. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 91% of Tunisians in 2014. Local French-language media include La Presse de Tunisie , L'Economiste Maghrébin , Tunivisions , Le Temps . According to the High Council of the International Organization of the Francophonie , in 2010, 96.2 million French speakers were living in various countries in Africa. French has been imported to most of these countries through colonization, and it
15792-520: The border area between Brazil and Uruguay. The Hindustani language , with Hindi and Urdu as dual standard varieties, serves as the lingua franca of Pakistan and Northern India . Many Hindi-speaking North Indian states have adopted the three-language formula in which students are taught: "(a) Hindi (with Sanskrit as part of the composite course); (b) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu and (c) English or any other modern European language." The order in non-Hindi speaking states is: "(a)
15960-457: The breakup of much of the empire in the Americas, its function as a lingua franca was solidified by the governments of the newly independent nations of what is now Hispanic America . While its usage in Spain's Asia-Pacific colonies has largely died out except in the Philippines , where it is still spoken by a small minority, Spanish became the lingua franca of what is now Equatorial Guinea , being
16128-480: The capital of Madagascar , French is seen as important for work, education and administrative matters, but not in everyday life, where Malagasy dominates. Less than half feel solidarity with other Francophone countries or consider knowledge of French as essential. Education in primary schools is bilingual in Malagasy and French. The latter is used as medium of education for mathematics and scientific subjects. French
16296-483: The case of Taiwan, indigenous Formosan languages . Among many Chinese diaspora communities, Cantonese is often used as the lingua franca instead, particularly in Southeast Asia, due to a longer history of immigration and trade networks with southern China, although Mandarin has also been adopted in some circles since the 2000s. Arabic was used as a lingua franca across the Islamic empires, whose sizes necessitated
16464-506: The colonial period, began to expand as part of the mass education efforts launched after 1962. Its controversial status as a legacy of colonialism led to the increasing Arabisation of the school system in the 1970s and 1980s. The usage of French in the country reached its lowest point during the Algerian Civil War in the 1990s, when armed Islamist groups targeted teachers of French. The language has rebounded in public life since
16632-524: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Lingua franca A lingua franca ( / ˌ l ɪ ŋ ɡ w ə ˈ f r æ ŋ k ə / ; lit. ' Frankish tongue ' ; for plurals see § Usage notes ), also known as a bridge language , common language , trade language , auxiliary language , link language or language of wider communication ( LWC ),
16800-599: The country, with 2,065,300 constituting secondary speakers. Bilingualism with French has been declining in English Canada in recent years. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of
16968-658: The country. At the time, it was also a lingua franca for the communities of foreign origin, especially in Cairo . During the period of the British colonization of Egypt French was actually the medium of communication among foreigners and between foreigners and Egyptians; the mixed French-Egyptian civil courts operated in French, and government notices from the Egyptian Sultan , taxi stand information, timetables of trains, and other legal documents were issued in French. This
17136-799: The course of adaptation by subsequent generations. Pre-existing lingua francas such as French are used to facilitate intercommunication in large-scale trade or political matters, while pidgins and creoles often arise out of colonial situations and a specific need for communication between colonists and indigenous peoples. Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed languages with many native speakers. Conversely, pidgins are very simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical rules, and possessing few or no native speakers. Creole languages are more developed than their ancestral pidgins, utilizing more complex structure, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as having substantial communities of native speakers. Whereas
17304-544: The current uprising of the English-speaking minority living at the Nigerian border, which complains that English language is disappearing progressively under the pressure of the more numerous French speakers and that the linguistic rights of the English speakers are not respected, endangering their specific culture. French is an official language of the Central African Republic along with Sango. French
17472-519: 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
17640-549: The early 19th century the use of Swahili as a lingua franca moved inland with the Arabic ivory and slave traders. It was eventually adopted by Europeans as well during periods of colonization in the area. German colonizers used it as the language of administration in German East Africa , later becoming Tanganyika , which influenced the choice to use it as a national language in what is now independent Tanzania . Swahili
17808-784: The early 20th century, vernacular written Chinese replaced Classical Chinese within China as both the written and spoken lingua franca for speakers of different Chinese dialects, and because of the declining power and cultural influence of China in East Asia, English has since replaced Classical Chinese as the lingua franca in East Asia. Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the Hellenistic culture. Koine Greek (Modern Greek : Ελληνιστική Κοινή , romanized : Ellinistikí Kiní , lit. 'Common Greek'; Greek: [elinistiˈci ciˈni] ), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic, or Biblical Greek,
17976-448: 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
18144-544: 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
18312-522: The end of the war, culminating in the efforts to reintroduce French in primary schools in 2006, which were initially hampered by a lack of sufficiently qualified teachers. Referring to the continued usage of French in Algeria in the post-colonial period, the writer Kateb Yacine described the French language as the ' spoils of war ' ( butin de guerre ) of Algerians. Local French-language media include El Watan , Le Soir d'Algérie , Liberté , Le Matin and Tout sur l'Algérie . According to
18480-462: 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
18648-915: 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 ,
18816-420: The former being first-listed or only-listed in major dictionaries. The use of lingua francas has existed since antiquity. Akkadian remained the common language of a large part of Western Asia from several earlier empires, until it was supplanted in this role by Aramaic . Sanskrit historically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of South Asia. The Sanskrit language's historic presence
18984-829: 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
19152-454: 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
19320-421: The language of communication between European academics, merchants, and diplomats. With the expansion of Western colonial empires, French became the main language of diplomacy and international relations up until World War II when it was replaced by English due the rise of the United States as the leading superpower . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles
19488-527: The language of work and education, although there were attempts to introduce English as a first foreign language. On social media, 59% of Mauritanian Facebook users used French on the website in 2014. The 2004 census of Morocco found that 39.5% of the population aged 10 and older could read and write French. Spoken mainly in cities among the upper middle class, French is the medium of instruction of two-thirds of courses in higher education, including science and technology, health, economics and management, although
19656-469: The language situation in Cameroon between French and English could be described fairly accurately as an exact inversion of the linguistic situation existing in Canada between English and French : Being spoken by 80% of the educated population (unlike English which is much less spoken), French predominates largely especially in government and information, even in English-speaking regions, which has led to
19824-479: 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
19992-612: 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 ,
20160-479: 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
20328-454: The lingua franca for most of ancient Tamilakam and Sri Lanka . John Guy states that Tamil was also the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. The language and its dialects were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century AD. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in the southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until
20496-486: The local language and using it preferably in daily communication. In Central European countries that were members of the Warsaw Pact , where Russian was only a political language used in international communication and where there was no Russian minority, the Russian language practically does not exist, and in schools it was replaced by English as the primary foreign language. Portuguese served as lingua franca in
20664-591: The local language. In the European Union , the use of English as a lingua franca has led researchers to investigate whether a Euro English dialect has emerged. In the fields of technology and science, English emerged as a lingua franca in the 20th century. The Spanish language spread mainly throughout the New World , becoming a lingua franca in the territories and colonies of the Spanish Empire , which also included parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania. After
20832-713: The main foreign language, but French was still being learnt by 8 million Egyptians in 2013. There are two French-speaking universities in the country, the Université Française d'Égypte and the Université Senghor . French was demoted from its status as an official language of Mauritania in 1991. Even so, it is taught from the second grade onward for up to six hours a week. French is also a language of instruction in high school for scientific subjects. In higher education, 2,300 students were enrolled in French courses in 2012. French remains, alongside Arabic,
21000-537: The main language of government and education and is spoken by the vast majority of the population. Due to large numbers of immigrants from Latin America in the second half of the 20th century and resulting influence, Spanish has also emerged somewhat as a lingua franca in parts of the Southwestern United States and southern Florida , especially in communities where native Spanish speakers form
21168-433: The main royal courts of Europe, and among intellectuals. This lasted from the 14th century to the end of the 16th, when French replaced Italian as the usual lingua franca in northern Europe. Italian musical terms, in particular dynamic and tempo notations, have continued in use to the present day. Classical Quechua is either of two historical forms of Quechua , the exact relationship and degree of closeness between which
21336-697: The major language of the state or region; (b) Hindi; (c) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu but excluding (a) and (b) above; and (d) English or any other modern European language." Hindi has also emerged as a lingua franca in Arunachal Pradesh , a linguistically diverse state in Northeast India. It is estimated that nine-tenths of the state's population knows Hindi. Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan and had gained significant influence amongst its people, administration and education. While it shares official status with English, Urdu
21504-434: The majority of the population. At present it is the second most used language in international trade, and the third most used in politics, diplomacy and culture after English and French. It is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world and is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations . French is sometimes regarded as the first global lingua franca, having supplanted Latin as
21672-468: The many indigenous languages spoken in their territory. Notably, in most Francophone West and Central African countries, French has transitioned from being only a lingua franca to the native language among some communities, mostly in urban areas or among the elite class. In other regions such as the French-speaking countries of the Maghreb ( Algeria , Tunisia , Morocco , and Mauritania ) and parts of
21840-497: The more developed neighbourhoods of the capital, it is also a common language of communication for all social groups, either in its standardised form or hybridised with Arabic. In the inland regions and the south it remains a foreign language. French is introduced from the third grade at 8 hours per week. In high school French is the language of instruction for mathematics, science and computing. Teachers are not always sufficiently trained for this usage, however. Nearly three-quarters of
22008-533: The nearby Arab countries, Eritrean emigrants are contributing to Arabic becoming a lingua franca in the region by coming back to their homelands having picked up the Arabic language. Russian is in use and widely understood in Central Asia and the Caucasus , areas formerly part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Its use remains prevalent in many post-Soviet states . Russian has some presence as
22176-420: 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
22344-475: 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
22512-419: The particular language) was first recorded in English during the 1670s, although an even earlier example of the use of it in English is attested from 1632, where it is also referred to as "Bastard Spanish". The term is well established in its naturalization to English and so major dictionaries do not italicize it as a "foreign" term. Its plurals in English are lingua francas and linguae francae , with
22680-424: The population of Tunis , Sousse and Sfax consider French as essential in their professional or personal lives. However, only half of the population feels Francophone, and only a third feels solidarity with other Francophone countries. 70.8% of the population over 15 in the aforementioned Tunisians cities can read and write French. Arabic increasingly dominates the Tunisian media landscape, especially on television:
22848-494: The population of the capital identifies as Francophone and considers French as essential. All local publications are in French. French is the sole official language of Guinea . In Conakry , 42.1% of the population aged 15 and older can read and write French. French is the sole official language of the Ivory Coast . In Abidjan , largest city of the country, 57.6% of the inhabitants over 15 can read and write French, and another 11% can speak it but not write it. The French language
23016-494: The population over 15 in Tanger , Fès , Rabat , Casablanca and Marrakech can read and write French. According to a survey conducted in 2012, just a third of urban Moroccans identify with a Francophone identity, and slightly more wish for French to become more commonly used. French is nevertheless deemed essential, both in the professional and private spheres, by three-quarters of respondents. French-language media are losing ground to Arabic media, including in television, radio or
23184-401: 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
23352-434: The press: of 618 Moroccan publications in 2004, 448 were in Arabic and 164 in French. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 75% of Moroccans in 2014. Local French-language media include Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb , TelQuel , Aujourd'hui le Maroc , La Vie éco . French is a working language in many sectors in Tunisia , including healthcare, commerce or communication. In coastal areas and
23520-428: The prestige language of politics, trade, education, diplomacy, and military in early modern Europe and later spreading around the world with the establishment of the French colonial empire . With France emerging as the leading political, economic, and cultural power of Europe in the 16th century, the language was adopted by royal courts throughout the continent, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Russia, and as
23688-407: 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
23856-407: The result of functional and vernacular ownerships, satisfying the needs of a society with new sociocultural and socioeconomic realities. French has begun developing into almost independent varieties, with creation of different types of slang by speakers with a sufficient knowledge of French. Examples include the Ivorian jargon " Nouchi " in Abidjan and the Cameroonian " Camfranglais ", which
24024-409: The shift in the meaning of Lingua Franca from a single proper noun to a common noun encompassing a large class of pidgin languages. As recently as the late 20th century, some restricted the use of the generic term to mean only mixed languages that are used as vehicular languages, its original meaning. Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary states that the term Lingua Franca (as the name of
24192-407: The status of third language. Nevertheless, a survey of students in Kigali found that French was known by a majority of them. French is the sole official language of Senegal . French was commonly spoken by 9.4% of Senegalese in 2002, mainly as a second language, with just 0.6% speaking it natively. Wolof is by far the most spoken language in the country, including the capital, while French remains
24360-451: The term in literature, lingua franca has come to be interpreted as a general term for pidgins, creoles, and some or all forms of vehicular languages. This transition in meaning has been attributed to the idea that pidgin languages only became widely known from the 16th century on due to European colonization of continents such as The Americas, Africa, and Asia. During this time, the need for a term to address these pidgin languages arose, hence
24528-446: The total number of French speakers passed 500 million in the year 2020. French speakers by Regions The following figures are from a 2022 report of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). No distinctions are made between native speakers of French and those who learnt it as a foreign language , between different levels of mastery or how often the language is used in daily life. For African countries where French
24696-414: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
24864-619: 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
25032-508: 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
25200-425: 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
25368-481: 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
25536-490: The world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. French is the second most geographically widespread language in the world after English , with the French-speaking world comprising about 50 countries and territories where French is a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. According to the 2022 report of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), 321 million people speak French. The OIF states that despite
25704-402: 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
25872-446: The world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in
26040-531: 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
26208-400: 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
26376-428: Was initially vital for all European and Chinese migrants in New Zealand to learn, as Māori formed a majority of the population, owned nearly all the country's land and dominated the economy until the 1860s. Discriminatory laws such as the Native Schools Act 1867 contributed to the demise of Māori language as a lingua franca. Sogdian was used to facilitate trade between those who spoke different languages along
26544-469: 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
26712-410: Was largely based on Italian and Provençal . This language was spoken from the 11th to 19th centuries around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the European commercial empires of Italian cities ( Genoa , Venice, Florence , Milan, Pisa , Siena ) and in trading ports located throughout the eastern Mediterranean rim. During the Renaissance , standard Italian was spoken as a language of culture in
26880-413: Was less as a centralising monarch than as a "gentle courtly prince" that the king unwittingly spread his language" and "the methods of expansion were not political"'. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the language of European diplomacy and international relations. The terms Francophonie or Francophone world refer the whole body of people and organisations around
27048-532: Was originally used at both schools, though the Cyrillic script was developed early on at the Preslav Literary School , where it superseded Glagolitic as the official script in Bulgaria in 893. Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably Croatia , Serbia , Bohemia , Lesser Poland , and principalities of the Kievan Rus' while retaining characteristically South Slavic linguistic features. It spread also to not completely Slavic territories between
27216-413: Was partly because of some Egyptians had French education and partly because of cultural influence from France. Despite efforts from British legal personnel, English was never adopted as a language of the Egyptian civil courts during the period of British influence. French began to lose ground in Egyptian society in the 1920s for a number of political and social reasons; from the 1930s onwards English became
27384-411: 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
27552-405: Was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period , the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire . It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. Old Tamil was once
27720-415: Was the first language for 1.66% of the population in 2006 (up from 0.75% in 1996), reaching 9.54% in the capital, where it is the second most spoken language, behind Dioula . Until 2014, French was one of two official languages of Burundi , the other being Kirundi . Only Kirundi is spoken by the vast majority of the population, therefore holding the status of national language as determined by article 5 of
27888-437: 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 ,
28056-445: Was the lingua franca of a great part of the predominantly Slavic states and populations in Southeast and Eastern Europe , in liturgy and church organization, culture, literature, education and diplomacy, as an Official language and National language in the case of Bulgaria . It was the first national and also international Slavic literary language (autonym словѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ , slověnĭskŭ językŭ ). The Glagolitic alphabet
28224-401: Was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. Nevertheless, it remains the second most used language in international affairs and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations . As a legacy of French and Belgian colonial rule, most former colonies of these countries maintain French as an official language or lingua franca due to
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