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72-526: The countries that use francs today include Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and most of Francophone Africa . The Swiss franc is a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions . Before the introduction of the euro in 1999, francs were also used in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, while Andorra and Monaco accepted the French franc as legal tender ( Monégasque franc ). The franc

144-417: A dialect continuum of gradual change. Spoken Luxembourgish is relatively hard to understand for speakers of German who are generally not familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects (or at least other West Central German dialects). They can usually read the language to some degree. For those Germans familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects, it is relatively easy to understand and speak Luxembourgish as far as

216-476: A distinct dialect of French. Similarly to many other African dialects of French, many of the linguistic aspects are influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the linguistics of the local African languages. It is also essential to note that grammatical differences between local Congolese languages and the French language, such as the lack of gendered nouns in the former, result in linguistic changes when speakers of

288-442: A few nominal phrases such as der Däiwel ("the devil") and eiser Herrgott ("our Lord"). Rare examples of the genitive are also found: Enn des Mounts ("end of the month"), Ufanks der Woch ("at the beginning of the week"). The functions of the genitive are normally expressed using a combination of the dative and a possessive determiner: e.g. dem Mann säi Buch (lit. "to the man his book", i.e. "the man's book"). This

360-625: A local language with its own pronunciation and some local words borrowed for the most part from Lingala. Depending on their social status, some people may mix French and Lingala, or code switch between the two depending on the context. Here are examples of words particular to Kinshasa French. As in Abidjan, there exist various registers and the most educated people may frown upon the use of slangish/Lingala terms. There are many linguistic differences that occur in Kinshasa French that make it

432-490: A maximum of some 285,000 native speakers, resources in the language like books, newspapers, magazines, television, internet etc. are limited. Since most Luxembourgers also speak Standard German and French, there is strong competition with these languages, which both have large language resources. Because of this, the use of Luxembourgish remains limited. Luxembourgish belongs to the West Central German group of

504-449: A national currency unit (franc, lira, peseta, drachma) worth 4.5 g of silver or 0.290 322  g of gold (fine), all freely exchangeable at a rate of 1:1. In the 1870s the gold value was made the fixed standard, a situation which was to continue until 1914. In 1926, Belgium as well as France experienced depreciation and an abrupt collapse of confidence, leading to the introduction of a new gold currency for international transactions,

576-445: A new linguistic concept: le petit français . Le petit français is the result of a superposition of the structure of a local language with a narrowed lexical knowledge of French. The specific structures, though very different, are juxtaposed, marking the beginning of the creolization process. In the urban areas of Francophone Africa, another type of French has emerged: Français populaire africain ("Popular African French") or FPA. It

648-592: Is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg . About 300,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized and officially the national language of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. As such, Luxembourgish is different from the German language also used in the Grand Duchy. The German language exists in a national standard variety of Luxembourg, which is slightly different from

720-808: Is a first language among the upper classes along with Arabic (many people in the upper classes are simultaneous bilinguals in Arabic/French), but only a second language among the general population. In each of the Francophone African countries, French is spoken with local variations in pronunciation and vocabulary. French proficiency in African countries according to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). There are many different varieties of African French, but they can be broadly grouped into five categories: All

792-514: Is also frequently done in French. Documents, forms, and posters are often in both French and Arabic. The usage of French among the Algerian population is different depending on social situations. One can find: French is the sole official language in Benin. In 2014, over 4 million Beninese citizens spoke French (around 40% of the population). Fongbe is the other widely spoken language of Benin. It

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864-445: Is also unique in its grammatical differences present in spoken speech such as these: Without being an official language, French is frequently used in government, workplaces, and education. French is the default language for work in several sectors. In a 2007 study set in the city of Mostaganem , it was shown that French and Arabic were the two functional languages of banking. Technical work (accounting, financial analysis, management)

936-426: Is annoying me to death)" or "I'm dying (out of love) for him/her" depending on the circumstances. " Il ou elle commence à me plaire " signifies a feeling of exasperation (whereupon it actually means "he or she starts to appeal to me"), and friendship can be expressed with " c'est mon môgô sûr " or " c'est mon bramôgo. " FPA is mainly composed of metaphors and images taken from African languages. For example,

1008-722: Is attested not only in Côte d'Ivoire but also in Senegal , Mali , Niger , Burkina Faso , Chad , the Central African Republic , Benin , Togo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . As already mentioned, these local words range from slang to formal usage, and their use therefore varies depending on the context. In Abidjan, this is how the sentence "The girl stole my money." is constructed depending on

1080-748: Is currently also the only political party in Luxembourg that wishes to implement written laws also in Luxembourgish and that wants Luxembourgish to be an officially recognized language of the European Union . In this context, in 2005, then- Deputy Prime Minister Jean Asselborn of the LSAP rejected a demand made by the ADR to make Luxembourgish an official language of the EU, citing financial reasons and

1152-460: Is formed using the adverb méi : e.g. schéin → méi schéin The superlative involves a synthetic form consisting of the adjective and the suffix -st : e.g. schéin → schéin st (compare German schönst , English prettiest ). Attributive modification requires the emphatic definite article and the inflected superlative adjective: Predicative modification uses either the same adjectival structure or

1224-670: Is found on some of the coins in Latin ( Confoederatio Helvetica ), as Switzerland has four official languages, all of which are used on the notes. The denomination is abbreviated "Fr." on the coins which is the abbreviation in all four languages. The Saar franc , linked at par to the French franc, was introduced in the Saar Protectorate in 1948. On 1 January 1957, the territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany , nevertheless, in its new member state of Saarland ,

1296-675: Is known as a periphrastic genitive , and is a phenomenon also commonly seen in dialectal and colloquial German, and in Dutch. The forms of the personal pronouns are given in the following table (unstressed forms appear in parentheses): The 2pl form is also used as a polite singular (like French vous , see T-V distinction ); the forms are capitalised in writing: Like most varieties of colloquial German, but even more invariably, Luxembourgish uses definite articles with personal names. They are obligatory and not to be translated: A feature Luxembourgish shares with only some western dialects of German

1368-407: Is natural to hear both languages blending, either through loan words or code-switching. Few academic sources exist surrounding the particularisms of Beninese French. Nevertheless, it is evident that Beninese French has adapted the meanings of several French terms over time, such as: seconder (to have relations with a second woman, from the French second - second), doigter (to show the way, from

1440-540: Is quite similar to that of Standard German . Luxembourgish has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and three cases ( nominative , accusative , and dative ). These are marked morphologically on determiners and pronouns . As in German, there is no morphological gender distinction in the plural. The forms of the articles and of some selected determiners are given below: As seen above, Luxembourgish has plural forms of en ("a, an"), namely eng in

1512-551: Is shared with Lingala . Kinshasa French also differs from other African French variants, for it has some Belgian French influences, due to colonization. People of different African mother tongues living in Kinshasa usually speak Lingala to communicate with each other in the street, but French is the language of businesses, administrations, schools, newspapers and televisions. French is also the predominant written language. Due to its widespread presence in Kinshasa, French has become

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1584-432: Is spoken by 75 to 99 percent of Abidjan 's population, either alone or alongside indigenous African languages. There are three sorts of French spoken in Abidjan. A formal French is spoken by the educated classes. Most of the population, however, speaks a colloquial form of French known as français de Treichville (after a working-class district of Abidjan) or français de Moussa (after a character in chronicles published by

1656-416: Is that women and girls are most often referred to with forms of the neuter pronoun hatt : Adjectives show a different morphological behaviour when used attributively and predicatively . In predicative use, e.g. when they occur with verbs like sinn ("to be"), adjectives receive no extra ending: In attributive use, i.e. when placed before the noun they describe, they change their ending according to

1728-548: Is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 167 million people in Africa in 2023 or 51% of the French-speaking population of the world spread across 34 countries and territories. This includes those who speak French as a first or second language in these 34 African countries and territories (some of which are not Francophone, but merely non-Francophone members or observers of

1800-928: Is the primary language of 48% of the population. It is also spoken in the Arelerland region of Belgium (part of the Province of Luxembourg ) and in small parts of Lorraine in France . In the German Eifel and Hunsrück regions, similar local Moselle Franconian dialects of German are spoken. The language is also spoken by a few descendants of Luxembourg immigrants in the United States and Canada . Other Moselle Franconian dialects are spoken by ethnic Germans long settled in Transylvania , Romania (Siebenbürgen). Moselle Franconian dialects outside

1872-464: Is used in the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa , but especially in cities such as Abidjan , Côte d'Ivoire; Cotonou , Benin; Dakar , Senegal; Lomé , Togo; and Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso. At its emergence, it was marginalized and associated with the ghetto; Angèle Bassolé-Ouedraogo describes the reaction of the scholars: Administration and professors do not want to hear that funny-sounding and barbarian language that seems to despise articles and distorts

1944-707: The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie or OIF), but it does not include French speakers living in other African countries. Africa is thus the continent with the most French speakers in the world, and African French speakers now form a large and integral part of the Francophonie . In Africa, French is often spoken as a second language alongside the Indigenous ones, but in a small number of urban areas (in particular in Central Africa and in

2016-547: The Comoros established an arrangement with the French government similar to that of the CFA franc. Originally, 50 Comorian francs were worth 1 French franc. In January 1994, the rate was changed to 75 Comorian francs to the French franc. Since 1999, the currency has been pegged to the euro. The conquest of most of western Europe by Revolutionary and Napoleonic France led to the franc's wide circulation. Following independence from

2088-702: The High German languages and is the primary example of a Moselle Franconian language . Furthermore, it is closely related to Transylvanian Saxon which has been spoken since the High Middle Ages by the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania , present-day central Romania . Luxembourgish is considered the national language of Luxembourg and also one of the three administrative languages, alongside German and French . In Luxembourg, 77% of residents can speak Luxembourgish, and it

2160-482: The belga of 5 francs, and the country's withdrawal from the monetary union, which ceased to exist at the end of the year. The 1921 monetary union of Belgium and Luxembourg survived and formed the basis for full economic union in 1932. Like the French franc, the Belgian and Luxembourg francs ceased to exist on 1 January 1999, when they became fixed at 1 EUR = 40.3399 BEF/LUF, thus a Belgian or Luxembourg franc

2232-489: The franc CFA (in west Africa, Communauté financière africaine ; in equatorial Africa, Coopération financière en Afrique centrale ), originally (1945) worth 1.7 French francs and then from 1948, 2 francs (from 1960: 0.02 new franc) but after January 1994 worth only 0.01 French franc. Therefore, from January 1999, 1 CFA franc is equivalent to €0.00152449. A separate ( franc CFP ) circulates in France's Pacific territories , worth €0.0084 (formerly 0.055 French franc). In 1981,

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2304-570: The livre tournois . The franc was also minted for many of the former French colonies, such as Morocco, Algeria, French West Africa, and others. Today, after independence, many of these countries continue to use the franc as their standard denomination. The value of the French franc was locked to the euro at 1 euro = 6.55957 FRF on 31 December 1998, and after the introduction of the euro notes and coins, ceased to be legal tender after 28 February 2002, although they were still exchangeable at banks until 19 February 2012. Fourteen African countries use

2376-504: The register : Another unique, identifiable feature of Ivorian French is the use of the phrase n'avoir qu'à + infinitif which, translated into English, roughly means, to have only to + infinitive . The phrase is often used in linguistic contexts of expressing a wish or creating hypotheticals. This original Ivorian phrase is generally used across the Ivory Coast's population; children, uneducated adults, and educated adults all using

2448-403: The "pure" language used by many African intellectuals and writers versus the mixtures between French and African languages. For this, the term "creolization" is used, often in a pejorative way, and especially in the areas where French is on the same level with one or more local languages. According to Gabriel Manessy , "The consequences of this concurrency may vary according to the social status of

2520-667: The African French varieties differ from Standard French , both in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary, but the formal African French used in education, media and legal documents is based on standard French vocabulary. In the colonial period, a vernacular form of creole French known as Petit nègre ("little negro ") was also present in West Africa. The term has since, however, become a pejorative term for "poorly spoken" African French. The difficulty linguists have in describing African French comes from variations, such as

2592-608: The French doigt - finger). French is the language of administration, education, and business in Burkina Faso and was the de jure official language until a constitutional change in 2024. While spoken fluently only by about a quarter of the population, French has progressively become a native language among urban populations since the late 20th century, notably in the cities of Ouagadougou , Bobo-Dioulasso , and Banfora . By 2010, about 10% of Ouagadougou residents spoke French as their first language. Linguists have observed

2664-617: The Kingdom of the Netherlands, the new Kingdom of Belgium in 1832 adopted its own Belgian franc, equivalent to the French one, followed by Luxembourg adopting the Luxembourgish franc in 1848 and Switzerland in 1850. Newly unified Italy adopted the lira on a similar basis in 1862. In 1865, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy created the Latin Monetary Union (to be joined by Spain and Greece in 1868): each would possess

2736-631: The Luxembourg state border tend to have far fewer French loanwords, and these mostly remain from the French Revolution. The political party that places the greatest importance on promoting, using and preserving Luxembourgish is the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) and its electoral success in the 1999 election pushed the CSV-DP government to make knowledge of it a criterion for naturalisation . It

2808-539: The Saar franc continued to be the currency until 6 July 1959. The name of the Saar franc in German, the main official language in the Protectorate, was Franken . Coins displaying German inscriptions and the coat of arms of the Protectorate were circulated and used together with French francs. As banknotes, only French franc bills existed. Francophone Africa African French ( French : français africain )

2880-431: The adoption of the "OLO" ( ofizjel lezebuurjer ortografi ) on 5 June 1946. This orthography provided a system for speakers of all varieties of Luxembourgish to transcribe words the way they pronounced them, rather than imposing a single, standard spelling for the words of the language. The rules explicitly rejected certain elements of German orthography ( e.g. , the use of ⟨ ä ⟩ and ⟨ ö ⟩ ,

2952-437: The adverbial structure am + - sten : e.g. schéin → am schéinsten : Some common adjectives have exceptional comparative and superlative forms: Several other adjectives also have comparative forms, not commonly used as normal comparatives, but in special senses: Luxembourgish exhibits "verb second" word order in clauses. More specifically, Luxembourgish is a V2 - SOV language , like German and Dutch. In other words, we find

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3024-818: The basis of the standard orthography that became official on 10 October 1975. Modifications to this standard were proposed by the Permanent Council of the Luxembourguish language and adopted officially in the spelling reform of 30 July 1999. A detailed explanation of current practice for Luxembourgish can be found in Schanen & Lulling (2003). The Luxembourgish alphabet consists of the 26 Latin letters plus three letters with diacritics: ⟨é⟩ , ⟨ä⟩ , and ⟨ë⟩ . In loanwords from French and Standard German, other diacritics are usually preserved: In German loanwords,

3096-688: The capitalisation of nouns). Similarly, new principles were adopted for the spelling of French loanwords. This proposed orthography, so different from existing "foreign" standards that people were already familiar with, did not enjoy widespread approval. A more successful standard eventually emerged from the work of the committee of specialists charged with the task of creating the Luxemburger Wörterbuch , published in 5 volumes between 1950 and 1977. The orthographic conventions adopted in this decades-long project, set out in Bruch (1955), provided

3168-463: The creolization of French in 1968, naming the result "franlof": a mix of French and Wolof (the language most spoken in Senegal) which spreads by its use in urban areas and through schools, where teachers often speak Wolof in the classroom despite official instructions. The omnipresence of local languages in Francophone African countries – along with insufficiencies in education – has given birth to

3240-402: The development of a local vernacular of French in the country called français populaire burkinabè which is influenced by local languages such as Mooré and is used as a lingua franca in commerce. It is largely used as a spoken language whereas speakers continue to use standard French as the written language. With more than 11 million inhabitants, Kinshasa is the largest Francophone city in

3312-521: The digraphs ⟨ eu ⟩ and ⟨ äu ⟩ indicate the diphthong /oɪ/ , which does not appear in native words. Like many other varieties of Western High German, Luxembourgish has a rule of final n -deletion in certain contexts. The effects of this rule (known as the "Eifel Rule") are indicated in writing, and therefore must be taken into account when spelling words and morphemes ending in ⟨n⟩ or ⟨nn⟩ . For example: The consonant inventory of Luxembourgish

3384-399: The everyday vocabulary is concerned. The large number of French loanwords in Luxembourgish may hamper communication about certain topics or with certain speakers (those who use many terms taken from French). A number of proposals for standardising the orthography of Luxembourgish can be documented, going back to the middle of the 19th century. There was no officially recognised system until

3456-465: The following finite clausal structures: Non-finite verbs (infinitives and participles) generally appear in final position: These rules interact so that in subordinate clauses, the finite verb and any non-finite verbs must all cluster at the end. Luxembourgish allows different word orders in these cases: This is also the case when two non-finite verb forms occur together: Luxembourgish (like Dutch and German) allows prepositional phrases to appear after

3528-627: The former speak French. Here are some of the phonetic characteristics of Kinshasa French: As briefly mentioned above, many Congolese languages are ungendered languages and so there is often some mixing of the French masculine and feminine articles in speakers of Kinshasa French, such as the phrase Je veux du banane rather than the "correct" French Je veux de la banane . Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( / ˈ l ʌ k s əm b ɜːr ɡ ɪ ʃ / LUK -səm-bur-ghish ; also Luxemburgish , Luxembourgian , Letzebu(e)rgesch ; endonym : Lëtzebuergesch [ˈlətsəbuəjəʃ] )

3600-428: The grammatical gender, number and case of the noun: The definite article changes with the use of an attributive adjective: feminine d' goes to déi (or di ), neuter d' goes to dat , and plural d' changes to déi . The comparative in Luxembourgish is formed analytically, i.e. the adjective itself is not altered (compare the use of - er in German and English; tall → taller , klein → kleiner ). Instead it

3672-491: The independent Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, this for historical reasons.) The equivalent name of the Belgian franc in Dutch and German, Belgium's other official languages, was frank . As mentioned before, in Luxembourg the franc was called Frang (plural Frangen ) in Luxembourgish . The Swiss franc ( ISO code : CHF or 756; German : Franken ; Italian : franco ), which appreciated significantly against

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3744-475: The magazine Ivoire Dimanche which are written in this colloquial Abidjan French). Finally, an Abidjan French slang called Nouchi has evolved from an ethnically neutral lingua franca among uneducated youth into a creole language with a distinct grammar. New words often appear in Nouchi and then make their way into colloquial Abidjan French after some time. As of 2012, a crowdsourced dictionary of Nouchi

3816-513: The major phonetic and phonological variations of Abidjan French, as compared to a more "typical" French, include substituting the nasal low vowel [ɑ̃] for a non-nasal [a], especially when the sound occurs at the beginning of a word, and some difficulty with the full production of the phonemes [ʒ] and [ʃ]. There are also, to a certain degree, rhythmic speaking patterns in Ivorian French that are influenced by native languages. Ivorian French

3888-607: The new European currency from April to September 2000, remains one of the world's strongest currencies, worth as of August 2023 just over one euro. The Swiss franc is used in Switzerland and in Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein retains the ability to mint its own currency, the Liechtenstein franc , which it does from time to time for commemorative or emergency purposes. The name of the country "Swiss Confederation"

3960-503: The nominative/accusative and engen in the dative. They are not used as indefinite articles, which—as in German and English—do not exist in the plural, but they do occur in the compound pronouns wéi en ("what, which") and sou en ("such"). For example: wéi eng Saachen ("what things"); sou eng Saachen ("such things"). Moreover, they are used before numbers to express an estimation: eng 30.000 Spectateuren ("some 30,000 spectators"). Distinct nominative forms survive in

4032-476: The now standard uvular trill or ' guttural R .' The voiced velar fricative , the sound represented by ⟨غ⟩ in the Arabic word مغرب Ma gh rib , is another common alternative. Pronunciation of the letters ⟨d⟩ , ⟨t⟩ , ⟨l⟩ and ⟨l⟩ may also vary, and intonation may differ from standard French. According to some estimates, French

4104-434: The phrase relatively equally. Often in written speech, the phrase is written as Ils non cas essayer de voir rather than Ils n'ont qu'à essayer de voir . Many characteristics of Ivorian/Abidjan French differ from "standard" French found in France. Many of the linguistic evolutions are from the influences of native African languages spoken within the Ivory Coast and make Abidjan French a distinct dialect of French. Some of

4176-405: The population and the dissemination of the language through mass media such as radio and television are leading to a gradual standardisation towards a "Standard Luxembourgish" through the process of koineization . There is no distinct geographic boundary between the use of Luxembourgish and the use of other closely related High German dialects (for example, Lorraine Franconian ); it instead forms

4248-657: The ports located on the Gulf of Guinea ) it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan , Ivory Coast , in the urban areas of Douala , Yaoundé in Cameroon , in Libreville , Gabon , and Antananarivo In some countries, though not having official de jure status, it is a first language among some social classes of the population, such as in Algeria , Tunisia , Morocco , and Mauritania , where French

4320-621: The sense of words. They see in it a harmful influence to the mastery of good French. However, FPA has begun to emerge as a second language among the upper class. It has also become a symbol of social acceptance. FPA can be seen as a progressive evolution of Ivorian French. After diffusing out of Ivory Coast, it became Africanized under the influence of young Africans (often students) and cinema, drama, and dance. FPA has its own grammatical rules and lexicon. For example, " Il ou elle peut me tuer! " or " Il ou elle peut me dja! " can either mean "This person annoys me very much (literally he or she

4392-594: The speakers, to their occupations, to their degree of acculturation and thus to the level of their French knowledge." Code-switching , or the alternation of languages within a single conversation, takes place in both DR Congo and Senegal , the former having four "national" languages – Ciluba , Kikongo , Lingala , and Swahili – which are in a permanent opposition to French. Code-switching has been studied since colonial times by different institutions of linguistics. One of these, located in Dakar, Senegal , already spoke of

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4464-585: The standard varieties in Germany , Austria or Switzerland . Another important language of Luxembourg is French, which had a certain influence on both the national language Luxembourgish and the Luxembourg national variety of German. Luxembourgish, German and French are the three official languages (Amtssprachen) of Luxembourg. As a standard form of the Moselle Franconian language , Luxembourgish has similarities with other High German dialects and

4536-579: The sufficiency of official German and French . A similar proposal by the ADR was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in 2024. There are several distinct dialect forms of Luxembourgish including Areler (from Arlon ), Eechternoacher ( Echternach ), Dikrecher ( Diekirch ), Kliärrwer ( Clervaux ), Miseler ( Moselle ), Stater ( Luxembourg ), Veiner ( Vianden ), Minetter (Southern Luxembourg) and Weelzer ( Wiltz ). Further small vocabulary differences may be seen even between small villages. Increasing mobility of

4608-408: The upper social class is called " les en-haut d'en-haut " (the above from above) or " les môgôs puissants " (the powerful môgôs). Pronunciation in the many varieties of African French can be quite varied. There are nonetheless some trends among African French speakers; for instance, ⟨r⟩ tends to be pronounced as the historic alveolar trill of pre-20th Century French instead of

4680-513: The verb cluster in subordinate clauses: Luxembourgish has borrowed many French words. For example, the word for a bus driver is Buschauffeur (as in Dutch and Swiss German ), which would be Busfahrer in German and chauffeur de bus in French. Some words are different from Standard German, but have equivalents in German dialects. An example is Gromperen (potatoes – German: Kartoffeln ). Other words are exclusive to Luxembourgish. Listen to

4752-506: The wider group of West Germanic languages . The status of Luxembourgish as the national language of Luxembourg and the existence there of a regulatory body have removed Luxembourgish, at least in part, from the domain of Standard German, its traditional Dachsprache . It is also related to the Transylvanian Saxon dialect spoken by the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania , contemporary central Romania . Luxembourgish

4824-450: The world, surpassing Paris in population. It is the capital of the most populous francophone country in the world, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , where an estimated 43 million people (51% of the total population) can speak French (essentially as a second language). Contrary to Abidjan where French is the first language of a large part of the population, in Kinshasa French is only a second language, and its status of lingua franca

4896-683: Was also used in French colonies including Algeria and Cambodia. The franc is sometimes Italianised or Hispanicised as the franco , for instance in Luccan franco . The franc was originally a French gold coin of 3.87 g minted in 1360 on the occasion of the release of King John II ("the Good") , held by the English since his capture at the Battle of Poitiers four years earlier. It was equivalent to one livre tournois (Tours pound). The French franc

4968-605: Was being written using mobile phones. Here are some examples of words used in the African French variety spoken in Abidjan (the spelling used here conforms to French orthography , except ô which is pronounced [ɔ] ): When speaking in a formal context, or when meeting French speakers from outside Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan speakers would replace these local words with the French standard words une fille , un restaurant or une cantine , un copain , battre and l'argent respectively. Note that some local words are used across several African countries. For example, chicotter

5040-475: Was considered a German dialect like many others until about World War II but then it underwent ausbau , creating its own standard form in vocabulary, grammar, and spelling and therefore is seen today as an independent language. Luxembourgish managed to gain linguistic autonomy against a vigorous One Standard German Axiom by being framed as an independent language with a name rather than as a national pluricentric standard variety of German. As Luxembourgish has

5112-405: Was originally a gold coin issued in France from 1360 until 1380, then a silver coin issued between 1575 and 1641. The franc finally became the national currency from 1795 until 1999 (franc coins and notes were legal tender until 2002). Though abolished as a legal coin by King Louis XIII in 1641 in favor of the gold louis and silver écu , the term franc continued to be used in common parlance for

5184-414: Was worth €0.024789. Old franc coins and notes lost their legal tender status on 28 February 2002. One Luxembourg franc was equal to one Belgian franc. Belgian francs were legal tender inside Luxembourg, and Luxembourg francs were legal tender in the whole of Belgium. (In reality, Luxembourg francs were only accepted as means of payment by shops and businesses in the Belgian province of Luxembourg adjacent to

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