147-665: Asia Middle East Europe North America South America Oceania French Argentines ( French : Franco-Argentins ; Spanish : franco-argentinos ) refers to Argentine citizens of full or partial French ancestry or persons born in France who reside in Argentina . French Argentines form one of the largest ancestry groups after Italian Argentines and Spanish Argentines . Between 1857 and 1946, 261,020 French people immigrated to Argentina. Besides immigration from continental France , Argentina also received, as early as
294-744: 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
441-431: 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,
588-513: A dressing of pesto , a green sauce made with basil , or salsa blanca ( béchamel sauce ). Sorrentinos are also a local dish with a misleading name (they do not come from Sorrento but were invented in the Rio de La Plata region). It is believed that sorrentinos are a local derivation of the Italian ravioli capresi , whose dough is instead elaborated with flour, water and olive oil , while
735-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
882-607: A language spoken mainly in Lombardy (a region located in northern Italy ). The sounds of the lunfardo feeds mainly from the languages of Italy , especially the northern ones, because in Buenos Aires the Italian colony is very extensive and has left onomasiology and terminology a vast lexical heritage. Additionally, lunfardo has taken its own words, expressions, or ways of speaking (borrowings) from various languages such as French, Portuguese, English; other words arrived from
1029-600: A large number of peasants from the South of Italy, who arrived with little or no schooling in Spanish. As the immigrants strove to communicate with the local criollos , they produced a variable mixture of Spanish with Italian languages and dialects, specially Neapolitan. The pidgin language was given the derogatory name cocoliche by the locals. Since the children of the immigrants grew up speaking Spanish at school, work, and military service, Cocoliche remained confined mostly to
1176-650: A larger movement of emigration of Basque people, from both sides of the Pyrenees . French formed the largest group of immigrants to Argentina until 1854. The country received 1,484 French immigrants in 1856, Frenchmen still were the second most important immigrant group after Italians. The number of French immigrants present in the Buenos Aires Province reached 25,000 in 1859. In 1861, 29,196 Frenchmen were registered in Argentina, including 14,180 living in
1323-428: A massive departure from Naples and southern Italy to Argentina. According to a 1990 study, the high proportion of returnees can show a positive or negative correlation between regions of origin and of destination. Southern Italians indicate a more permanent settlement. Argentine society's Italian component is the result of Southern rather than Northern influences. Italian Argentines are predominantly Catholics of
1470-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
1617-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
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#17327974823091764-683: 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 ,
1911-517: A shift in the 1890s: while from 1860 to 1890, most of immigrants from the European countryside settled in the countryside, from 1890 to 1930 they started to settle in the cities. This could explain why French immigrants, most of them from a rural background, were more drawn to settle in North America from 1890 onwards, where access to land property was easier. Half of French immigrants until
2058-583: A slight revival in 1923 to 1927 but eventually stopped during the Great Depression and World War II . After the end of the war, from 1946 to 1957, another massive wave of Italians moved to Argentina, this time numbering about 380,000. A small number of Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians emigrated to Argentina during the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus , leaving their homelands, which were lost to Italy and annexed to Yugoslavia after
2205-524: A three-year period). The last rise in figures is due to a policy conducted by the Argentine government in order to reduce the increasing importance of Italian immigration , for that purpose 132,000 free travel tickets were distributed in Europe between 1888 and 1890, 45,000 out of them were given in France. In 1887, there were 20,031 Frenchmen living in Buenos Aires, 4.6% of the 433,421 inhabitants. During
2352-522: A tomato or bechamel based sauce. Other similarities are found in the presence of the bañacauda ( bagna càuda ). Pizza (locally pronounced pisa or pitsa ), for example, has been wholly subsumed and, in its Argentine form, more closely resembles Italian pizza al taglio but round instead of rectangular. Pizza is shared between two or more people, not the usual Italian personal pizza. Typical or exclusively Argentine pizzas include pizza canchera , pizza rellena (stuffed pizza), pizza por metro (pizza by
2499-465: A total of 147,499 people born in Italy, 65,021 were men and 82,478 were women. Out of the total number of men, 966 were between 0 and 14 years old, 20,226 between 15 and 64 years old and 43,829 were over 65 years old. Of the total number of women, 1,011 were between 0 and 14 years of age, 21,597 between 15 and 64 years of age and 59,870 were over 65 years of age. The following table shows the distribution in
2646-547: 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
2793-457: 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
2940-437: 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
3087-524: Is a relatively recent phenomenon, starting in the early 20th century with the main wave of Southern Italian immigration. Until then, the porteño accent was more similar to that of Spain, particularly Andalusia . Lunfardo is a slang born and developed in the city of Buenos Aires and its suburbs , which has spread to other nearby cities such as Rosario (in the Santa Fe Province ) and Montevideo , Uruguay. The word comes from Lombard ,
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#17327974823093234-472: 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
3381-489: 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
3528-652: 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
3675-449: Is generally cooked, served and eaten in the local way, called all'uso-nostro ("for our use" or "our way"), a phrase of Italian origin. For example, pasta is often eaten with white bread ("French bread"). That can be explained by the low cost of bread and the fact that Argentine pastas tend to come with a large amount of tuco sauce (Italian sugo ) and accompanied by estofado (Italian stufato ). Less commonly, pastas are eaten with
3822-563: 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
3969-404: 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
4116-469: 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
4263-828: 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
4410-509: Is still used for all people of Italian descent although it originally meant inhabitants of the former independent state the Kingdom of Naples . The assumption that emigration from cities was negligible has an important exception. Naples went from being the capital of its own kingdom in 1860 to being just another large city in Italy. The loss of bureaucratic jobs and the subsequently declining financial situation led to high unemployment. This caused
4557-639: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
French Argentines - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-553: 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
4851-483: 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
4998-492: 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
5145-424: 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
5292-457: Is very common throughout Argentina. Similar to polenta concia in Italy, it is eaten as a main dish, with sauce and melted cheese, or it may accompany a stew. Since a tonic property has been attributed to it, the expression tener polenta ("having polenta") is used colloquially as a synonym for having strength. At the beginning of the 20th century, both in Italy and in Argentina, the popular classes ate polenta accompanied by bird meat. Buseca ,
5439-764: 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
5586-791: The Argentine National Congress , the Metropolitan Cathedral , or the Central Bank building. In particular, landscape architect Carlos Thays , in his position as 1891 Director of Parks and Walkways, is largely responsible for planting thousands of trees, creating the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden and giving the city much of its parks and plazas that are sometimes compared to similar designs in Paris . Important contributions to
5733-609: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
5880-464: 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
6027-533: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
French Argentines - Misplaced Pages Continue
6174-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
6321-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
6468-530: The Italian diaspora , or Italian-born people in Argentina. Between the 1850s and the 1950s, 3.5 million Italians immigrated to Argentina. It was estimated that at least 25 million Argentines (62.5% of the country's population) have some degree of Italian ancestry. Argentina has the second-largest community of Italians outside of Italy , after Brazil. Contingents of Italian immigrants arrived in Argentina from all regions of Italy , mainly from Northern Italy in
6615-948: The Latin Church . A group of Italian-Albanians , belonging to the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church and worshipping according to the Byzantine Rite , are present in Luis Guillón , in the Esteban Echeverría Partido in the Buenos Aires Province . Most of the Italian immigrant community settled in the Buenos Aires Province , especially in the city of Buenos Aires , as well as in the provinces of Santa Fe , Entre Ríos , Córdoba , La Pampa , Tucumán , Santiago del Estero and Corrientes . For example, in Rosario, Santa Fe ,
6762-541: The Ligurian word for the Italian farinata . Pizzerias in Buenos Aires often offer fainá, which is eaten with pizza, a wedge of fainá on top of a wedge of pizza. Pastas (pasta, always in the plural) still surpass pizzas in consumption levels. Among them are tallarines ( fettuccine ), ravioles ( ravioli ), ñoquis ( gnocchi ), lasañas ( lasagna ), and canelones ( cannelloni ). In Argentina there are also Italian restaurants specializing in pasta. In Argentina, pasta
6909-653: The May Revolution , which started the Argentine War of Independence . In particular, Manuel Belgrano , Manuel Alberti and Juan José Castelli , all three of Italian descent, were part of the May Revolution and the Primera Junta . The Italian community had already grown to such an extent that in 1836 the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia sent an ambassador, Baron Picolet d'Hermilion. However,
7056-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
7203-631: 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
7350-452: The Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947 . In the late 1960s, the Italian economy experienced a period of growth and recovery , removing one of the primary incentives for emigration. As of 2016, 527,570 Italian citizens still lived in Argentina. In 2011, it was estimated that at least 25 million Argentines (62.5% of the country's population) have some degree of Italian ancestry. Argentina has
7497-775: The World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
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#17327974823097644-516: The pampa by means of the gauchos ; and a few came from Argentina's native population. Lunfardo words are inserted in the normal flow of Rioplatense Spanish sentences. Thus, a Spanish-speaking Mexican reading tango lyrics needs only the translation of a discrete set of words, not a grammar guide. Most tango lyrics use lunfardo sparsely, but some songs (such as El Ciruja , or most lyrics by Celedonio Flores) employ lunfardo heavily. Here are some examples: Between about 1880 and 1900, Argentina received
7791-497: The provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to
7938-418: The "miracle" of having reached a good place was attributed, giving the founded city its name in Spanish: Buenos Aires ( lit. "good airs"). The presence of Italians in the Río de la Plata Basin predates the birth of Argentina. Small groups of Italians began to emigrate to the present-day Argentine territory already in the second half of the 17th century. There were already Italians in Buenos Aires during
8085-427: 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
8232-428: The 1840s, immigrants with French background from neighboring countries, notably Uruguay , which expanded the French Argentine community. It is estimated that around 8 million Argentines had some degree of French ancestry, up to 17% of the total population. Argentines of French descent make up a substantial proportion of the Argentine population, but they are less visible than other similarly-sized ethnic group because of
8379-401: The 1869 census, a quarter of immigrants to the province of Mendoza were from France. In 1895, they made up 15% of immigrants of the province, right after Italians and Spaniards (26.1% and 17.3% respectively). Frenchmen were particularly numerous in the wine-producing departments of Maipú , Luján and in the French colony of San Rafael , founded by engineer Julio Gerónimo Balloffet. In 1904,
8526-408: The 1880s, the great majority of French immigrants to Argentina were from the Pyrenees . Basques started settling in Argentina in the 1830s, then they began heading towards Chile and the United States in the 1870s. Today it is estimated that up to 17% of Argentines have partial French ancestry. French Argentines formed a large portion of the elite of the country. In 1959 it was estimated that 7% of
8673-460: The 1920s. The year 1890, when it culminated (22% of immigrants), shows the decline of French immigration to Argentina, at the moment when the phenomenon of mass immigration to Argentina started. This is probably due to the financial crisis in 1890 and to an early demographic shift in France: population growth was slow between 1890 and 1913, limiting the need for emigration, contrary to neighboring European countries. Immigration to Argentina also showed
8820-413: The 1960s, around 4,000 Pieds-Noirs immigrated to Argentina from the newly independent Algeria, they constituted the last large migration from France to Argentina. French immigration represented 5% of the flow of immigrants to Argentina until the 1870s, reached its maximum (around 12% of immigrants) in the 1870s-1880s, decreased to 4% at the end of the 20th century, and only represented 1% of immigrants in
8967-455: 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;
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#17327974823099114-573: The 19th century and mostly from Southern Italy in the 20th century. Italian community in Argentina, along with Spanish immigrants, became a major part of modern Argentine society. Argentine culture has significant connections to Italian culture in terms of language, customs, and traditions. Argentina is also a strongly Italophilic country as cuisine, fashion and lifestyle has been sharply influenced by Italian immigration. Italian foods such as panettone (pan dulce), pasta , fainá , olive oil , pizza , vermouth and fernet have become part of
9261-415: The 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century made a lasting and significant impact on the intonation of Argentina's vernacular Spanish. Preliminary research has shown that Rioplatense Spanish , particularly the speech of the city of Buenos Aires, has intonation patterns that resemble those of Italian dialects (especially the ones whose substratum is the Neapolitan language ) and differ markedly from
9408-517: The 19th century, and mostly from Southern Italy in the 20th century. Most of the Italians who initially moved to Argentina were farmers from the north, originating from regions such as Piedmont , Liguria, Veneto , Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Lombardy . Due to the nascent industrialization of Northern Italy in the 20th century, immigration patterns shifted to rural Southern Italy, especially Campania , Calabria and Sicily . Immigrants from northern Italy settled mainly in rural areas, while those from
9555-418: The 20th century figures started to decrease as immigration from France declined and previously established immigrants merged within the population. It was estimated that 100,000 Frenchmen were living in Argentina in 1912, 67% of the 149,400 Frenchmen living in Latin America and the second largest community worldwide after the United States (125,000). In 1914, 79,491 Frenchmen were registered, accounting for 1% of
9702-474: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
9849-447: The 23 provinces and in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires: Compared to the experience of Italians in other parts of the world, such as in the United States, Italian Argentines did not suffer from anti-Catholic or racist sentiments. Catholic societies in Argentina welcomed new settlers of the same faith, who could help shape the country. Italian Argentines have integrated better into the general society than German Argentines also due to
9996-480: The Argentine cuisine, and Italian immigrants were one of the influences in the development of the Argentine wine industry . During the Spanish conquest of what would be present-day Argentine territory, an Italian Leonardo Gribeo , from the region of Sardinia , accompanied Pedro de Mendoza to the place where Buenos Aires would be founded. From Cagliari to Spain, to Río de la Plata , then to Buenos Aires, he brought an image of Saint Mary of Good Air , to which
10143-400: The Argentine population. Between 1895 and 1914, French immigrants are the only foreign group in Argentina whose numbers (both absolute and relative) shrank in the total population. The flow decreased dramatically during WWI. After 1918, French immigrants to Argentina numbered 1,500 per year and had a slightly positive net migration rate. The flow of French immigrants then gradually dried up. In
10290-510: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
10437-614: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
10584-648: The Castilian spoken in Argentina and some of these words are still used on a daily basis. French immigration in Tucuman - family surnames 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
10731-538: 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
10878-484: 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
11025-643: 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
11172-621: The Italian language never truly took hold in Argentina, partly because at the time of mass immigration, almost all Italians spoke their native regional languages rather than what is now standard Italian, precluding the expansion of the use of Italian as a primary language in Argentina. The similarity between Spanish and many of those languages also enabled the immigrants to acquire communicative competence in Spanish with relative ease, and thus to assimilate linguistically without much difficulty. By 1840, Italian-language newspapers were already published in Buenos Aires, increasing in 1900. The main one
11319-405: The Latin affinity. Despite this, there were extreme cases in which Italian Argentines suffered xenophobia , such as in the 1931 trial against anarchist Severino Di Giovanni . Di Giovanni's trial aroused some anti-Italian sentiments , motivated above all by the fear of attacks on the Argentine state by Italian anarchists. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,
11466-451: 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
11613-1038: The arts include the works of Eugène Py , considered the founding pioneer of Argentine cinema , as well as the development of new literary genres by writers like Paul Groussac or Julio Cortázar . In the field of science, two Argentine Nobel Prize laurates were of French descent, Bernardo Houssay , 1947 laurate in Medicine, and Luis Federico Leloir , 1970 laurate in Chemistry . Four former heads of state were born to French fathers: Supreme Directors Juan Martín de Pueyrredón and José Rondeau , as well as Presidents Carlos Pellegrini and Hipólito Yrigoyen , while several others had French ancestry, including Juan Perón , and de facto military Presidents Alejandro Lanusse , Carlos Lacoste , and Alfredo Saint-Jean . Former First Lady Eva Perón also had French background. In 1851, Captain Louis Tardy de Montravel wrote that
11760-435: The beginning of the 20th century, emigration from Italy was largely due to conditions of widespread poverty, high demographic pressure and heavy taxation, while Argentina was a country with a strong need for immigrants. The welcoming commitment, enshrined in the constitution of 1853, found its reasons in a de facto underpopulated country. The Argentine population, a country whose land area is nine times larger than that of Italy,
11907-449: The bourgeoisie of Spanish origin initially looked at the large number of Italians with an evil eye, fearing for the social ascent of the following generations, thus asking for the intervention of Argentine national culture. The main concern was aimed at anarchists and socialists, for whom repressive laws were passed in 1902 and 1910. Argentine culture, in its Italian component, is the result of influences from southern Italy rather than from
12054-584: The children of Italians. Italians abroad have elected deputies and senators in the Italian Parliament since 2006, when, after a constitutional reform, 12 seats in Chamber of Deputies and six seats in the Senate were assigned to the Italian diaspora . Argentina belongs to the constituency of South America, which corresponds to three deputies and two senators. Between the end of the 19th and
12201-595: The city of Buenos Aires , 10.9% in Santa Fe and 5.1% in Entre Ríos . In the Buenos Aires province , they mostly settled south of a line uniting the partidos of Tandil and Azul , their presence being particularly noticeable in the town of Pigüé . As of 2010, almost 15,000 French citizens are living in Argentina, the community may be higher though. In 1857, an immigrant from Béarn , Alejo Peyret , founded
12348-426: The city of Buenos Aires was stamped by French influence, French literature and language being there more widespread than anywhere else. According to him, this preference for France was not due to a capricious and brief craze, rather the result of a natural liking and a perfect similarity between French and Argentine characters, underlining the same lightness of being, the same quick-wittedness and liveliness, as well as
12495-406: The city of Buenos Aires where they represented the third largest foreign community and made up 7.5% of the population. In 1869, at the time of the first national census, 32,383 Frenchmen lived in the country, or about 1.7% of the total population. Immigration from France increased dramatically in the first half of the 1870s (with a peak in 1873) and in the second half of the 1890s (61,382 immigrants in
12642-467: The conflictual relationship between Rosas and the French government had created a xenophobic climate against French immigrants in the Buenos Aires province . After the fall of Rosas in 1852, Argentina overtook Uruguay and became the main pole of attraction for French immigrants in Latin America . From the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, Argentina received
12789-593: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Italian Argentine Italian Argentines ( Italian : italo-argentini ; Spanish : italoargentinos , or tanos in Rioplatense Spanish ) are Argentine -born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Argentina during
12936-426: The current Argentine constitution states that: The federal government will encourage European immigration; will not be able to restrict, limit or impose any tax on the entry into Argentine territory of foreigners whose purpose is to cultivate the land, improve industries, introduce and teach the sciences and the arts Italian immigrants arrived in Argentina from all regions of Italy , mainly from Northern Italy in
13083-519: 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
13230-454: The descendants of Italians are almost 65% of the total of the city. Italian immigration to Argentina was markedly urban, with the exception of the province of Santa Fe, where agricultural colonies predominated. In 1895, 181,361 of the 663,864 inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires were Italians. The main settlement was the La Boca district of Buenos Aires, where Italians represented 80% of
13377-405: The early 1900s, and by 1914, one in six immigrants were Sicilian. In the 1950s, more than 65% of Italian immigrants came from the south, with 30% from Calabria, 15% from Campania and 12% from Sicily. Of the remaining 35%, 21% came from central-southern regions, in particular Abruzzo and Molise (in this case 14%), while 13% came from the north, mainly from Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Of
13524-448: 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
13671-594: 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
13818-402: The end of the 19th century there were almost 4,600 Italian emigrants in a city of just 10,000 inhabitants. Immigrants from northern Italy settled in highly populated regions of the country such as the provinces of Santa Fe, Córdoba and Mendoza , where they found better job opportunities. The capital of Chaco Province , Resistencia , was the destination of many Italians after 1878. Patagonia
13965-571: The filling is made with caciotta cheese, flavoured with oregano . Most sources point to an Italian immigrant from Sorrento , Rosalía Persico or his son Cayetano Persico, who created this pasta while working in a famous trattoria of Mar del Plata , while other sources state that they originated in another restaurant in Mar del Plata called Sorrento . They look like big round ravioles stuffed with mozzarella , cottage cheese and basil in tomato sauce . Polenta comes from Northern Italy and
14112-483: The first farming colony in Entre Ríos , San José . In 1864, out of 380 families living in San José, 125 were from Savoy . The town of Pigüé , founded by 165 Occitan-speaking French immigrants from Rouergue in 1884, is considered a focal center of French culture in Argentina. It is estimated that 30% to 40% of Pigüé's modern inhabitants can trace their roots to Aveyron and they still speak Occitan. According to
14259-542: The first generation immigrants and slowly fell out of use. The pidgin has been depicted humorously in literary works and in the Argentine sainete theater, such as by Dario Vittori . Argentine cuisine has been strongly influenced by Italian cuisine ; the typical Argentine diet is a variation of the Mediterranean diet . Italian staple dishes like pizza and pasta are common. Pasta is extremely common, either simple unadorned pasta with butter or oil or accompanied by
14406-462: 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
14553-915: 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 ,
14700-442: The four corners of the world. However, they constitute the majority of the population in only two countries: Italy and Argentina." There are second and third generation Italian Argentines who hold dual citizenship, recognized by both countries. This is because Argentina uses the ius soli principle, which grants nationality to those born in the country, while Italy uses the ius sanguinis principle, which grants citizenship to
14847-829: 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
14994-492: The governor of Tucumán founded a town carrying his name, Villa Nougués , as a replica of Boutx in Haute-Garonne , a French village where his family traced their roots back to. In most cases, however, the French immigrants were not numerous enough to remain distinct from other Argentines. There was no religious barrier for the most part, with the vast majority being Catholics. The language barrier to learning Castilian
15141-768: The high degree of assimilation and the lack of substantial French colonies throughout the country. During the first half of the 19th century, most of French immigrants to the New World settled in the United States and in Uruguay . While the United States received 195,971 French immigrants between 1820 and 1855, only 13,922 Frenchmen, most of them from the Basque Country and Béarn , left for Uruguay between 1833 and 1842. During this period of time, Uruguay received most of French immigrants to South America as
15288-480: The immigrants who arrived between 1876 and 1915, 16.9% were from Piedmont, 13.2% from Calabria, 11.1% from Sicily, 10.4% from Lombardy, 8.2% from Marche , 7.5% from Campania, 7.2% from Veneto and 3.2% from Abruzzo and Molise, which then constituted a single region. Tuscany , Umbria, Lazio and Emilia-Romagna , in central Italy, were the regions that contributed the least to immigration to Argentina. In Argentine slang, tano (from Napulitano , " Neapolitan ")
15435-454: 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
15582-479: 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
15729-612: 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 ,
15876-464: The largest wave of French immigrants had settled in Argentina, they were 94,098, i.e. 2.3% of the total population (33,185 of them were living in the city of Buenos Aires where they represented the third largest foreign community and made up 4.9% of the population). Only the United States had a higher number of French expatriates, with over 100,000 Frenchmen having immigrated there. At the turn of
16023-479: 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
16170-456: The merchants and 70% of the employees. At the same time there were 13 Italian-language newspapers. In 1914, Buenos Aires had more than 300,000 inhabitants born in Italy, which represented 25% of the total population of the capital and 60% of the Italian immigration in all of Argentina. There, the Italian community was integrated into Buenos Aires society through institutions, schools, churches, newspapers and political groups. In La Plata at
16317-474: The meter), and pizza a la parrilla (grilled pizza). While Argentine pizza derives from Neapolitan cuisine , the Argentine fugaza / fugazza comes from the focaccia xeneise (from Genoa ), but its preparation is different from its Italian counterpart, and the addition of cheese to make the dish (fugaza con queso or fugazzeta) started in Argentina. Fainá is a type of thin bread made with chickpea flour (adopted from northern Italy). The name comes from
16464-420: 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
16611-463: The north. According to the anthropologist Stefania Pedrini of the University of Rome La Sapienza , this cultural influence is due to the fact that "at the end of the 19th century Argentina was a new nation, which did not have a defined identity, and in which the grandeur European immigration has influenced the construction of a national being, through a policy of very strong cultural syncretism." At
16758-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
16905-552: The patterns of other forms of Spanish. That correlates well with immigration patterns in Argentina, particularly Buenos Aires, which had huge numbers of Italian settlers since the 19th century. According to a study conducted by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina, and published in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition ( ISSN 1366–7289), the researchers note that this
17052-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
17199-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
17346-673: The same kindness to foreigners and the similar ability for international influence. Lunfardo is an argot of the Castilian language as spoken in Argentina which appeared in Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century. It encompasses a lot of words and expressions from languages spoken by immigrants, notably Italians, Spaniards and French. Lunfardo is heavily used in tango lyrics. After 1912, as tango became popular in Paris, French expressions were incorporated into tango lyrics and made their way into Lunfardo. It has now become an integral part of
17493-413: The same time there are Italian traditions still maintained in Argentina but forgotten or little remembered in Italy. Many of these Italians who brought their culture came from the lower middle classes. According to Ethnologue , Argentina has more than 1,500,000 Italian speakers, making it the third most spoken language in the nation (after Spanish and English). In spite of the large Italian immigration,
17640-550: The second half of the 20th century came from Southwestern France, especially from the Basque Country , Béarn ( Basses-Pyrénées accounted for more than 20% of immigrants), Bigorre and Rouergue . Other important groups came from Savoy and the Paris region. It was estimated that at least 70% of French immigrants in Tandil were coming from the Southwestern part of the country and that half of them were of Basque stock. Until
17787-559: The second largest group of French immigrants worldwide, second only to the United States . Between 1857 and 1946 Argentina received 239,503 French immigrants - out of which 105,537 permanently settled in the country. By 1976, 116,032 had settled in Argentina. French immigration to Argentina can be divided in three main periods, as follows: France was the third source of immigration to Argentina before 1890, constituting over 10% of immigrants, only surpassed by Italians and Spaniards ; from 1890 to 1914, immigration from France , although reduced,
17934-474: The second stage (from 1890 to 1914), French immigration was more similar to those of Germans and Britons, and was characterized by a reduced net migration rate, with the exception of the year 1912 when immigration raised as a result of propaganda led by the Argentine government in Southern France to fill in the gap caused by the prohibition of emigration from Italy to Argentina in 1911. In 1895, after
18081-423: The second-largest community of Italians outside of Italy , after Brazil. Jorge Luis Borges stated that "the Argentine is an Italian who speaks Spanish", while the Spanish philosopher Julián Marías stated that Argentina could be "the only Italian-Spanish republic on the planet". The Italian economist Marcello De Cecco said: "Italians, as we know, are a people of emigrants. For many centuries they have spread to
18228-523: The south preferred large cities. Of the 2,386,181 Italians who arrived in Argentina between 1876 and 1930, 47% (1,116,369) came from Southern Italy, 41% (988,235) from Northern Italy and 12% from Central Italy (281,577). The Italian regions from which most of the immigrants came were Piedmont (in the north) and Calabria (in the south). Calabrian immigrants have always arrived in large numbers and their migration has not changed much over time. Immigrants from Sicily began to arrive in large numbers from 1895 to
18375-503: The stream of Italian immigration to Argentina became a mass phenomenon only from 1880 to 1920, during the Great European immigration wave to Argentina . Over that time period, about two million Italians settled in Argentina, with one million coming from 1900 to 1914. A small number of Italo-Albanians also emigrated to Argentina from Southern Italy. In 1887, Italians accounted for 60.4% of all immigration to Argentina, then there
18522-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
18669-415: The total population. The Italian immigrants were primarily male, aged between 14 and 50 and more than 50% literate; in terms of occupations, 78.7% in the active population were agricultural workers or unskilled laborers, 10.7% artisans, and only 3.7% worked in commerce or as professionals. The outbreak of World War I and the rise of fascism in Italy caused a rapid fall in immigration to Argentina, with
18816-431: The travel expenses of immigrants and the expenses necessary to start the business in the allotted lots. According to the 1895 census, out of a total of 407,503 subsistence peasants, more than a quarter were of foreign nationality, and of these 62,975 were Italians, of which the largest community was from Calabria. The 2010 Argentine census recorded 147,499 people born in Italy. According to the 2010 Argentine census, out of
18963-754: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
19110-410: The upper-class of Buenos Aires was of French background, their ancestors having settled in the country between 1840 and 1880. While found throughout the country, they are most numerous in Buenos Aires , Santa Fe , Entre Ríos , Córdoba , Mendoza and Tucumán provinces. According to the national census of 1895, 37.3% of Frenchmen settled in Argentina lived in the province of Buenos Aires , 35.2% in
19257-508: 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
19404-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
19551-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
19698-402: 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
19845-503: The world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in
19992-443: The year 1825, reaching up to 1,500-2,000 French immigrants some years. In 1839, it was estimated that 4,000 Frenchmen were living in the province of Buenos Aires, this figure increased to 12,000 in 1842. From the next decade, French people started to migrate to Argentina in large numbers. During the first period (1852–1890), French immigration was similar, in numbers and in features, to that of Italians and Spaniards . It belonged to
20139-464: Was La Patria degli Italiani ("The homeland of the Italians"), which in turn was the third most important in Argentina, with a circulation of 14,000 copies. On 22 February 1917, the government of Hipólito Yrigoyen , with Decree n. 6925, made the teaching of the Italian language compulsory in the 4th and 5th grades of secondary school in national schools. Italian immigration from the second half of
20286-510: Was a decrease as the percentage of Spanish immigration increased. The effect of Italian immigration to Argentina was important for the constitution of Argentine society. In Argentina there are influences of Italian culture that are still evident in modern times. Outside of Italy, Argentina is the country with the highest percentage of Italians, and the one with the greatest examples of Italian culture. In 1914, Buenos Aires alone had more than 300,000 Italian-born inhabitants, representing 25% of
20433-529: Was a minor destination. However, the city of Ushuaia , capital of the Tierra del Fuego Province , received a substantial influx of Italians between 1948 and 1949. Subsidized immigration has never been relevant, although agricultural colonies have been established in central and northeastern Argentina. The first was in the Corrientes Province in 1853, establishing the way for companies to advance
20580-431: Was also low, especially for the native French and Occitan speakers, and they picked up Castilian quickly. French immigration has left a significant mark on Argentina, with a notable influence on the arts , culture , science and society of the country. In particular, many emblematic buildings in cities like Buenos Aires , Rosario , and Córdoba were built following French Beaux-Arts and neoclassical styles, such as
20727-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
20874-400: 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
21021-652: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
21168-607: Was only 1.1 million in 1850 ) and was eager to populate the large regions conquered in the recent War of the Triple Alliance and with the so-called Conquest of the Desert ( Patagonia ). Furthermore, a law passed by the Argentine government in 1876 offered the possibility of free land assignments or those payable in installments at very low prices, while in 1882 the government decided to grant 25 hectares of land free of charge to all families. In particular, article 25 of
21315-594: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
21462-445: Was still significant; lastly, after WWI, the flow of French immigrants was minimal and only grew again after WWII to finally stop in the 1950s. In 1810, Buenos Aires had a population of 28,528 inhabitants, including 13 French citizens. At the beginning of the 19th century, French immigration to Argentina was not substantial. Mainly constituted of political exiles and former officers from the imperial army, it became more considerable from
21609-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
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