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106-686: The National Basilica of the Sacred Heart ( French : Basilique nationale du Sacré-Cœur ; Dutch : Nationale Basiliek van het Heilig-Hart ) is a Catholic minor basilica and parish church in Brussels , Belgium. It is dedicated to the Sacred Heart , inspired by the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in Paris. Symbolically, King Leopold II laid the first stone in 1905 during the celebrations of

212-560: A 1/40 scale model of this final design won the great architectural prize at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. This model, produced with the greatest care, still stands today in the basilica. The adaptation and extension of the existing foundations were undertaken from January 1926, and the building of the apse began in August 1930. After Van Huffel's death on 16 March 1935,

318-744: 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

424-431: 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,

530-555: 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

636-421: A hundred metres or more, the highest of which would have culminated at 146 metres (479 ft) above the crossing . Leopold II laid the first stone on 12 October 1905 during the celebrations commemorating the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence. The foundation works started in 1909, but the project was delayed due to the king's death on 17 December 1909. Financing the basilica's construction also soon became

742-521: A large balcony intended for open-air masses, the parapet of which was carved with a bas-relief depicting Christ the Merciful . Its pillars are extended by statues of the four evangelists by the Belgian-Danish sculptor Harry Elstrøm  [ fr ] . From left to right, they depict Saint John and his eagle (1955), Saint Luke carrying the bull (1958), Saint Mark enlaced by

848-517: A letter of whole-hearted support to Mercier in 1916, and at one point told him, "You saved the Church!" Mercier was one of the cardinal electors in the 1922 papal conclave , which selected Pope Pius XI . In 1914, the German Army attempted a surprise invasion of France by invading neutral Belgium. Mercier had to leave his diocese on 20 August of that same year to attend the funeral of

954-454: A model of resistance. Mercier was born at the château du Castegier in Braine-l'Alleud , as the fifth of seven children of small business owners Paul-Léon Mercier and his wife, Anne-Marie Barbe Croquet. Three of Mercier's sisters became religious sisters. His brother Léon became a physician . One of Mercier's maternal uncles was Adrien Croquet. In the 1860s Croquet became a missionary to

1060-705: 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

1166-632: A pilgrimage church back home, a national sanctuary dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus . While he saw the opportunity to build his national Panthéon at the Namur Gate in Ixelles , Leopold II accepted that the land of Koekelberg be ceded by the Compagnie immobilière de Belgique to the Catholic Church with a view to building instead the national basilica there. The deed of donation of

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1272-484: A problem, so only the foundations had been finished when World War I broke out. In his pastoral letter for Christmas 1914, Cardinal Mercier gave the basilica a new meaning: As soon as Peace shines on our country, we will rebuild on our ruins, and we hope to put the crowning touch on this work of reconstruction by building, on the heights of the capital of free and catholic Belgium, the National Basilica of

1378-494: 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

1484-683: 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 ,

1590-547: 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

1696-457: 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

1802-437: 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

1908-472: 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

2014-489: 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

2120-652: 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

2226-563: 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

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2332-404: 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

2438-469: 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

2544-828: 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

2650-531: Is served by the tram stop Bossaert-Basilique / Bossaert-Basiliek (on line 9). In the mid-19th century, King Leopold I dreamed of turning the uninhabited Koekelberg hill in north-western Brussels into a royal residence area. After his death, his son, King Leopold II , envisaged building a Belgian Panthéon dedicated to Great Belgians there, inspired by the French Panthéon in Paris , to commemorate

2756-639: 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 ,

2862-553: 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

2968-483: 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

3074-492: 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

3180-424: 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

3286-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of

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3392-609: 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

3498-517: 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

3604-533: 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

3710-559: 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,

3816-775: The Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in western Oregon near the Pacific coast, where his surname was anglicized to Crockett. In the 1870s, a Mercier cousin, Joseph Mercier, joined their uncle Croquet in Oregon. He married a woman of one of the Native American tribes resident there. Today, several thousand descendants of Joseph and his wife are members of the tribe. Mercier studied at the College Saint‑Rombaut of Malines (1863-1868), and entered

3922-877: 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

4028-626: 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

4134-517: The University of Louvain . He returned to Malines in 1877 and taught philosophy at the minor seminary and soon after was named spiritual director of the seminarians. His comprehensive knowledge of Thomas Aquinas earned him the newly erected chair of Thomism at Louvain's Catholic university in 1882. It was in this post, which he retained until 1905, that he forged a lifelong friendship with Dom Columba Marmion , an Irish Thomist. Raised to

4240-713: The Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by

4346-775: 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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4452-446: The anesthetized cardinal held a conversation with his surgeon. In his final days, Mercier was visited by King Albert and Queen Elisabeth , Lord Halifax , and family members. He entered a deep coma around 2:00 p.m. on 23 January and died an hour later, at age 74. The cardinal was buried at St. Rumbolds Cathedral . He harbored great devotion to the Sacred Heart . Mercier is known for favouring French speakers and opposing

4558-512: The episcopate of Archbishop of Mechelen–Brussels , Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens , marked the completion of the basilica's construction. On 4 June 1995, Father Damien was beatified in the basilica by Pope John Paul II . The Koekelberg Basilica is one of the largest Art Deco buildings in the world, and was, at the time of its construction, the fifth largest church building in the world , at 89 metres (292 ft) high and 164.5 metres (540 ft) long (outside length). It remains today one of

4664-485: The minor seminary at Mechelen in 1868 to prepare for the church. He attended the Major Seminary, Mechelen , from 1870 to 1873. Mercier received the clerical tonsure in 1871, and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Giacomo Cattani , the nuncio to Belgium, on 4 April 1874. Mercier continued with graduate studies, obtaining his licentiate in theology (1877) and doctorate in philosophy from

4770-689: The provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to

4876-427: 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

4982-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

5088-773: 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

5194-406: The 3.32 ha (8.2 acres) of land was signed on 12 December and confirmed on 31 December through a royal decree . The initial project of the Leuven -based architect Pierre Langerock  [ fr ] was a sumptuous neo-Gothic basilica inspired by the "ideal cathedral" of the French architectural theorist Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . Langerock envisaged an edifice bristling with six towers of

5300-427: The 50th anniversary of Belgian independence . The king dropped this project due to the lack of enthusiasm of the Belgian population. It is nonetheless still attested today by the two large avenues—the Avenue des Gloires Nationales / Landsroemlaan and the Avenue du Panthéon / Pantheonlaan —that adjoin the site. In 1902, Leopold II visited the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur of Paris, and inspired by it, decided to build

5406-399: The 75th anniversary of Belgian independence . The construction was halted by the two world wars and finished only in 1970. Belonging to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mechelen–Brussels , it is the 14th largest church by area in the world and the largest in Belgium. Located at the head of Elisabeth Park atop the Koekelberg hill, between the municipalities of Koekelberg and Ganshoren ,

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5512-510: 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

5618-614: 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,

5724-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of

5830-618: The Flemish Movement was generating. He managed to have Pope Benedict XV address him a letter in which he admonished priests that they should not address arguments extraneous to their supernatural commitment nor publish on secular subjects without their superior's permission. Mercier promptly published this letter. Mercier recognized the mathematical talent of Georges Lemaître as a young seminarian, and urged him to study Einstein 's theories of relativity . Lemaître became an early expert in general relativity as it applied to cosmological questions. He went on to propose an expanding model of

5936-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained

6042-410: 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

6148-461: The International Leonardo da Vinci Expo), a restaurant, a Catholic radio station, a theatre and two museums. The building's exterior combines reinforced concrete with terracotta layering, Dutch belvédère bricks, and white dimension stone from Burgundy . The green roofs and domes are clad in Congolese copper . The main entrance is flanked by two slender towers, 65 metres (213 ft) high, topped with reduced domes. The narthex - portal has

6254-458: The Irish Franciscan College ( St Anthony's College, Leuven ), with his friend since their seminary days in Louvain, Mons. James J. Ryan . Mercier Press in Ireland is named in his honour. Following World War I, Mercier undertook an excursion to raise funds to rebuild and stock a new library of the University of Leuven . The original library had been burned by the Germans in the war. In his travels to raise funds, Mercier visited New York City for

6360-402: 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

6466-400: The Sacred Heart. On 29 June 1919, King Albert I and a large crowd associated themselves with this promise in a ceremony on the Koekelberg hill. However, it was impossible to resume Langerock's plan due to the state of public finances. A new project, in Art Deco style of neo-Byzantine inspiration, by the Ghent architect Albert Van Huffel  [ fr ] , was thus adopted. In 1925,

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6572-407: The church is popularly known as the Koekelberg Basilica (French: Basilique de Koekelberg ; Dutch: Basiliek van Koekelberg ). The massive brick and reinforced concrete structure, in Art Deco style of neo-Byzantine inspiration, features two thinner towers and a nearly as high green copper dome that rises 89 metres (292 ft) above ground, dominating Brussels' north-western skyline. It

6678-412: The construction was taken over by his assistant, the architect-engineer Paul Rome. Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey consecrated the unfinished basilica and opened it for worship on 14 October 1935, after obtaining a special authorisation from Pope Pius XI . The base of the cupola was finished in 1940 when World War II brought a new halt to the works. Building resumed in September 1944 and the main nave

6784-435: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Cardinal Mercier Mercier is noted for his staunch resistance to the German occupation of Belgium during World War I . After the invasion, he distributed a strong pastoral letter, Patriotism and Endurance , to be read in all his churches, urging the people to keep up their spirits. He served as

6890-404: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French

6996-448: 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

7102-489: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as

7208-406: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of

7314-439: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,

7420-715: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being

7526-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French

7632-479: 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

7738-612: 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 ,

7844-505: The largest basilicas and can accommodate 3,500 people. The central nave is 141 metres (463 ft) long, and at its widest, the building is 107 metres (351 ft). The cupola rises 89 metres (292 ft) above ground and has a diameter of 33 metres (108 ft). This enormous building houses Catholic Church celebrations in the two main Belgian national languages (Dutch and French), as well as conferences, exhibitions (as in 2007–08,

7950-479: 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

8056-516: The late Pius X, and participate in the following conclave to elect a new pope. Returning from the conclave Mercier passed through the Port of Le Havre , where he visited wounded Belgian, French and British troops. Once back in his archdiocese, he found Mechelen Cathedral to have been partially destroyed. In the Imperial German atrocities that ensued in the Rape of Belgium , thirteen of

8162-572: The lion (1958), and Saint Matthew with man (1964). The basilica's interior possesses a rich architectural heritage and holds an exceptional collection of works of art, including Tête du Christ bronze sculpture by Constant Permeke , thirty-one engravings by Joan Miró about the Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis of Assisi , a painting by Antoni Tàpies , a photographic work by San Damon  [ fr ] called When Jesus Became Christ on

8268-518: The liturgical furniture and the cross in the choir are the work of the sculptor Jacques Dieudonné  [ fr ] . The basilica also contains two organs : a large 1959 modern choir organ and a 1965 classical choir organ in the crypt . The basilica, on the Koekelberg hill, is a landmark on the Brussels skyline. The cupola 's platform offers an excellent panoramic view of Brussels and

8374-485: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by

8480-670: The only time. In 1919, he addressed the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Detroit, expressing gratitude for American relief efforts . Among other projects, Mercier also unsuccessfully attempted to have the League of Nations mandate of Palestine awarded to Belgium. Mercier suffered from persistent dyspepsia . In early January 1926 he underwent surgery for a lesion of the stomach . During surgery,

8586-534: 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

8692-471: 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

8798-565: The priests in Mercier's diocese were killed, not to mention many civilians, by Christmas 1914. With his pastoral letter, Patriotism and Endurance , of Christmas 1914, Mercier came to personify Belgian resistance to the German occupation . The pastoral letter had to be distributed by hand as the Germans had cut off the postal service. Mercier's passionate, unflinching words were taken to heart by

8904-654: The rank of monsignor on 6 May 1887, Mercier founded the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the Louvain University in 1899, which was to be a beacon of neo-Thomist philosophy . He founded in 1894 and edited until 1906 the Revue Néoscholastique , and wrote in a scholastic manner on metaphysics , philosophy, and psychology. Several of his works were translated into English, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish. His most important book

9010-471: 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

9116-482: The suffering Belgians. He sometimes became a focus of Allied propaganda during the war. He was kept under house arrest by the Germans, and many priests who had read the letter aloud in public were arrested. In Ireland, Cardinal Mercier's detention and indeed the German occupation was used to help recruitment for the British Army among Irish Catholics. Following the war, Mercier helped with the re-establishment of

9222-498: The theme of the crucifixion , seven original lithographs by Alfred Manessier on the theme of Easter and the Mount of Olives , works by James Ensor , a painting by Geneviève Asse on the biblical theme, as well as paintings by Albert Servaes . The painter Anto Carte designed the eight stained glass windows representing the life of Jesus, and the artist Ri Coëme  [ nl ] an additional twenty-eight. The altar ,

9328-466: 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

9434-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French

9540-508: 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

9646-485: 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

9752-527: The use of the Dutch language . Though in general social-minded, he was blind to the social aspects of the Flemish Movement and opposed many of its aims. Two examples. (1) Claiming that Dutch could never be a full-fledged cultural language, he fought all attempts to have Flemish high school and university students educated in their native Dutch. He relented only when overwhelmed by the political pressure

9858-506: The wider region of Flemish Brabant . Visitors can reach the platform either by stairs or by two lifts commissioned in the spring of 2012, in the form of a cage and two fully glazed cabins. 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

9964-536: 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

10070-402: 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

10176-503: 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

10282-403: Was Les origines de la psychologie contemporaine (1897). His reputation within his field gained the recognition of Pope Pius X , and Mercier was appointed as Archbishop of Mechelen and Primate of Belgium on 7 February 1906. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 25 March from Archbishop Antonio Vico , and took as his episcopal motto : Apostolus Jesu Christi . Mercier

10388-469: Was a brilliant scholar, open to contemporary ideas and sufficiently respected for being able to protect scholars at Louvain, such as Bollandist Hippolyte Delehaye , from accusations of "modernism". Through his influence, Mercier prevented Albin van Hoonacker 's Les douze petits prophètes traduits et commentés ["The twelve minor prophets translated and annotated"] from being placed on the Index . Mercier

10494-557: Was a close friend of Benedictine Lambert Beauduin and kept apprised of liturgical and ecumenical developments. From 1921 to 1926 he held the regular Malines Conversations with Anglican theologians , notably Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax , foreshadowing the Catholic Church's future dialogue with the Anglicans . Anglicanism, Mercier believed, must be "united, not absorbed". Pope Benedict XV sent his portrait and

10600-422: Was completed in 1951. The basilica was consecrated by Cardinal Van Roey on 13 and 14 October 1951, and Pope Pius XII assigned it the title of minor basilica on 28 January 1952. In 1953, the two towers were completed. The south transept opened in 1958 and the north transept in 1962. The cupola and thus the external structure was finished in 1969, and on 11 November 1970, the ceremony for the 25th anniversary of

10706-459: Was created cardinal priest by Pope Pius X in the consistory of 15 April 1907. Three days later Pope Pius gave him his cardinal's ring and assigned him the titular church of S. Pietro in Vincoli . During the modernist controversy, Mercier was both progressive and antimodernist. He sought to assess the compatibility of Thomistic philosophy with rapidly developing scientific knowledge. He

10812-819: 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

10918-400: 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

11024-708: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates

11130-594: 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

11236-570: 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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