122-628: Isle La Motte ( French : Île La Motte ) is an island in Lake Champlain in northwestern Vermont , United States. At 7 mi (11 km) by 2 mi (3 km), it lies close to the place that the lake empties into the Richelieu River . It is incorporated as a New England town in Grand Isle County . Its population was 488 at the 2020 census . The island is named after a French soldier, Pierre La Motte , who built
244-572: 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 the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and
366-650: A Carboniferous stromatoporoid. Fossils of the Ordovician labechiid Lophiostroma have been reported from sediments as young as the Triassic , but this is another case of poor preservation and uncertain identity. Finally, the calcitic sponge Kyklopora , from the Serpukhovian stage (upper Mississippian ) of Russia, has tentatively been identified as a clathrodictyid. Labechiid-like fossils are abundant in early Pennsylvanian ( Bashkirian ) reef deposits of
488-439: A mutualistic (mutually beneficial) relationship with endosymbiotic microbes. Modern scleractinian corals are mixotrophs , deriving energy from both tiny prey items and zooxanthellae , photosynthetic algae which live within their cells. Zooxanthellae additionally assist the corals’ biochemical processes, allowing for expeditious growth rates. No equivalent organisms are known in modern sponges, though some demosponges do host
610-744: 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
732-431: 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,
854-524: A few detractors. Up until the 1990s, some Soviet and Eastern Bloc specialists continued to regard stromatoporoids as cnidarians or cyanobacterial accumulations akin to stromatolites or thrombolites . The first unambiguous stromatoporoids appeared in the Ordovician, but superficially similar organisms have been reported from the Early Cambrian . These are most likely cases of convergent evolution rather than true forerunners. One example were
976-411: A few species making up the majority of an assemblage by volume. The most diverse stromatoporoid assemblages were biostromes on carbonate platforms at intermediate depths, away from muddier basins or saltier shallows. The predominant species were usually laminar or low domical in form. High domical species and other complex forms only developed in calmer settings, where there is little risk of toppling. In
1098-555: 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
1220-487: A high volume of cyanobacteria within their skeletons. Several lines of evidence suggest a mixotrophic lifestyle for stromatoporoids, though none are unambiguous. Their ratios of oxygen and carbon isotopes overlap with corals to an extent. If one assumes that latilaminae (growth interruptions parallel to laminae) are annual (like tree rings), stromatoporoid growth rates can reach 2 to 10 mm per year, equivalent to corals and much higher than modern calcareous sponges. On
1342-705: A military outpost on the island in 1666. The island's population significantly increases in the summer months. The island is the site of Fort Sainte Anne , Saint Anne's Shrine , the Methodist Episcopal Church of Isle La Motte , the Fisk Quarry and Goodsell Ridge Preserves, the Isle La Motte Elementary School, and the Isle La Motte Lighthouse . On July 9, 1609, Samuel de Champlain debarked on
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#17327828394311464-652: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
1586-494: 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
1708-683: 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 ,
1830-642: A stable environment, stromatoporoids could grow to very large sizes exceeding several meters in width or height. The largest singular stromatoporoid fossil ever reported is a 30-meter (98 feet) wide Actinostroma expansum from the Frasnian-age Shell Rock Formation of Iowa . Despite their preference for soft flat sediment, stromatoporoids occasionally contributed to built-up skeletal mounds ( bioherms ) with successive waves of burial and recolonization or regrowth. Shelf -margin stromatoporoid bioherms are particularly well-developed in
1952-752: A taller, narrower form to survive high sedimentation rates, while acquiring a flatter and more stable form to survive in energetic shallow waters. Some stromatoporoids appear to grow intermittently in a ‘ragged’ style even without sediment burial, as indicated by an abundance of encrusters under the overhanging 'shelves'. Stromatoporoid growth forms include: From Stearn et al. (1999) and The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology : Like many fossil invertebrates, stromatoporoids have long been regarded as an enigmatic group with an uncertain relationship to modern taxa. For much of their history of study, stromatoporoid fossils could only be observed externally or through natural cross-sections. Several hypotheses developed in
2074-418: A thinly encrusting layered skeleton, augmented by internal rods, external knobs, and radiating nutrient canals. These features were equated with pillars, mamelons, and astrorhizae, respectively. In 1970, several living sponges were found to possess a calcareous skeletal framework very similar to Hydractinia and stromatoporoids. The modern sponges, collectively termed sclerosponges , immediately reinvigorated
2196-547: 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
2318-578: A variety of depths, light levels, and fluctuating sea level regimes. In these regards, they were more similar to corals than to modern calcareous sponges, which generally occupy a narrow selection of rocky habitats with high nutrient supply and low light levels. Unlike corals, stromatoporoids usually settled on soft substrates, so their ‘reefs’ occupied only a single level rather than a multi-tiered vertical framework of built-up skeletons. Flat, horizontally-extensive ‘reefs’ are formally known as biostromes . Stromatoporoid reefs had fairly low diversity, with only
2440-457: 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
2562-531: A ‘ missing link ’ between the ancestral labechiids and their presumed descendants, the actinostromatids. Labechiid diversity contracted during the Late Ordovician mass extinction and throughout the Silurian, while clathrodictyids and actinostromatids diversified substantially. The other four stromatoporoid orders (Amphiporida, Stromatoporellida, Stromatoporida, and Syringostromatida) also originated in
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#17327828394312684-437: 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
2806-472: 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
2928-489: 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
3050-652: 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
3172-563: 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
3294-404: 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
3416-566: Is now Vermont. Fort Saint Anne was the one most vulnerable to attack. The fort was garrisoned by about 300 French soldiers over the next four years, and the troops were then pulled back to Québec after they had destroyed the fort. In 1746, a party of Mohawks under Hendrick Theyanoguin , returning from a conference with the Governor of New France in Montreal, attacked a group of Frenchmen at Isle La Motte before returning to Albany. The incident
3538-469: 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
3660-828: 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
3782-639: 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 ,
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3904-553: 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
4026-483: 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
4148-492: 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
4270-424: 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
4392-622: Is usually the most important region for the purpose of species differentiation. In all species, the most conspicuous internal features are laminae , layers arranged transversely (parallel to the living surface of the sponge). Laminae have an intermediate width and spacing (on average around four per millimeter) relative to other layers with the same orientation. Significantly thinner layers, when present, are termed microlaminae , while thickened irregular plates are termed pachystromes . Another universal type of internal structure are pillars , cylindrical rods oriented longitudinally (i.e., perpendicular to
4514-546: The Akiyoshi Limestone Group in Japan, representing a Panthalassan seamount . Over 60 valid genera of small hypermineralized Mesozoic sponges have been described as stromatoporoids based on their anatomical similarity to stromatoporids, actinostromatids, clathrodictyids, or syringostromatids. One hypothesis suggests a direct line of descent between Paleozoic and Mesozoic forms. Under this interpretation,
4636-764: 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
4758-609: 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
4880-784: The Chazy Group of eastern North America and the Machiakou Formation of North China . Labechiids were by far the most diverse stromatoporoids of the Ordovician, and some paleontologists have even ventured to reconstruct lines of descent in this preliminary stage of stromatoporoid evolution. The next order to appear were the Clathrodictyida, in the early Katian stage of the Late Ordovician. It has been suggested that clathrodictyids are descended from labechiids, as part of an evolutionary lineage starting at
5002-609: 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
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5124-517: 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
5246-533: 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
5368-559: 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,
5490-399: 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 the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as
5612-877: 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
5734-500: The Kazachstanicyathida , an order of archaeocyath sponges with low growth habits and porous internal domes comparable to cyst plates. In addition, some colonial coralomorphs or algae ( Maldeotaina , Yaworipora , and the ‘ khasaktiids ’) acquired mesh-like encrusting skeletons with a set of internal rods and domes similar to those of early stromatoporoids. A more probable set of stromatoporoid ancestors evolved in
5856-666: The Kellwasser event (Late Devonian mass extinction). Diversity loss prior to the Kellwasser event was likely a factor of both falling origination rates and slightly elevated extinction rates. Other groups presented unexpected patterns: the formerly rare amphiporids reached their highest diversity in the Frasnian, while labechiids staged a remarkable comeback in the Famennian stage, acquiring levels of diversity not seen since
5978-848: The National Gallery of Art . Structures made of the stone still visible on the island are the Isle La Motte Public Library, the Isle La Motte Methodist Church, Isle La Motte Historical Society (formerly the South Stone School House), ruins of the Fisk House at Fisk Farm, and the original Fisk House (once owned by Lieutenant Governor Nelson Fisk). The town has a total area of 16.7 square miles (43.2 km), of which 7.9 square miles (20.4 km) are land (the area of
6100-626: 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
6222-775: 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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#17327828394316344-418: The depositional environment of sedimentary strata. They hosted a diverse fauna of encrusting symbionts both within and outside their skeletons. Some studies have argued that stromatoporoids were mixotrophs (engaged in a mutualistic relationship with photosynthetic algae), similar to modern scleractinian corals. Though this hypothesis is plausible, circumstantial evidence is inconclusive. Prior to
6466-440: The substrate . Most were ambitopic (occupying soft substrate such as mud or sand for most of their life), though some were encrusting (concreted onto hard substrates such as rocks or other organisms). The base was stabilized by a crust-like layer covered with concentric wrinkles. The basal layer has historically been termed an epitheca or peritheca, names used for a similar attachment layer in sessile cnidarians. In many species,
6588-419: The 1970s, stromatoporoids were most frequently equated with colonial hydrozoans in the phylum Cnidaria (which also includes corals, sea anemones , and jellyfish ). They are now classified as sponges in the phylum Porifera, based on their similarity to modern sclerosponges . True Paleozoic stromatoporoids ( sensu stricto ) encompass seven orders . Two or three of these orders appeared in the Ordovician while
6710-506: 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;
6832-422: The 19th and 20th centuries based on this limited set of data. A few authors suggested that stromatoporoids were sponges or relatives of Gypsina (an encrusting foraminifera ). However, for much of their history the mainstream interpretation was that stromotoporoids were colonial cnidarians , most closely related to mineralized hydrozoans such as Hydractinia and Millepora . Hydractinia in particular has
6954-474: 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
7076-510: 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
7198-614: 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,
7320-424: The Devonian extinctions merely prompted stromatoporoids to abandon mineralization until the Jurassic, explaining their lack of fossils between the two time intervals. Most paleontologists disagree with this idea, since Paleozoic and Mesozoic ‘stromatoporoids’ differ in several key aspects. In contrast to true Paleozoic stromatoporoids, Mesozoic species have recognizable spicules and a more complex microstructure within
7442-433: The Devonian. Notable examples can be found in the Canning Basin of Australia , the Miette Complex of Alberta , the Eifel Region of Germany , and southern Belgium . Raised bioherms would have been strengthened by microbial carbonate and other reef-building organisms living between the sponges. As hard sessile objects, stromatoporoids were used as a substrate for ectosymbionts , organisms which attach or encrust onto
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#17327828394317564-408: 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
7686-416: 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
7808-410: 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
7930-441: 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 the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to
8052-402: 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
8174-543: The Ordovician. This would not last, as stromatoporoids appear to have been completely extinguished during the Hangenberg event (end-Devonian mass extinction) at the end of the Famennian. Putative post-Devonian stromatoporoid fossils have been reported, though their referral to the group is rather ambiguous. A supposed labechiid species ( Labechia carbonaria ) is known from the Viséan stage of England . Some sources consider this species to be based on misinterpreted coral fragments, while others certify its legitimacy as
8296-513: The Ordovician. These forerunners or close relatives are grouped in the incertae sedis sponge order Pulchrilaminida . Pulchrilaminids existed from the late Tremadocian stage (near the end of the Early Ordovician) up to the early Darriwilian stage (about mid-way through the Middle Ordovician). They were low-profile hypercalcified sponges which were similar to stromatoporoids in many respects, with one key difference: pulchrilaminids had spine-like projections (probably homologous with spicules) between
8418-416: The Paleozoic radiation, thus making 'stromatoporoids' (in the broad sense) a polyphyletic group if they are included. Some Carboniferous sponges have been identified as stromatoporoids with a somewhat greater degree of confidence. Stromatoporoids are robust sponges with a dense calcite skeleton lacking spicules . Like other sponges, they grow outwards and upwards from a single base attached firmly to
8540-429: The Siberian species Priscastroma gemini . Though less diverse than their labechiid relatives, Ordovician clathrodictyids were widespread and locally abundant in some areas. The third stromatoporoid order, Actinostromatida, may have originated in the Late Ordovician or the Llandovery Epoch (early Silurian). The precise timing depends on the status of Plumatalinia , a Late Ordovician Estonian genus often considered
8662-481: The Silurian, though they remained fairly subdued compared to the three older groups. Silurian stromatoporoids would face a second round of extinction in the late Silurian ( Pridoli Epoch ), which reduced the number of genera back to Middle Ordovician levels. Stromatoporoids recovered strongly in the Early and Middle Devonian, reaching their overall maximum diversity in the Eifelian stage. Clathrodictyids, stromatoporellids, stromatoporids, and syringostromatids benefited
8784-464: The abandoned quarries. Black limestone from the Chazy Formation was quarried on the island. The oldest quarry behind Fisk Farm started as early as 1832. The limestone is composed of calcite and fossils of marine creatures. It is so dark in appearance that it was marketed in the 18th and 19th century as "black marble" and was used for the construction of the U.S. Capitol building and
8906-641: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Stromatoporoidea Stromatoporoidea is an extinct clade of sea sponges common in the fossil record from the Middle Ordovician to the Late Devonian . They can be characterized by their densely layered calcite skeletons lacking spicules . Stromatoporoids were among
9028-403: The cryptic niche. The rim of the hidden areas hosted the greatest diversity of encrusters, most of which were filter feeders reliant on a current to feed. More exposed areas were also encrusted by corals (both tabulate and rugose ), crinoids, bryozoans, and tentaculitids . Like many modern or prehistoric reef-builders, stromatoporoids were host to endosymbionts , organisms living fully within
9150-519: 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
9272-448: 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
9394-433: The edge of the skeleton, the buried portion ceases growing while the exposed central portion expands outwards to cover the sediment once more. This can create a ‘ragged’ appearance for some fossils, akin to an inverted stack of bowls or plates with sharp lower edges and smoothly curved upper edges. This is one example of how stromatoporoid growth forms can vary somewhat through the animal's lifespan. A single species can acquire
9516-594: 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
9638-652: The equator. The stromatoporoid patch reef, one of the oldest known metazoan reefs, originally stretched a thousand miles from what is now Quebec to Tennessee , but only a few remnants remain today. The island's fossil reefs are part of the Chazy Fossil Reef , a National Natural Landmark dedicated in 2009. Reef builders during this period in earth history were principally bryozoa , stromatolites , stromatoporoids, sponges , and algae. Other marine life included cephalopods , gastropods , crinoids , and trilobites . Today fossil gastropods (snails) can be seen at
9760-427: The farthest south Fort Sainte Anne on Isle La Motte were added. The fort included Saint Anne's Shrine . Both the fort and chapel were dedicated to Saint Anne . In 1668, the bishop of Quebec, François de Laval , came to Isle La Motte to baptise a number of Iroquois to Christianity. Even after the abandonment of the fort, the shrine continued to give mass to worshipers. The fort was the first European settlement in what
9882-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
10004-915: 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 ,
10126-829: 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
10248-461: The hypothesis that stromatoporoids were sponges. Moreover, closer investigations of stromatoporoid fossils were able to determine that an individual mound represents a single animal, rather than a colonial congregation of polyps . Among the strongest evidence for sponge affinities was the degree of similarity between astrorhizae and exhalant canals, which were easier to homologize than the more integrated canal system of Hydractinia . Proponents of
10370-637: The island) and 8.8 square miles (22.7 km), or 52.68% of the town, are water. Data for the town from the 2010 census : 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 the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance ,
10492-698: The island. In 1665, the French began building a series of forts along the Richelieu River to protect New France from the Iroquois . From north to south these were Fort Richelieu , Fort Chambly , and Fort Sainte Thérèse . Four companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment were sent from Quebec City to extend these forts further south, under Captain Pierre La Motte . They built a trail connecting Fort Sainte Thérèse and Fort Saint-Louis (Chambly) . In 1666, Fort Saint-Jean and
10614-531: The laminae and pillars which make up the skeleton. Mesozoic ‘stromatoporoids’ are a polyphyletic group, with different species referable to the Demospongiae ( demosponges ) and Calcarea ( calcareous sponges ). Sponges in this category are understudied and many proposed genera have proven to be dubious . Like modern corals, stromatoporoids were gregarious filter feeders which congregated into closely packed patches. They were adaptable and could thrive at
10736-651: The laminae of the skeleton. The first stromatoporoids to evolve belonged to the order Labechiida, which rapidly acquired worldwide diversity in the Middle Ordovician. The oldest reported labechiid species is from the Floian stage (the latter part of the Early Ordovician), but abrupt diversification was delayed until the mid-to-late Darriwilian stage, simultaneous with the disappearance of pulchrilaminids. The oldest stromatoporoid ‘reefs’ are known from
10858-522: The laminae). Laminae and pillars are often straight and internally solid, but they can exhibit distinctive textures and distortions in some subgroups. The cubical open spaces among the laminae and pillar meshwork are known as galleries . In life the galleries would have been filled with seawater, while in fossils the spaces are filled by recrystallized calcite. The galleries may be supplemented by very fine curved plates, termed dissepiments . Some species have more complex skeletons with broader pockets beyond
10980-454: 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
11102-479: 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
11224-612: 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 ,
11346-479: 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
11468-434: The mamelons help to channel waste water away from the surface. This mechanism works via Bernoulli's principle , which states that flow pressure increases as speed decreases, such as when the flow is redirected by a vertical barrier. The surface may also be covered with even smaller bumps known as papillae . In contrast to mamelons, papillae are simply external extensions of internal pillars, rather than stacked deflections of
11590-938: The most abundant and important reef-builders of their time, living close together in flat biostromes or elevated bioherms on soft tropical carbonate platforms . Externally, some species have raised bumps (mamelons) and star-shaped crevices (astrorhizae), which together help vent exhalant water away from the living surface. Internally, stromatoporoids have a mesh-like skeletal system combining extensive horizontal layers (laminae), vertical rods (pillars), and boxy spaces (galleries), along with other features. The most common growth forms range from laminar (flattened) to domical (dome-shaped). Spheroidal, finger-like, or tree-like species also occur, though they are rare in most environments. Stromatoporoids competed and coexisted with other reef-builders such as tabulate and rugose corals . Some stromatoporoid species are useful as environmental proxies, since their form and distribution can help approximate
11712-546: The most from this renewal of biodiversity. The arrival of the Late Devonian disrupted this apex of stromatoporoid evolution. Syringostromatids were the first to be affected, virtually disappearing from the fossil record at the start of the Frasnian stage. Actinostromatids, stromatoporellids, and stromatoporids were next in line, with their diversity and reef extent collapsing at the end of the Frasnian in accordance with
11834-411: The narrow galleries. Pachysteles are longitudinal walls which demarcate maze-like corridors, as visible in a transverse cross-section through the skeleton. Stacked dome-shaped pockets, known as cysts, are defined by large convex plates, known as cyst plates . Stromatoporoids can show a variety of growth forms, with low domes or plates as the most common varieties. Whenever an influx of sediment buries
11956-420: 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
12078-534: 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
12200-497: The outer surface of the skeleton. Most encrusting organisms were cryptobionts , meaning that they inhabited shaded spaces and cavities. These hidden areas could be found in gaps between the base of the stromatoporoid and its substrate, or on the underside of shelf-like projections. Displaced or toppled sponges had the potential to host cryptic encrusters on any part of the skeleton. Bryozoans , tabulate corals , crinoids , brachiopods , and clusters of coiled ‘ spirorbids ’ all occupied
12322-471: 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
12444-532: The rest evolved in the Silurian. They rediversified subsequent to mass extinctions at the end of the Ordovician and Silurian, but a more profound decline began in the Late Devonian. With a few putative exceptions, they apparently died out during the Hangenberg event at the end of the Devonian. A number of hypercalcified Mesozoic sponges have been classified as stromatoporoids, but they are likely unrelated to
12566-471: 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
12688-409: The skeleton's outer surface. By comparison to modern sponges with a similar anatomy, living tissue was likely only present at the outer surface of the stromatoporoid skeleton. By volume, the majority of the organism was a dead mesh of internal cavities and support structures. Since most stromatoporoid fossils are only visible in vertical or horizontal cross-section, the internal form of the skeleton
12810-456: The skeleton. The most abundant were syringoporids , a type of tube-building tabulate coral. Stromatoporoid fossils with syringoporid burrows are so common that some historical sources have misclassified them as a distinct genus, Caunopora . Syringoporids were able to grow at the same rate as their host in order to prevent being overgrown. Other tabulate corals, rugosan corals, and algal fossils have been found wedged between growth zones within
12932-413: The sponge hypothesis admitted that sclerosponges and stromatoporoids were not identical in structure; for example, sclerosponges have spicules while true Paleozoic stromatoporoids do not. Several other enigmatic calcareous fossils ( archaeocyathids , disjectoporids , ‘ chaetetids ’) have been reclassified as sponges thanks to this new information. The sponge hypothesis quickly met widespread acceptance, with
13054-553: The stromatoporoid skeleton. Worm borings such as Trypanites are also common endosymbionts, though they apparently only took root in the skeleton after the sponge had died. A persistent question for stromatoporoid ecology is how they were able to compete with corals in shallow, brightly lit areas. One hypothesis is that heavy laminar growth forms were more resistant to damage from waves and storms, yet laminar stromatoporoids were equally common in deep or undisturbed waters. Another hypothesis argues that stromatoporoids benefited from
13176-466: 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
13298-679: 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
13420-399: The upper surface of the skeleton is ornamented with small mounds known as mamelons . A few species may supplement the mamelons with radiating cracks or grooves known as astrorhizae . Internally, the astrorhizae diverge as independent tapering tubes that intersect smaller open spaces within the skeletal frame. Astrorhizae are generally equated with the exhalant canals of other sponges, while
13542-508: 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
13664-485: 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
13786-536: 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
13908-402: 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
14030-819: 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
14152-505: Was followed by Mohawk raids along the St. Lawrence River in 1747. In the mid-1800s, orchards, vineyards, and dairy farms flourished on the island, which was then connected to the mainland by ferry during the warmer months and by foot or wagon over the ice in winter. In November 1802, Isle La Motte was renamed to "Vineyard," but the original name was restored in November 1830. In 1878, the town
14274-494: Was formed 480 million years ago as a reef during the Ordovician Period in a shallow tropical sea, near where Morocco is today. At that time there was no life on dry land except for a few primitive plants such as mosses and algae . Almost all of life was in the oceans. Carbon dioxide levels were 14–16 times higher than today, with high sea levels covering much of the continents, which were mostly located south of
14396-400: 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
14518-589: Was incorporated for the sole purpose of building a bridge to Alburgh that was completed in 1882. Fisk Farm was the site at which the Vermont Fish and Game League was addressed in August 1897 by President William McKinley and in September 1901 by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt , who had learned of the shooting of McKinley, who later died. The island, along with Valcour Island south of Plattsburgh ,
14640-652: 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
14762-594: 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
14884-570: 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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