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120-504: Old Mines ( French : La Vieille Mine ) is the name of an unincorporated community and surrounding area in southeast Missouri that were settled by French colonists in the early 18th century when the area was part of the Illinois Country of New France . The early settlers came to mine for lead , and their descendants still inhabit the area where, through a combination of geographic and cultural isolation, they maintained

240-744: 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

360-431: 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,

480-524: A distinctive French culture well into the 20th century. As recently as the late 1980s there may have been a thousand native speakers of the region's Missouri French dialect. This culturally distinct population has sometimes been referred to as "paw-paw French" and lives in an amorphous area in Washington , Jefferson , and St. Francois counties roughly 15 miles (24 km) either side of a line from Potosi to De Soto . The community of Old Mines itself

600-555: 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

720-604: A land grant and permission to settle three hundred families in Texas. On Austin's return trip, he became ill, and he died in June 1821, shortly after arriving back in Missouri. His son Stephen F. Austin carried out his colonization plan several years later, and led the three hundred families to what became the first Anglo-American settlement in Texas. In 1885, the legality of Austin's Spanish property claims were settled posthumously by

840-521: A log church was built in Old Mines in 1820. That was replaced by the brick St. Joachim parish church in 1831. Three years older than St. Louis' Old Cathedral , still in use and a center of community life, St. Joachim is one of the oldest standing churches in Missouri. A variety of forces converged in the first part of the 20th century to break down the community's isolation and accelerate assimilation into American culture. Paved state highways eroded

960-725: A mansion called Durham Hall, named for his birth town of Durham, Connecticut . Moses Austin attempted various economic ventures before his plans to settle in Texas came to fruition. Austin failed to successfully maintain the St. Louis Bank and his financial situation suffered from unfavorable shipment deals. Austin's desperation reached a climax in 1820 when a Missouri sheriff threatened to break down his door to collect past debts. Austin's son, Stephen F. Austin , also continued to seek employment in Mississippi and Arkansas to help his poor financial situation. In November 1820, Austin learned that

1080-705: 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

1200-582: A petition to be made for an agricultural concession, a request that was not acted on but which may have helped forestall a later request for mining concession by the American Moses Austin who had started larger-scale mining and refining at Mine à Breton. Austin's success at Mine à Breton sparked increased attention from interests in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis who subsequently employed hired labor and slaves to mine ore at Old Mines. When news of

1320-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in

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1440-577: A scholar of the region, has worked to reinforce the culture, as has the Rural Parish Workers of Christ the King in Fertile. Historian and musician Dennis Stroughmatt, who learned to speak French there, promotes the language and folk music of Old Mines. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

1560-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as 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

1680-526: 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 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

1800-941: 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 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

1920-439: A term used at least sometimes in self-reference. The name has been described as a "fun-loving insult" referring to a French creole "so poor that he lived on pawpaw in the summer and possum in the winter." By the 20th century, Old Mines was the only area of Missouri where Missouri French remained widely spoken. Linguists began studying the dialect at this time. W. M. Miller, an American professor of French, made investigations in

2040-547: 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

2160-401: A village of some sort by 1748 when it was listed as the residence of a coupled married at Fort de Chartres , given as village des mines . Discovery of Mine à Breton in the 1770s drained much of the effort from Old Mines, but as Old Mines was only 5 to 6 miles (8.0 to 9.7 km) to the north, it was close enough that some miners continued to live there while working Mine à Breton. Some of

2280-588: A while because of its relatively large French population, some of it wealthy. But Ste. Genevieve, being a center of commerce, attracted its share of newcomers and eventually became more American. However, few of the Americans seeking farmland were attracted to the Old Mines region with its thin, flinty soil. Easily mined surface deposits of lead were depleted by the mid-19th century, though the state geologist reported small-scale surface mining and refining around Old Mines in 1867. When lead production escalated after

2400-528: A “Form of Contract for Emigration to Texas” which detailed the obligations of each member joining the settlement in Texas. Austin required emigrants to help build community structures. He also ordered the settlers to own a “Spanish carbine”, a type of gun, to protect the settlement. Austin's relationship with the settlers he recruited was not one of mutual respect, but rather he employed the settlers. Austin contracted his settlers to work from their departure in May, until

2520-437: 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

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2640-779: 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 , 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

2760-581: Is a descendant of Richard Austin on his paternal side. In 1784, he moved to Philadelphia to enter the dry goods business with his brother, Stephen. He then moved to Richmond, Virginia , to open a second dry goods store. In 1785, he married into the affluent iron mining family of Mary Brown, who then became known as Mary Brown Austin . The Austins' second child was born in 1793 and named Stephen Fuller Austin in honor of his father's brother and his mother's great uncle. Their daughter Emily Austin followed in 1795. A second son, James Elijah Brown Austin ,

2880-472: 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

3000-489: 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

3120-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As 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

3240-462: 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 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

3360-652: 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

3480-503: 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

3600-504: Is in northeastern Washington County, six miles north of Potosi. The southeast Missouri lead district is the location of the earth's greatest known concentration of galena , an ore of lead. Found first in surface deposits over a wide area, and now mined deep underground, the ore was known to the native Indians of the region from whom it became known to early French explorers. Father Jacques Gravier noted in his journal in October 1700,

3720-404: 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

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3840-469: 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

3960-828: 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

4080-576: 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 ,

4200-553: 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

4320-483: 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

4440-492: 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

4560-424: 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

4680-764: 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

4800-462: 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 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

4920-487: The Civil War with capital-intensive deeprock mining techniques, it did so in new areas east of Potosi and Mine a Breton, drawing economic activity even further away from Old Mines. In 1874 mining for "tiff", as barite is called locally, began to replace lead digging in the Old Mines region. It could be extracted manually from near-surface deposits in small operations much as lead had been for generations. This provided

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5040-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of

5160-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains

5280-559: 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,

5400-554: The Illinois Country . It was once widely spoken in what is now Missouri and Illinois , and became one of the three major forms of French to develop in what is now the United States, along with Louisiana French and Acadian French . However, it began to die out as the British and later the Americans began settling in the area. Speakers of the dialect called themselves Créoles . They were sometimes known as "paw-paw" French,

5520-877: 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

5640-626: 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

5760-527: The Petit Merrimac and extending up the first tributary ( la première branche ) six leagues for a total of 9 square leagues. The exact location of Renault's grant and mines is not known, but the "first branch" could be Fourche à Renault Creek, with the mines perhaps at Ebo , or it could be Old Mines Creek with the mines at Old Mines itself. Renault's mines were worked until the 1730s, were closed for some years, and reopened in 1743. Old Mines existed as

5880-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , 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

6000-601: The archdiocese to maintain French-speaking priests for just one parish , so the sacraments were given only in English. Compulsory education in broader-based, English-only schools became the norm. The Old Mines Area Historical Society – La Société Historique de la Région de Vieille Mine – works to preserve and promote the French culture and history of the region and has assembled an outdoor museum of historic buildings in Fertile, Missouri. Dr. Rosemary Hyde Thomas,

6120-638: The empresario system in Texas, which resulted in permission to begin a new settlement in Texas. This outdated reward system granted tracts of land to immigrants who pledged their allegiance to the Spanish crown. Therefore, Austin's settlement was contingent upon its allegiance to the Spanish Crown. After returning from successful negotiations in San Antonio , Austin returned to Missouri to recruit settlers for his new settlement. In April, he created

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6240-519: The 1980s there were perhaps as many as a thousand speakers left, but they were mostly the older generation of age 60 and above. Today the language has all but died out as means of everyday domestic communication, and only a few elderly speakers are able to use it. Traditional French creole culture in the Old Mines area centered on the extended family and the local French community with frequent celebrations. Houses of family were often clustered together. The distinctive type of home built by Missouri French

6360-455: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

6480-474: 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

6600-427: The Americans acquired control of the area there was a scramble to certify land claims with the new administration, and much of the activity was fraudulent. It took years to sort through the competing claims. John Smith T , an entrepreneur rival to Moses Austin who lived at Bellfontaine and operated mines there and at Shibboleth, had bought some of the 400-arpent tracts at Old Mines and tried to claim more, thus clouding

6720-428: The Bank of St. Louis, but the bank failed in the Panic of 1819 , causing him to lose his entire fortune. He again sought help from Spain. In 1820, Austin traveled to the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar in Spanish Texas and presented a plan to colonize Texas with Anglo-Americans to Governor Antonio María Martínez . In 1821, the governor asked Austin's friend, Erasmo Seguín , to give him the news that he had been awarded

6840-408: The Big River, it would lead to its headwaters and possibly refer to areas on the Mineral Fork or Old Mines Creek where some of the earliest mining took place. The French sent a series of ill-equipped mining expeditions into what is now Missouri to search for silver , which is sometimes found with lead ore. One expedition was led by Jacques sieur de Lochon, a Parisian and a smelter , and another

6960-510: 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

7080-614: 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,

7200-408: 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

7320-416: 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

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7440-436: The U.S. Supreme Court in Bryan v. Kennett . Moses Austin had many relatives who helped settle Texas, including Stephen F. Austin and Emily Austin Perry (daughter), Moses Austin Bryan (grandson), and others. Moses Austin should be distinguished from his grandson Moses Austin Bryan. James Bryan was his first son-in-law; James F. Perry was his second son-in-law. The Missouri State Archives reflect that Moses Austin lived in

7560-446: The United States passed the Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain, which situated present-day Texas in New Spain's territory. Moses Austin hoped the Spanish government would permit free trade with the United States so he left for Texas to try and begin a new economic venture. Mary Brown Austin , Moses Austin's wife, wrote to her cousin explaining Moses's plans to colonize Texas in order to provide for their family. Austin's primary intention

7680-470: The area in the late 1920s, and reported that the local French dialect was an entirely spoken language. Most of the people were illiterate—few could read and write English at the time, and very few, if any, had ever seen French written. Miller also reported incursions of English into French sentences (" Anyhow, je ne sais pas."), and English words adapted to modern items for which the locals' French forebears had left no names ("un can de maiz"). Nevertheless,

7800-429: The area's isolation became deeper. Cultural isolation preceded geographic isolation, however. The Americans who developed the local lead industry during the Spanish period had no use for the French except for their labor and their ore. Moses Austin never learned to speak French, and when he platted the town of Potosi for the seat of new Washington County, he excluded the French village of Mine à Breton, not even aligning

7920-416: The assistance of the wealthy operators in St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve, the petition was approved. Commandant François Vallé of Ste. Genevieve wrote the petition himself, had his agent collect signatures, and forwarded the petition to the lieutenant governor. This 1803 petition was submitted as a single group request instead of dozens of individual requests. The participation of the locals lent legitimacy to

8040-422: The coast of Texas. On December 26, 1820, Austin and Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop presented a formal petition to Governor Antonio María Martínez . They requested permission to bring three hundred families to a port in Texas. Most importantly, Austin insisted that the settlers were former subjects of Spain and would be willing to defend the land against foreign enemies. Austin convinced Spain to reinstate

8160-445: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Moses Austin After receiving a land grant from the Spanish Crown in 1820, Moses Austin planned to be the first to establish an American settlement in Spanish Texas , but he died before his dream was realized. On his deathbed, he pleaded with his son to fulfill his dream to colonize Texas. Stephen led

8280-404: 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

8400-425: The dialect. Both linguists noted that French was dying out in Old Mines at the time of their studies. Miller reported that the children could not speak it, and the young people would not. Carrière said that the influx of English and greater connection with the outside world had undermined the dialect's base, and that young people were finding that speaking French was of no use to them outside of their homes. As late as

8520-448: 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

8640-594: 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

8760-411: The enclave the means to continue supporting itself while maintaining its own way of life after the lead had been mined out. Men would dig tiff a couple days each week to support their families, with additional sustenance coming from home gardens. Eventually the wagon road that Moses Austin had built to haul ore to Herculaneum , which passed through Old Mines, was replaced by a railroad which did not, and

8880-516: 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

9000-426: The following January. In return, Austin guaranteed transportation along with the necessary tools and provisions to begin the settlement. Although Moses Austin died prior to his planned departure, his son, Stephen F. Austin , continued his efforts to colonize Texas. Austin triggered such a substantial movement of people into Texas that the land became inundated with Americans. Austin's push to settle Texas contributed to

9120-915: 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 ,

9240-829: 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

9360-510: The hard, difficult labor of digging the lead ore and processing it. Enslaved boys were forced to man the carts that carried ore from the pits to the smelters. Enslaved women and girls were used to prepare food for the enslaved men who worked the mines, pits, and smelting operations. In 1803, Missouri came under the jurisdiction of the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase . Austin became founder and principal stockholder in

9480-673: The impression was that the spoken French was no less grammatical than that spoken by peasants of similar means in areas of France. The language has been described as having a Cajun vocabulary with a Québécois pronunciation. Another linguist, J.-M. Carrière, came to Old Mines in the 1930s and 1940s, finding around 600 French-speaking families there at the time. Carrière undertook a study of the dialect, recording 73 folk tales from local conteurs . Among other distinguishing features, he followed Miller in noting that Missouri French had been heavily influenced by English, with many English words and even entire idiomatic phrases borrowed or translated into

9600-454: 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

9720-479: 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

9840-612: 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 ,

9960-508: The large group of settlers from Missouri who colonized the northern reaches of then-sovereign Mexico in 1825, and in time, the settlers demanded autonomy and later won independence from Mexico under President Antonio López de Santa Anna , thereby establishing the Republic of Texas . Moses Austin was born October 4, 1761, to Elias Austin and Eunice Phelps Austin in Durham, Connecticut . He

10080-479: 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

10200-614: The lots in the Old Mines concession were bought by outsiders, but they were speculators who had no permanent interest in the area. So the French continued to dig for lead when and where they wanted, as they always had, with no interference. Meanwhile, the Missouri territory was being overrun by newly arrived Americans. The region had been sparsely settled by the French, and by 1820 Missouri had been thoroughly Americanized with only isolated pockets of French culture surviving at Ste. Genevieve and Old Mines. French culture survived in Ste. Genevieve for

10320-519: The miners' families moved back and forth between Old Mines and Mine à Breton. It is unclear whether Old Mines was continuously inhabited through the 1790s into the first years of the 19th century. There may have been disruptions due to raids by the Osage , and there is record of a complaint that inhabitants were forced to abandon their homes due to pollution of Old Mines Creek by animal and mining waste. Nevertheless, there were enough inhabitants in 1797 for

10440-489: The mines became known as " Austinville ", and Moses came to be known as the "Lead King". The Austin brothers soon incurred debts, causing the collapse of the company. After the Virginia lead business failed, Moses skipped out to avoid imprisonment and the consequences of debt, which was then customary for debtors in the U.S. under traditional English law (now being developed for U.S. federal and state codes), and looked toward

10560-420: 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

10680-589: 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 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;

10800-534: 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

10920-598: The ownership. But in 1833 the original concession was officially recognized to the benefit of the initial claimants. The Old Mines concession persists today as one of the many colonial-era grants recognized by and superimposed on the regular township grid of the American Public Land Survey System , and the pattern of long, narrow plots is visible in aerial photography as found at 38°02′24″N 90°45′32″W  /  38.0401°N 90.759°W  / 38.0401; -90.759 Most of

11040-507: The petition, and the participation of knowledgeable and connected outsiders helped move the request through the bureaucracy. Although the interest was primarily in lead, the petition was made for land for agriculture in the amount of 400 arpents (340 acres) per family because French law granted free land only for farming. Lieutenant Governor Carlos de Hault de Lassus granted the request on June 4, 1803, for 13,400 arpents (17.7 sq mi). The concession straddled Old Mines Creek, and in

11160-432: The practices of lead mining in Missouri. Valle and other French colonizers had long used enslaved African Americans and enslaved Native Americans to mine, and Austin immediately took to these practices. In 1798, the year of his arrival in Missouri, he purchased at least one enslaved man. Moses greatly expanded the use of enslaved men and women in running mining operations in Missouri. Enslaved African American men were used for

11280-471: 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

11400-532: The presence of rich lead ore twelve or thirteen leagues from the mouth of the "River Miaramigoua" ( Meramec ), that is 36 to 39 miles (58 to 63 km). At that time the Meramec tributary Big River was considered part of the Meramec and often called the Little Meramec (French Petit Merrimac ). The distance cited on the Meramec proper would not be in an especially mineralized region, but if taken to mean

11520-542: The region's physical isolation in the 1920s - Missouri Route 21 runs from St. Louis through the center of the Old Mines region on its way to Potosi and beyond. Cultural isolation was also assailed by World War I and, especially, World War II with mandatory conscription taking many young men and exposing them to the wider world. In the 1930s the prices offered for tiff tumbled, ending more than 200 years of subsistence based on small-scale mining. Young men left for work in St. Louis and elsewhere. It became impractical for

11640-471: 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

11760-429: The retrocession of Louisiana from Spain to France reached the area, both inhabitants and the absentee interests became more concerned about land ownership. Until around the beginning of the 19th century there was little competition for land, and the French had maintained a casual attitude concerning formalities of ownership. A new petition was drafted in 1803 by both residents and remote operators. This time, with

11880-447: The rich lead deposits in Missouri , then a part of upper Spanish Louisiana . In December 1797, Austin and a companion traveled to investigate the Spanish mines. Stephen remained behind to salvage the Virginia business, creating a rift between the two brothers that would last for much of the rest of their lives. The state of Virginia seized much of the property Moses owned and broke up the various operations, which were later purchased from

12000-415: The rush to get the land surveyed and titled before the Americans took over following the Louisiana Purchase , it was laid out into 31 long, narrow plots with a length equal to the full width of the concession. Ownership to individual plots was assigned through a lottery that had no relationship to where individuals had their cabins or worked mines. The mines worked in common at the south end were held out of

12120-598: The state at great discounts by Thomas Jackson and his partners — they would later build the Jackson Ferry Shot Tower , one of the few extant shot towers in United States, at this location. In 1798, the Spanish colonial government granted to Moses one league of land (4,428 acres) to undertake lead mining operations. In return he swore allegiance to the Spanish Crown and stated he would settle some families in Missouri. Travelling to Missouri, Austin worked with Francois Valle to identify his claims and to learn

12240-456: The streets of the two adjacent towns. The French resented the economic dominance of the Americans to whom they had to sell their ore, and unlike the situation in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, there was no local wealthy French establishment to further their cause. When the Osage attacked in 1799 and 1802 and French did not help the Americans fight them off. When geographic isolation set in at about

12360-403: The subdivision, but there was no accommodation for a usual French village with streets, clustered homes, and a commons. Most of the French ignored the assignment of ownership and continued to live where they had, mostly in the village of Old Mines near the south of the concession, and at Racola near the center. Most had sold their lottery-assigned land within a year to outside speculators. After

12480-482: The time of the American Civil War , the French population was already living in cultural isolation, bolstered by their own language, customs, and communities. In its isolation the Old Mines area became a center of Missouri French language and culture. This dialect had developed since the 17th century, when the upper Mississippi River Valley was part of the French colony of Upper Louisiana , also known as

12600-466: 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

12720-679: 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

12840-508: 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

12960-485: 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

13080-536: 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

13200-402: 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

13320-417: 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 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

13440-526: Was born in 1803. Austin sought to start his own mining business in southwestern Virginia , and in 1789 he traveled there to look at a lead mine . Moses saw potential in the site and by 1791 his family had joined him in what is now Wythe County . Moses and his brother Stephen and several other partners and individuals industrialized the area. Several smelters, furnaces , commissaries, blacksmith shops, liveries, and mills were established. The tiny village around

13560-819: 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

13680-400: 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

13800-652: 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

13920-411: Was led by sieur La Renaudière. Neither expedition produced much to show for their efforts, although Renaudière was able to smelt some poor-quality lead. In 1720 Philippe François Renault arrived with professional miners. Renault found and successfully worked large quantities of lead on the "Merameg" in what is now the Old Mines region. Renault received a grant in 1723 for one and a half leagues along

14040-417: Was of a single story with a broad roof sloping gradually into a roof for the gallery that ran along the broad side of the house, or all around for some of the wealthier French. The style is seen not just in old abodes, but it is still used as a common style in the area for new construction. The French creole are predominantly Catholic . They were originally served by a mission priest from Ste. Genevieve, and

14160-594: 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

14280-570: 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 ,

14400-509: Was to create a trading venture on the coast of Texas to allow the United States to trade with New Spain. On December 23, 1820, Austin arrived in San Antonio to begin negotiations with the Spanish government to establish a trading post. After some difficulty on his own, Austin paired with a Spanish interpreter, Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop , who agreed to join Austin and plan a settlement called "Austina" which would be located somewhere on

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