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130-532: In December 1862, two French priests from the Société des Missions Étrangères , Fathers Louis Furet and Bernard Petitjean , were assigned from Yokohama to Nagasaki with the intention of building a church honoring the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (eight European priests, one Mexican priest and seventeen Japanese Christians who were crucified in 1597 by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi ) who had been canonized

260-613: A Catholic missionary organization . It is not a religious institute , but an organization of secular priests and lay persons dedicated to missionary work in foreign lands. The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris was established 1658–63. In 1659, instructions for establishment of the Paris Foreign Missions Society were given by Rome's Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith . This marked

390-687: A Belgian plan used by Catholic missionaries in an earlier church built in Osaka . The stained glass windows were imported from France. The church was officially a chapel for the French foreign community in Japan per the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan , as Christianity was still officially outlawed by the Tokugawa shogunate .The dedication ceremony was attended by foreign residents, as well as

520-744: 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

650-431: 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,

780-764: A conflict with the Pope, Napoleon cancelled his decision. The Missions would be firmly re-established through a decree by Louis XVIII in March 1815. Several causes contributed to the rapid growth of the society in the 19th century; chiefly the charity of the Propagation of the Faith and the Society of the Holy Childhood . Each bishop received annually 1200 francs , each mission had its general needs and works allowance, which varied according to its importance, and could amount to from 10,000 to 30,000 francs. The second cause

910-555: 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

1040-493: A marvellous way, lest, without bishops, these men die without sacrament and manifestly risk damnation." Alexandre de Rhodes . As early as 1622 Pope Gregory XV , wishing to take back control of the missionary efforts, had established the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith ( Congregatio de Propaganda Fide , commonly known as Propaganda ) with the objective of bringing non-Catholic Christians to

1170-652: 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

1300-402: A poorly defended city, on 18 February 1859. This was the beginning of the French conquest of Cochinchina . Ten martyrs of the M.E.P. were canonized by John-Paul II , 19 June 1988, as part of 117 martyrs of Vietnam , including 11 Dominican priests, 37 Vietnamese priests, and 59 Vietnamese laics: In the mid-19th century that the first western Catholic missionaries began to enter Korea. This

1430-494: 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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1560-522: A result. The French fleet sailed away. Other missionaries were martyred during the reign of Emperor Tự Đức , such as Augustin Schoeffer in 1851 and Jean Louis Bonnard in 1852, prompting the Paris Foreign Missions Society to ask the French government for a diplomatic intervention. In 1858, Charles Rigault de Genouilly attacked Vietnam under the orders of Napoleon III following the failed mission of diplomat Charles de Montigny . His stated mission

1690-411: A score of missionaries, assisted by 135 native priests; in the various missions there were nine seminaries with 250 students, and 300,000 Christians. Each year the number of baptisms rose on an average of 3000 to 3500; that of infant baptisms in articulo mortis was more than 100,000. On 23 March 1805, Napoleon signed a decree reinstating the Paris Foreign Missions Society. In 1809 however, following

1820-587: 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

1950-526: 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

2080-941: 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

2210-641: A strong local clergy seemed to be the solution to achieve future expansion: "We have all reason to fear that what happened to the Church of Japan could also happen to the Church of Annam, because these kings, in Tonkin as well as in Cochinchina , are very powerful and accustomed to war... It is necessary that the Holy See , by its own movement, give pastors to these Oriental regions where Christians multiply in

2340-575: A system known as Padroado Real in Portuguese and Patronato real in Spanish. After some time however, Rome grew dissatisfied with the Padroado system, due to its limited means, strong involvement with politics, and dependence on the kings of Spain and Portugal for any decision. From a territorial standpoint also, Portugal had been losing ground against the new colonial powers of England and

2470-517: A treaty with France (the 1787 Treaty of Versailles ). Pigneau de Behaine assisted Nguyễn Phúc Ánh in obtaining the support of several French soldiers and officers, modernizing his army, and ultimately gaining victory over the Tây Sơn . At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution halted the growth of the society, which had previously been very rapid. At that time it had six bishops,

2600-547: 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

2730-437: 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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2860-472: 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

2990-489: 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

3250-462: 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

3380-652: 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

3510-503: 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

3640-404: 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

3770-469: 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

3900-828: 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

4030-576: 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 ,

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4160-553: 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

4290-483: 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

4420-492: 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

4550-424: 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

4680-791: Is uncertain whether this was ruse to bring the head of the Korean Catholic Church out into the open. Berneux was summoned to the capital, but upon his arrival in February 1866, he was seized and executed. A roundup then began of the other French Catholic priests and native converts. As a result of the Korean dragnet all but three of the French missionaries were captured and executed: among them were Siméon Berneux, Antoine Daveluy, Just de Bretenières, Louis Beaulieu , Pierre Henri Dorié , Pierre Aumaître, Luc Martin Huin, all of them members of

4810-764: 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

4940-462: 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

5070-539: 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

5200-698: The Dutch Republic , meaning that it was becoming less capable of evangelizing new territories. In territories that it used to control, Portugal had seen some disasters; for instance, Japanese Christianity was eradicated from around 1620. Finally, Catholic officials had doubts about the efficacy of religious orders, such as the Dominicans , Franciscans , Jesuits or Barnabites , since they were highly vulnerable in case of persecutions. They did not seem able to develop local clergy, who would be less vulnerable to state persecution. Sending bishops to develop

5330-485: 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

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5460-559: 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,

5590-567: The Indies , and France; embassies were sent from place to place; and treaties were signed. In 1681, Jacques-Charles de Brisacier was elected superior of the organization. In 1681 or 1682, the Siamese king Narai , who was seeking to reduce Dutch and English influence, named the French medical missionary Brother René Charbonneau , a member of the Siam mission, as Governor of Phuket . Charbonneau held

5720-877: 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

5850-1083: The Jesuits , the Portuguese , the Dutch and even the Propaganda , leading to the issuing of an interdiction of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement by Cardinal Mazarin in 1660. In spite of these events, the King, the Assembly of the French Clergy, the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement and private donors accepted to finance the effort, and the three bishop managed to depart, although they now had to travel on land. The three bishops chosen for Asia left France (1660–62) to go to their respective missions, and crossed Persia and India on foot, since Portugal would have refused to take non- Padroado missionaries by ship, and

5980-522: The Lê Văn Khôi revolt (1833–1835). He banned Catholicism completely, as well as French and Vietnamese priests (1833–1836), leading to persecutions of French missionaries. These included the martyrdom of Joseph Marchand in 1835 or Pierre Borie in 1838. These events served in France to stoke a desire among young men to intervene and protect the Catholic faith. Ming Man's successor, Thiệu Trị , upheld

6110-420: 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

6240-520: 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

6370-399: The release of two imprisoned French missionaries, Bishop Dominique Lefèbvre (imprisoned for a second time as he had re-entered Vietnam illegally) and Duclos, and freedom of worship for Catholics in Vietnam. As negotiations drew on without results, on April 15, 1847, a fight named the Bombardment of Đà Nẵng erupted between the French fleet and Vietnamese ships, three of which were sunk as

6500-455: 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;

6630-413: The 19th century, local persecutions of missionary priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society were often a pretext for French military intervention in Asia. In Vietnam , such persecutions were used by the French government to justify the armed interventions of Jean-Baptiste Cécille and Charles Rigault de Genouilly . In China, the murder of the priest Auguste Chapdelaine became the casus belli for

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6760-474: 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

6890-510: 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

7020-614: 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,

7150-424: The Catholic faith, and also inhabitants of the American continent and Asia. In order to do so, Rome resurrected the system of Apostolic vicars , who would report directly to Rome in their missionary efforts, and would be responsible to create a native clergy. In the field, violent conflicts would erupt between the Padroado and the Propaganda during the 17th and 18th centuries. (When the first missionaries of

7280-457: The Chinese? Do not bring to them our countries, but instead bring to them the faith , a faith that does not reject or hurt the rites, nor the usages of any people, provided that these are not distasteful, but that instead keeps and protects them." The Seminary ( Séminaire des Missions Étrangères ) was created in March 1663. Jean Duval , ordained under the name Bernard de Sainte Thérèse and nominated Bishop of Babylon (modern Iraq ) in 1638, offered

7410-418: The Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement in 1658. The object of the new society was and is still the evangelization of non-Christian countries, by founding churches and raising up a native clergy under the jurisdiction of the bishops. The Society was officially recognized in 1664. The creation of the Paris Foreign Missions Society coincided with the establishment of the French East India Company . In order to dispatch

7540-519: The Dutch and the English refused to take Catholic missionaries. Lambert left Marseilles on 26 November 1660, and reached Mergui in Siam 18 months later, Pallu joined Lambert in the capital of Siam Ayutthaya after 24 months overland, and Cotolendi died upon arrival in India on 6 August 1662. Siam thus became the first country to receive the evangelization efforts of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, to be followed by new missions years later in Cochinchina, Tonkin and parts of China. The mission had

7670-408: 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

7800-399: The French Government and Louis XIV in 1663. In 1691 the chapel was established, and in 1732 the new, larger, building was completed. Another wing, perpendicular to the 1732 one, was added in the 19th century to accommodate the great increase in members of the Seminary. The chief events of this period were: the publication of the book Institutions apostoliques , which contains the germ of

7930-399: The French involvement in the Second Opium War in 1856. In Korea , persecutions were used to justify the 1866 French campaign against Korea . Today, the Paris Foreign Missions Society remains an active institution in the evangelization of Asia. The traditional colonial powers of Spain and Portugal had initially received from the Pope an exclusive agreement to evangelize conquered lands,

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8060-416: 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

8190-413: The Jesuits had possessed in India prior to suppression of the order in Portugal. Many of the Jesuits remained in Asia. The missions took on a new life, especially in Sichuan (see Catholic Church in Sichuan ), under bishops Pottier  [ fr ] and Dufresse , and in Cochinchina . In Cochinchina, Pigneau de Behaine acted as an agent for Nguyễn Phúc Ánh , a pretender to the throne, in making

8320-430: The Korean authorities as well. They were taken before an interrogator and questioned for three days to reveal the names and whereabouts of their converts. As torture failed to break them down, they were sent to another prison and beheaded on 21 September 1839 at Saenamteo . Their bodies remained exposed for several days but were finally buried on Noku Mountain. Bishop Siméon-François Berneux , appointed in 1856 as head of

8450-473: The Paris Foreign Missions Society and canonized by Pope John Paul II on 6 May 1984. An untold number of Korean Catholics also met their end (estimations run around 10,000), many being executed a place called Jeoldu-san in Seoul on the banks of the Han River. In late June 1866 one of the three surviving French missionaries, Felix-Claire Ridel, managed to escape via a fishing vessel and make his way to Tianjin , China in early July 1866. Fortuitously in Tianjin at

8580-423: The Paris Foreign Missions Society were sent to the Far East, the Portuguese missionaries were ordered to capture them and send them to Lisbon ). The creation of the Paris Foreign Missions Society was well-aligned with Rome's efforts to develop the role of the Propaganda . The creation of the Paris Foreign Missions Society was initiated when the Jesuit priest Alexandre de Rhodes , back from Vietnam and asking for

8710-429: The Siamese king Narai , the Seminary of Saint Joseph was established, which could educate Asian candidate priests from all the countries of the Southeast Asian peninsula. A cathedral was also constructed. The college remained in Siam for a century, until the conquest of Siam by Burma in 1766. The missionary work also had political effects: through their initiative a more active trade was established among Indo-China,

8840-580: The anti-Catholic policy of his predecessor. In 1843, the French Foreign Minister François Guizot sent a fleet to Vietnam under Admiral Jean-Baptiste Cécille and Captain Charner,. The action also was related to the British successes in China in 1842, and France hoped to be able to establish trade with China from the south. The pretext was to support British efforts in China, and to fight the persecution of French missionaries in Vietnam. In 1847, Cécille sent two warships ( Gloire and Victorieuse ) under Captain Lapierre to Da Nang (Tourane) in Vietnam to obtain

8970-411: The bishoprics established through the padroado system. In 1658 also, François de Laval was nominated Vicar Apostolic of Canada, and Bishop of Petra in partibus infidelium , becoming the first Bishop of New France , and in 1663 he would found the Séminaire de Québec with the support of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. The Society itself ("Assemblée des Missions") was formally established by

9100-403: The captains of French, Russian, British, and Dutch ships anchored in Nagasaki Port, each accompanied by several Catholic sailors. On March 17, 1865, shortly after the completion of the original cathedral, Father Petitjean saw a group of people standing in front of the cathedral. They indicated to the priest that they wanted him to open the doors. As the priest knelt at the altar, an old woman from

9230-411: The church to commemorate this event. The bronze relief in the courtyard below the church shows the memorable scene of the discovery. Before long, tens of thousands of underground Christians came out of hiding in the Nagasaki area. News of this reached Pope Pius IX , who declared this "the miracle of the Orient." The building underwent a large-scale expansion and renovation from 1875 to 1891, during which

9360-423: The creation of a missionary institution that, for the first time, did not depend on the control of the traditional missionary and colonial powers of Spain or Portugal. In the 350 years since its foundation, the institution has sent more than 4,200 missionary priests to Asia and North America. Their mission is to adapt to local customs and languages, develop a native clergy , and keep close contacts with Rome. In

9490-519: 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

9620-493: The deserted buildings of his own Seminary for Missions to Persia, which he had created in 1644 at 128 Rue du Bac . On 10 March 1664, Vincent de Meur was nominated as the first director of the seminary, and officially became superior of the seminary on 11 June 1664. The seminary was established so that the society might recruit members and administer its property, through the actions of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement and by

9750-531: The dispatch of numerous missionaries to the Far East , obtained in 1650 an agreement by Pope Innocent X to send secular priests and bishops as missionaries. Alexandre de Rhodes received in Paris in 1653 a strong financial and organizational support from the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement for the establishment of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Alexander de Rhodes found secular clergy volunteers in Paris in

9880-521: The east coast of Korea demanding trading and residency rights in what seemed an echo of the demands made on China by other western powers. Native Korean Christians, with connections at court, saw in this an opportunity to advance their cause and suggested an alliance between France and Korea to repel the Russian advances, suggesting further that this alliance could be negotiated through Bishop Berneux. The Heungseon Daewongun seemed open to this idea, though it

10010-448: 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

10140-441: The effect that respecting the habits of the countries to be evangelized was paramount, a guiding principle of the missions ever since: "Do not act with zeal , do not put forward any arguments to convince these peoples to change their rites , their customs or their usages, except if they are evidently contrary to the religion and morality . What would be more absurd than to bring France, Spain, Italy or any other European country to

10270-594: 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

10400-626: The exterior walls were rebuilt with brick, giving the building a completely Gothic style, and the appearance was greatly changed from the original appearance. The new church, consecrated on May 22, 1879, was the first in Kyushu to be built with brick, as opposed to the original wooden structure. In 1891 it was designated the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Nagasaki (now the Catholic Archdiocese of Nagasaki). Ōura Cathedral

10530-819: The first Korean priest, and 92 Korean laics: 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 , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are

10660-516: 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

10790-915: 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 ,

10920-829: 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

11050-554: The group approached him and said "The heart (faith) of all of us is the same as yours. Where is the statue of Holy Mary?" Petitjean discovered that these people were from the nearby village of Urakami and were Kakure Kirishitans , descendants of early Japanese Christians who went into hiding after the Shimabara Rebellion in the 1630s. A white marble statue of the Virgin Mary was imported from France and erected in

11180-665: The infant Korean Catholic church, estimated in 1859 that the number of Korean faithful had reached nearly 17,000. At first the Korean court turned a blind eye to such incursions. This attitude changed abruptly, however, with the enthronement of King Gojong in 1864. By the time the Heungseon Daewongun assumed de facto control of the government in 1864 there were twelve French Paris Foreign Missions Society priests living and preaching in Korea and an estimated 23,000 native Korean converts. In January, 1866 Russian ships appeared on

11310-454: 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

11440-479: 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

11570-612: 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 ,

11700-479: 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

11830-524: The members of the Seminar, until he was allowed to resume his activities. In 1702, Artus de Lionne , Bishop of Rosalie, and missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, brought Arcadio Huang to France as one of the first Chinese men there. He established the basis for the study of the Chinese language in France. In the second half of the 18th century, the society was charged with the missions which

11960-420: 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

12090-596: The objective of adapting to local customs, establishing a native clergy , and keeping close contacts with Rome. In 1659, instructions were given by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (known as the "Propaganda"): "Here is the principal reason which determined the Sacred Congregation to send you as Bishops in these regions. It is that you endeavour, by all possible means and methods, to educate young people so as to make them capable of receiving priesthood ." Instructions were also given to

12220-509: The occupation of Vietnam and the creation of French Indochina . In Korea, the beheading of Siméon-François Berneux and other priests justified the 1866 French Campaign against Korea . In 1825, emperor Minh Mạng , the son and successor of Gia Long , prohibited foreign missionaries in Vietnam, on the grounds that they perverted the people. The prohibition proved largely ineffective, as missionaries continued their activities in Vietnam, and participated in armed rebellions against Minh Mạng, as in

12350-652: 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;

12480-525: The ordination of thirty native priests. Between 1660 and 1700 about 100 missionaries were sent to Asia. The Paris Foreign Missions Society started its work in Siam , with the establishment of a base in its capital Ayutthaya . Siam was known to be highly tolerant of other religions and was the only country in Southeast Asia where the Catholic fathers could establish a base safely. With the agreement of

12610-570: 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 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

12740-534: 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

12870-551: The persons of François Pallu and Pierre Lambert de la Motte and later Ignace Cotolendi , the first members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, who were sent to the Far-East as Apostolic vicariate . Due to the strong opposition of Portugal and the death of Pope Innocent X the project was stalled for several years however, until the candidates to the missions decided to go by themselves to Rome in June 1657. On 29 July 1658,

13000-406: The position of Governor until 1685. In 1687 a French expedition to Siam took possession of Bangkok , Mergui , and Jonselang . France came close to ruling an Indo-Chinese empire, though it failed following the 1688 Siamese revolution , which adversely affected the missions. Louis Laneau of the society was involved in these events. He was imprisoned by the government for two years, with half of

13130-471: 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

13260-504: The priests whom the vicars Apostolic had appointed their agents. This house, whose directors were to form young priests to the apostolic life and transmit to the bishops the offerings made by charity, was, and still is situated in Paris in the Rue du Bac. Known from the beginning as the Seminary of Foreign Missions, it secured the approval of Pope Alexander VII , and the legal recognition of

13390-716: The principles of the rule, the foundation of the general seminary in Ayutthaya , Siam (the Seminary of Saint Joseph , at the origin of the College General now in Penang , Malaysia), the evangelization of Tonkin, Cochinchina, Cambodia, and Siam, where more than 40,000 Christians were baptized, the creation of an institute of Vietnamese nuns known as " Lovers of the Cross ", the establishment of rules among catechists, and

13520-555: The progress of the missionaries was the ease and frequency of communication in consequence of the invention of steam and the opening of the Suez Canal . A voyage could be made safely in one month which formerly required eight to ten months amid many dangers. In Vietnam, the persecutions of numerous priests such as Pierre Borie or Augustin Schoeffer was used as a justification for the armed interventions of Jean-Baptiste Cécille and Charles Rigault de Genouilly , ultimately leading to

13650-525: The recovery of the militant spirit of Catholicism, after the troubles of the French Revolution . By 1820, the territory of the Missions, which included India since the prohition of the Company of Jesus (the Jesuits ) in 1776, extended to Korea, Japan, Manchuria , Tibet , Burma , Malaysia etc... In the 19th century, the local persecutions of missionary priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society

13780-471: 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

13910-603: The same year. They arrived in Nagasaki in 1863 and the church was finished in 1864. Constructed by the master carpenter of the Glover Residence , Koyama Hidenoshin , it was originally a small wooden church with three aisles and three octagonal towers. The present structure is a much larger Gothic basilica that dates from around 1878. This version was built of white stuccoed brick with five aisles, vaulted ceilings, and one octagonal tower. The design most likely came from

14040-560: The third founder was appointed as Cotolendi, Bishop of Metellopolis , Vicar Apostolic of Nanjing , with also five provinces of China, namely Beijing , Shanxi , Shandong , Korea and Tartary . All of them were nominated Bishops in partibus infidelium ("In areas of the Infidels ", i.e. Heliopolis , Beirut , Metellopolis etc...), receiving long-disappeared bishopric titles from areas that had been lost, in order not to compromise contemporary bishopric titles and avoid conflicts with

14170-542: The three missionaries to Asia, the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement established a trading company (the " Compagnie de Chine ", founded 1660). A ship, the Saint-Louis , was built in the Netherlands by the shipowner Fermanel, but the ship foundered soon after being launched. At the same time, the establishment of a trading company and the perceived threat of French missionary efforts to Asia was met with huge opposition by

14300-569: The time of Ridel's arrival was the commander of the French Far Eastern Squadron, Rear Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze . Hearing of the massacre and the affront to French national honor, Roze determined to launch a punitive expedition , the French Campaign against Korea, 1866 . Ten martyrs of the M.E.P. were canonized by John-Paul II, 6 May 1984, as part of 103 canonized martyrs of Korea , including André Kim Tegong ,

14430-414: 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

14560-818: The two chief founders of the Paris Foreign Missions Society were appointed as bishops in the Vatican , becoming Pallu, Bishop of Heliopolis in Augustamnica , Vicar Apostolic of Tonkin , and Lambert de la Motte, Bishop of Berytus , Vicar Apostolic of Cochinchina . On 9 September 1659, the papal bull Super cathedram principis apostolorum by Pope Alexander VII defined the territories they would have to administer: for Pallu, Tonkin, Laos , and five adjacent provinces of southern China ( Yunnan , Guizhou , Huguang , Sichuan , Guangxi ), for Lambert de la Motte, Cochinchina and five provinces of southeastern China ( Zhejiang , Fujian , Guangdong , Jiangxi , Hainan ). In 1660

14690-679: 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

14820-508: 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

14950-485: 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

15080-481: 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

15210-402: 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

15340-481: Was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. [REDACTED] Media related to Oura Church at Wikimedia Commons 32°44′03″N 129°52′13″E  /  32.734106°N 129.870236°E  / 32.734106; 129.870236 Society of Foreign Missions of Paris The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris ( French : Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris , short M.E.P.) is

15470-515: Was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Korea and Titular Bishop of Capsa . On 14 May 1837, he was ordained Titular Bishop of Capsa and crossed secretly from Manchuria to Korea the same year. On 10 August 1839, Bishop Imbert, who was secretly going about his missionary work, was betrayed. He was taken to Seoul where he was tortured to reveal the whereabouts of foreign missionaries. He wrote a note to his fellow missionaries, Pierre-Philibert Maubant and Jacques-Honoré Chastan , asking them to surrender to

15600-559: Was designated as a National Treasure in 1933. During World War II , the cathedral was damaged by the atomic bomb on August 9, 1945 , but avoided collapse and burning due to being relatively far from the hypocenter. Artifacts from the damage are in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum . The National Treasure designation was affirmed on March 31, 1953 under the 1951 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. It

15730-462: Was done by stealth, either via the Korean border with Manchuria or the Yellow Sea. These French missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society arrived in Korea in the 1840s to proselytize to a growing Korean flock that had in fact independently introduced Catholicism into Korea but needed ordained ministers. On 26 April 1836, Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert of the Paris Foreign Missions Society

15860-819: 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

15990-463: 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

16120-652: 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

16250-557: Was often a pretext for French military intervention in Asia, based on the doctrine of the Protectorate of missions . These persecutions were described in Europe by books, pamphlets, annals, and journals, inspiring numerous young men either with the desire for martyrdom or that of evangelization. They played a part in inspiring European nations, especially France and England, to intervene in Indochina and China. Another cause of

16380-488: Was persecution. Fifteen missionaries died in prison or were beheaded during the 17th and 18th centuries and the beginning of the 19th century; but after that those killed among the missionaries were very numerous. (See Martyr Saints of China ). Altogether, about 200 MEP missionaries died of violent death. Among them 23 were beatified, of whom 20 were canonized, with an additional 3 in 2000. Authors such as Chateaubriand , with his Génie du christianisme , also contributed to

16510-594: 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

16640-462: Was the first Western-style building in Japan to be given this honor and remained the only one until 2009 when the neo-Baroque Akasaka Palace was designated a National Treasure. In 2012, the precincts of the Ōura Cathedral were designated a National Historic Site . The church was granted status as a minor basilica by the Holy See on April 26, 2016 On June 30, 2018 Ōura Cathedral, along with 11 other sites linked to Catholic persecution in Japan ,

16770-570: 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 ,

16900-475: Was to stop the persecution of Catholic missionaries in the country and assure the unimpeded propagation of the faith. Rigault de Genouilly, with 14 French gunships, 3,000 men and 300 Filipino troops provided by the Spanish, attacked the port of Da Nang in 1858, causing significant damage, and occupying the city. After a few months, Rigault had to leave due to problems with supplies and illnesses among many of his troops. Sailing south, De Genouilly captured Saigon ,

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