Population speaking French at home, including other dialects (2015)
139-638: New England French ( French : français de Nouvelle-Angleterre ) is a variety of French spoken in the New England region of the United States. It descends from Canadian French because it originally came from French Canadians who immigrated to New England during the Grande Hémorragie . New England French is one of the major forms of the French language that developed in what is now
278-423: A factory system of labor . Throughout this period, much of the U.S. population remained in small scale agriculture. Despite a small percentage of the population then working in industry, the U.S. government took action to promote the expansion of U.S. industry. An important example is Alexander Hamilton 's proposal of the "American School" ideas which supported high tariffs to protect U.S. industry. This idea
417-1109: A 1983 study by the US Commission on Civil Rights , a Vermont committee found that though the French language was spoken by a large part of its population, they often held disparately lower wealth and educational outcomes than monolingual English-speaking peers, with few resources given to bilingual education. The committee would attribute this in part to the Americanization Department of the US Bureau of Education program, begun in 1919, requiring all students to be taught in English alone, prompting laws in Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire prohibiting immersive teaching, requiring only English in classes not specifically dedicated to foreign language. Connecticut and Vermont would both see bills introduced for preventing
556-744: 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
695-609: A Worcester French-language weekly that folded in 1978 which, in its final years, could hardly be described as in the tradition of its predecessors, as it was mainly syndicated news from France. During a period of revival in preserving New England French in academia and civics, the Ligue des Sociétés de Langue Française ("League of French Language Societies") in Lewiston launched its monthly L'Unité , which published from 1976 through 1984. The only New England French news outlet to endure into
834-458: A center of business and social life, with employees living on or near the mill. The company grew rapidly and by the mid-19th century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the United States military. In the late 1700s, Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania proposed plans for steam-powered vessels to both the United States and British governments. Having developed significant technical knowledge in both France and Great Britain, Fulton returned to
973-431: 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,
1112-419: A demonstration for Congress in which he assembled muskets from parts chosen randomly from his supply. While this demonstration was later proved to be fake, it popularized the idea of interchangeable parts, and Eli Whitney continued using the concept to allow relatively unskilled laborers to produce and repair weapons quickly and at a low cost. Another important innovator is Thomas Blanchard , who in 1819 invented
1251-557: A few years, while some would endure from the late 1800s and early 1900s into the interwar period , with 21 newspapers and four monthlies in existence in 1937, and a handful publishing through the 1960s, such as Le Messager in Lewiston, Maine , L'Indépendent in Fall River, Massachusetts , and La Justice in Holyoke, Massachusetts . However, competition with the daily English press, a lack of public support from non-speakers, and
1390-555: 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
1529-564: A lack of knowledge in French in Maine's youngest generation. The Massachusetts American and French Canadian Cultural Exchange Commission, though not strictly a linguistic body like Louisiana's CODOFIL , maintains, and develops cultural ties between French-Canadians and Franco-Americans, as well as a number of Francophone organizations. Although not taught strictly in the New England dialect, in recent years new efforts have arisen to preserve
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#17328009020521668-686: A means to foster commerce between the Americans and French-speaking world, and "to convey adequate ideas of the Majesty of Congress to nations who scarcely know that there is one existing." Outside of Boston, prior to the Industrial Revolution and the Second Industrial Revolution , the influence of French settlers in New England was diminished almost entirely following the end of the French and Indian War and
1807-557: A muff to be met with an outcry of "sacré nom" by spectators. One of the earliest examples of New England French being differentiated from Canadian French and Acadian French came in an 1898 study in Johns Hopkins University 's Modern Language Notes , noting variants of phonology , and studies would continue sporadically covering vocabulary into the late 20th century. By 1924, approximately 1.5 million people, regardless of origin, spoke French in New England, which at
1946-600: 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
2085-647: A preservation standpoint, in recent years a "French Friendly" policy has been adopted through the Northern Border Regional Commission by the state of New Hampshire and its chambers of commerce , and Burlington, Vermont, providing training for service industry employees to provide Canadian French service to a substantial French-Canadian tourist demographic. As the French language is only differentiated from French Creole in US Census Bureau figures, this provides an estimate of
2224-494: 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
2363-587: 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
2502-526: 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
2641-941: 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
2780-527: A speech in 1891 in Boston, Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier urged a French-Canadian audience, "One of the things that is absolutely essential is to study the English language, the language of [this] country...most of you, if you are now over a million on this side of the 45th line, you have not come for any other object than that of earning your daily bread. So, while not losing the memory of your origin, remember that you have duties to fulfill as citizens of
2919-547: 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
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#17328009020523058-437: 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
3197-779: 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
3336-472: 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
3475-489: 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
3614-430: 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
3753-462: 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
3892-652: 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
4031-503: 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
4170-404: 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
4309-492: Is most associated with starting up the textiles industry in the U.S. and who initially brought the textile technology to the U.S. was Samuel Slater . Slater learned that Americans were interested in textile techniques used in England, but since exporting such technical designs were illegal in England, he memorized as much as he could and departed for New York City . Moses Brown , a leading Rhode Island industrialist, secured
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4448-469: 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
4587-828: 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
4726-576: 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 ,
4865-553: 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
5004-483: 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
5143-492: 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
5282-424: 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
5421-542: The 1763 Treaty of Paris , which gave control of the region to the British. During this time many of Vermont 's earliest settlers returned to Quebec; however, the Vermont Archaeological Society has noted in the past that a small number of French remained settled, at farms too remote to meet the notice of the fledgling colonial government. Similarly, Maine was claimed by the French to the east of
5560-465: The 1920 US Census was recorded at 7.4 million residents, placing the proportion of French speakers at about one-fifth of the population, or nearly the same proportion as that of French speakers in Canada in 2016. During the late 19th through mid-20th centuries, the dialect was supported with more than 250 French newspapers extant in New England, many being published weekly and only seeing publication for
5699-764: 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
New England French - Misplaced Pages Continue
5838-462: 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
5977-539: 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
6116-485: 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
6255-559: 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,
6394-877: 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
6533-904: The Kennebec River , and during the expulsion of the Acadians, French culture largely left that landscape as well. Prior to the Great Migration of the Québécois during the Second Industrial Revolution, one of the earliest examples of New England French arose from the Papineau Rebellion in Lower Canada . Following the rebellion, Ludger Duvernay , one of the 26 patriot leaders arrested by Canadian authorities for printing articles critical of
6672-626: 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
6811-520: 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
6950-404: The University of Southern Maine , providing program curricula, was closed entirely. By 2019, the decline had not seen any changes in trend despite the language's centuries-old presence in the state. Even with renewed bilingualism initiatives, a lack of support for foreign-language programs and a shortage of teachers, as well as the stigmatism of the previous English-only laws were blamed in part for
7089-407: The "Father of the American Industrial Revolution". But Slater also earned the pejorative "Slater the Traitor" from many in Great Britain who felt he betrayed them in bringing British textile techniques to the Americas. With the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1794, American slaveholders had the means to make cotton production significantly more profitable. The era of King Cotton
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#17328009020527228-415: The 1.5 million people of French-speaking Canada, about 600,000 had migrated to the U.S., primarily to New England. To a degree these newcomers integrated and learned the English language; however, La Survivance also endured. On the eve of the Chinese Exclusion Act , in 1881 Carroll D. Wright described the newly-arrived French as the "Chinese of the Eastern States" for their refusal to entirely integrate,
7367-407: The 1780s, the Erie Canal was proposed, then re-proposed in 1807 with a survey being funded in 1808. Construction began in 1817 and the original canal was about 363 miles with 34 numbered locks from Albany to Buffalo . Prior to the Erie Canal, bulk goods were limited to shipping by pack animal, there were no railways and water was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods. Use of this new canal
7506-456: The 1960s and 1970s some public schools disciplined students for speaking French in school; however, in recent years it has seen renewed interest and is supported by bilingual education programs in place since 1987. A continuing trend of reduced bilingual and foreign-language education has affected the language's prevalence in younger generations. However, cultural programs in recent years have led to renewed interest between older generations speaking
7645-455: 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;
7784-458: The 2011-2015 American Community Survey: Although many variations of French are spoken by populations within New England, including Quebec, Acadian, and European French, a 1961 speaking study conducted by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare found a number of features of the New England dialect that were prevalent in the mid-20th century. Some colloquialisms found in New England French are similar to rural Quebec French with
7923-474: 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
8062-413: The Blanchard lathe, which could produce identical copies of wooden gun stocks. Interchangeable parts made the development of the assembly line possible. In addition to making production faster, the assembly line eliminated the need for skilled craftsmen because each worker would only do one repetitive step instead of the entire process. The first Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on labor in
8201-475: The British colonial government, went into exile in the States. Formerly publishing La Minerve in Montreal , he issued a prospectus for a French-language paper in 1838, hoping Americans would support a journal that promoted civil rights and independence in Lower Canada. He set up in Burlington, Vermont , what was described as the first French-Canadian American newspaper, publishing the first issue of Le Patriote Canadien on August 7, 1839, for both Canadians across
8340-510: 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
8479-614: 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,
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#17328009020528618-437: The Civil War, rifles with interchangeable parts had been developed, and after the war, more complex devices such as sewing machines and typewriters were made with interchangeable parts. In 1798, Eli Whitney obtained a government contract to manufacture 10,000 muskets in less than two years. By 1801, he had failed to produce a single musket and was called to Washington to justify his use of Treasury funds. There, he created
8757-425: The Embargo Act resulted in the expansion of new, emerging US domestic industries across the board, particularly the textile industry, and marked the beginning of the manufacturing system in the United States, reducing the nation's dependence upon imported manufactured goods. The early Industrial Revolution, which lasted into the mid-19th century, was marked by shift in labor, from an outwork system of labor towards
8896-408: 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
9035-475: The French Language, but the French spirit disappears from their families; their children think in English and therefore speak more easily in the English language." Paquin went on to urge families to francize their prayer and song, so future generations "may serve as an extension of ourselves and our ancestors". Such groups, organized at a national and international level in New England, represented more than gatherings of Franco-Americans , but rather other speakers of
9174-406: The French language as well. For example, a 1938 reception for René Doynel de Saint-Quentin saw representation from Louisiana and from Boston's Syro-Lebanais community. In 1938 as well, New Englanders saw representation at the Second Congress on the French Language in Canada ( Deuxième Congrès de la langue française au Canada ), which included resolutions to establish 12 survivance committees in
9313-523: The French language in Boston and overseas, and would correspond with them, having replies translated for him. The French language remained extant in Boston during its time as a British colony, though not abundant, one reason being a fear of the influence of Catholicism ; academically this prevented the language from gaining early acceptance at Harvard , when its first instructor was dismissed in 1735, after two years of teaching, due to rumors of converting students from Protestantism . Six decades later, one of
9452-407: The French-speaking population but speakers of the dialect are not enumerated specifically. According to the 2016 American Community Survey , in total there were about 160,000 residents in New England who spoke some form of the language at home, with the highest population in Massachusetts , and the highest per capita residential population in Maine. By county, the 2015 American Community Survey showed
9591-416: 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
9730-424: The Jeffersonian-dominated Congress did not renew it. State legislatures were persuaded to charter their own banks to continue helping merchants, artisans, and farmers who needed loans, and, by 1816, there were 246 state-chartered banks. With these banks, states were able to support internal transportation improvements, such as the Erie Canal , which stimulated economic development. The Industrial Revolution altered
9869-403: The New England states, promoting press, cultural institutions and similar. To some degree a Comité de la Survivance française en Amérique would remain active into the 1950s, while meetings of the Société Historique Franco-Américaine would continue in cooperation with other French-speaking communities through the 1980s. In 2012 the state of Maine, one of two states (along with Vermont) where French
10008-700: The New World. However, while Faneuil and Bowdoin both spoke fluently, the latter encouraged his son James Bowdoin III to learn the language, but was described as decidedly pro-British after the Revolution, for his disdain at France's reversion of the Edict of Nantes . In contrast, born to a French household, Revere (anglicized from Rivoire ) only spoke the English of the Bay Province, though he had family who spoke
10147-530: The Republic and that you must love your adopted homeland." While a sense of civic solidarity with Americans was expressed by Laurier and other French-American and Canadian leaders, economic discrimination also disfavored New England French speakers. Not unlike the exclusion some Francophones in Louisiana would witness, attitudes towards French speakers in New England would also result in disparate outcomes. In
10286-585: The U.S. The Industrial Revolution occurred in two distinct phases, the First Industrial Revolution occurred during the later part of the 18th century through the first half of the 19th century and the Second Industrial Revolution advanced following the American Civil War . Among the main contributors to the First Industrial Revolution were Samuel Slater 's introduction of British industrial methods in textile manufacturing to
10425-503: The U.S. Companies from the era, such as the Boston Associates , would recruit thousands of New England farm girls to work in textile mills. These girls often received much lower wages than men, though the work and pay gave young women a sense of independence that they did not feel working on a farm. The First Industrial Revolution also marked the beginning of the rise of wage labor in the United States. As wage labor grew over
10564-462: The U.S. economy and set the stage for the United States to dominate technological change and growth in the Second Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age . The Industrial Revolution also saw a decrease in labor shortages which had characterized the U.S. economy through its early years. This was partly due to a transportation revolution happening at the same time, low population density areas of
10703-664: The U.S. economy. Some technologies that advanced the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. were appropriated from British designs by ambitious British entrepreneurs hoping to use the technology to create successful companies in the U.S. Much of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. originated in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania , where anthracite coal , iron ore , steel , textile , and industrial sectors experienced breakthroughs and emerged as global manufacturing leaders. One entrepreneur who
10842-564: The U.S. were better able to connect to the population centers through the Wilderness Road and the Erie Canal , with steamboats and later rail transport , leading to urbanization and an increased labor force available around larger cities, including Chicago , Philadelphia , and New York City , and labor force shortages elsewhere as workers fled to these highly populated cities. Also, quicker movement of resources and goods around
10981-494: The United States, Eli Whitney 's invention of the cotton gin , Éleuthère Irénée du Pont 's improvements in chemistry and gunpowder making, and other industrial advancements necessitated by the War of 1812 , as well as the construction of the Erie Canal , among other developments. As Western Europe industrialized in the mid-to-late 1700s, the United States remained agrarian with resource processing, gristmills, and sawmills being
11120-644: The United States, the others being Louisiana French and the nearly extinct Missouri French , Muskrat French and Métis French . The dialect is the predominant form of French spoken in New England (apart from standard French), except in the Saint John Valley of northern Aroostook County, Maine , where Brayon French predominates. The dialect is endangered. After the First World War, laws were instituted banning immersive bilingual teaching outside of dedicated foreign-language classes, and during
11259-503: The United States, working with Robert R. Livingston to open the first commercially successful steamboat operating between New York City and Albany . Fulton built a new steamboat sturdy enough to take down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, he was an early member on a commission to plan the Erie Canal , and Fulton designed the first working muscle-powered submarine, the Nautilus . In
11398-675: The Yankee and Franco settlers, the role of France in the American Revolution as well as the contributions of French military figures like Rochambeau in the Siege of Yorktown , engendered an alliance against Loyalists at that time. Early figures from French stock who would become a part of the American narrative included Peter Faneuil , Gov. James Bowdoin , and Paul Revere , all descendants of Huguenots who fled persecution to
11537-702: The availability of larger Quebec publications like La Presse in Montreal led to a gradual decline of the New England French newspaper trade. In one 1936 editorial in the Woonsocket L'Union , the editorship described an apathy that had set in with the French community in response to an increase in advertising for financial support- "Our press is barely able to maintain itself ... One of our weeklies has just expired; others live almost exclusively on ads; many get only blame and denigration in return for
11676-612: The border and a patriot community in the United States. Beginning in the late 1840s, greater numbers of French Canadians began to settle in the States, at first for seasonal agricultural jobs, and then eventually brought in by horse and later train, to serve as factory workers for the large mill towns being built by the Boston Associates and others all across the six New England states. By 1899 there were reportedly 120 French-language parishes in New England, and by that time of
11815-420: The broad sense, Americans for generations, and their coming to the United States is merely a movement of Americans across an imaginary line." Industrial cities as large as Fall River, Massachusetts , and as small as Somersworth, New Hampshire , would often have bilingual signs, and American customs such as baseball gradually adopted by younger generations had their own francized jargon, with it being as common for
11954-588: The children themselves, in households of Franco-American families whose youngest generations primarily speak English. Examples include substitutions as simple as calling grandparents mémère (shortened mémé ) or pépère ( pépé ), while a 1969 study found other more opaque examples, a small sample of which includes: Though not offering weekly or monthly coverage, the New York -based bilingual France-Amérique magazine writes periodic news stories on Francophone community events and institutions in New England. With
12093-399: The country drastically increased trade efficiency and output while allowing for an extensive transport base for the U.S. to grow during the Second Industrial Revolution. Techniques to make interchangeable parts were developed in the U.S., and allowed easy assembly and repair of firearms or other devices, minimizing the time and skill needed to repair or assemble devices. By the beginning of
12232-827: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Industrial Revolution in the United States Employment In the United States from the late 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution affected the U.S. economy , progressing it from manual labor, farm labor and handicraft work, to a greater degree of industrialization based on wage labor . There were many improvements in technology and manufacturing fundamentals with results that greatly improved overall production and economic growth in
12371-451: The decline. One exception to this was Lewiston's Le Messager , whose publisher-owner, Jean-Baptiste Couture, founded central Maine's first, and New England's only radio station owned by a Franco-American weekly, WCOU , in 1938. The bilingual WCOU would outlive the paper, broadcasting regular French programming through at least 1972. A few newspapers were able to retain a readership beyond the 1960s independently. This included Le Travailleur ,
12510-519: 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
12649-577: The dialect, and the language has also been bolstered by newly arrived refugee populations from Francophone Africa in cities such as Lewiston . Dating back to the earliest colonial period, a French presence remained in New England with its proximity to Quebec , even after many Acadians were exiled in Le Grand Dérangement and later settled in Spanish Louisiana . Although the French and Indian War would leave distance between
12788-448: 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
12927-745: The economy of Canada improved, a number of those whose families had moved to the United States would return to Quebec, Ontario , and New Brunswick , as well, into the latter half of the 20th century. A decline in the French language was evident by the mid-20th century, with Joseph Ubalde-Paquin, a president of the Société Historique Franco-Américaine , noting during the 2nd Congress of the French Language in Boston in 1937 ( 2e Congrès de la Langue française ), that "the Franco-Americans always speak valiantly
13066-594: 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
13205-450: The emergence of the internet was Le Journal de Lowell ; founded in 1975, the monthly paper would continue to produce French-language content, including the translation of English ads, until December 1995, when it abruptly ceased publication. A combination of cultural and economic forces would drive a decline in the use of the French language in New England through the end of the 20th century. Attitudes varied among Anglophone Yankees. During
13344-547: The exception of Francophone group publications such as the newsletter of Boston Accueil , no regular French periodicals are extant within New England today. In other mediums the language is rarely found, with the exception of Canadian French AM repeaters of Radio-Canada from Quebec, and an online forum maintained by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , "Bienvenue à Boston". French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )
13483-516: 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
13622-442: The first publishers of a French textbook in the Americas was Harvard's first salaried French instructor, Joseph Nancrède, who compiled then-contemporary French texts and published them alongside limited English translations in his L'Abeille Françoise in 1792. Years before, in 1789, Nancrède established the first French newspaper of Boston, a short-lived weekly published for six months that year which he described in its prospectus as
13761-915: 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 ,
13900-467: The free publicity they give to Franco-American works ... It's all the hostility, the apathy, the indifference of Franco-Americans that prevent our newspapers from achieving perfection ... Their defects come from their relative helplessness rather than from their incompetence." Many of these ads would increasingly appear in English, and changing mediums like radio, as well as a frustration with the helpless financial situation leading to more ads only aggravated
14039-829: 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
14178-651: The highest populations of French speakers in Middlesex County, Massachusetts , with 16,593 household speakers, and Hartford County, Connecticut , with 11,620. Per capita, the only county with more than 10% of residents speaking any form of French at home was Aroostook County, Maine (9,800 or 14.6%), due to its geographic proximity to Canada and speakers of Acadian and Quebec French . Coos County, New Hampshire (2,923 or 9.6%), Androscoggin County, Maine (8,913 or 8.8%) and Essex County, Vermont (374 or 6.3%) were
14317-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
14456-479: 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
14595-1195: The language, with a Maine chapter of the Alliance Française established in Portland in August 2019, adding to others in Hartford, Providence, Greater Burlington , the Centre Franco-Americain in Manchester , and the French Cultural Center in Boston. The New England dialect, and some of the vocabulary and mannerisms that characterize it, not unlike Acadian, Canadian, and Cajun French, however, have faced less institutional support, in favor of Standard French . A number of smaller local cultural and language preservation groups remain extant, including Le Comité Franco-Américain de Lowell and L'Association Francophone de Fall River in Massachusetts. While not approached from
14734-612: 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 ,
14873-479: 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
15012-645: The main industrial, non-agrarian output. As demand for U.S. resources increased, canals and railroads became important to the economic growth as transportation necessitated and the U.S. population was sparse, especially in areas where resources were being extracted such as the American frontier . This made it necessary to expand technological capabilities, which led to an Industrial Revolution in America as entrepreneurs, businesses competed with and learned from each other to develop better technology, fundamentally altering
15151-420: 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
15290-589: 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;
15429-419: The only other counties with more than 5% of the population speaking French, with Androscoggin County, home to Lewiston, Maine , being the sole county not bordering Canada with such a proportion of speakers. The figures below include speakers of any French dialect , as estimated during the 2012-2016 American Community Survey : French language spoken at home by more than 10% of the population, as estimated for
15568-534: 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
15707-471: 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
15846-483: The report concluded the French language was no longer inherently part of French-American identity. As part of this effort, in 2012 Maine launched an immersive Maine French Heritage Language Program, designed to have at least four in five classes conducted in French, catering to both the New England dialect and those of immigrants and refugees. However, this program was cut by 2014, when the French Department of
15985-471: 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
16124-589: The running water to power the machinery in the plant. Thus, many of the factories of the First Industrial Revolution were in the Northeastern United States To aid the expansion of industry, Congress chartered the Bank of the United States in 1791, giving loans to help merchants and entrepreneurs secure needed capital. However, Jeffersonians saw this bank as an unconstitutional expansion of federal power, so when its charter expired in 1811,
16263-434: The services of Slater, with Slater promising to recreate British textile designs. After an initial investment by Brown to fulfill initial requirements, a mill successfully opened in 1793 being the first water-powered roller spinning textile mill in America. By 1800, Slater's mill had been duplicated by many other entrepreneurs as Slater grew wealthier and his techniques more and more popular with Andrew Jackson calling Slater
16402-453: The study and other regional literature include: Given the ubiquity of English in the region as well as the close proximity of French and English speaking groups, oftentimes code switching is used extensively by Franco-American families even when French is not spoken by all members of the household. Many of these words are used as terms of endearment between grandparents referring to their grandchildren, or by their parents, and often picked up by
16541-466: 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
16680-679: 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
16819-508: 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
16958-646: The use of French in Catholic schools, but neither would pass their legislatures. A consequence of those laws that were enacted however, were that entire communities where only French was spoken were subject to scrutiny by the state. A threat of penalty or termination of funding for speaking French outside of French classes led to measures in Maine which suppressed the language. Most notably, children were often asked to refrain from speaking anything but English when state officials were present, leading to "silent playgrounds" during days schools were being inspected. In turn, as
17097-485: 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
17236-513: The use of their labor by mill owners to subvert union wages, and the creation of separate French-language institutions. This statement would serve as a flashpoint of controversy for decades, but others in the Yankee political class would welcome the newcomers, with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge remarking in a 1908 immigration speech to the Boston City Club that they "represent one of the oldest settlements on this continent. They have been, in
17375-457: The use of words like char (roughly, "chariot"), compared with the standard French word for car, voiture ("vehicle", "automobile"), and represent words regarded as archaic in standardized French or words used in other dialects but of similar, yet distinct, usages. When respondents were presented with more advanced Standard French prompts, however, they generally demonstrated comprehension and code switching . Some examples of responses provided in
17514-536: 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
17653-402: 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
17792-656: Was a cumulative addition to the Non-importation Act of 1806 (2 Stat. 379), which was a "Prohibition of the Importation of certain Goods and Merchandise from the Kingdom of Great Britain," the prohibited imported goods being defined where their chief value, which consists of leather, silk, hemp or flax, tin or brass, wool, glass, and paper goods, nails, hats, clothing, and beer. The prohibition of imports under
17931-417: 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
18070-477: Was copied by many and improved upon. The du Pont family emigrated to the United States due to repercussions from the French Revolution , bringing with them expertise in chemistry and gunpowder. E.I. du Pont observed that the quality of American gunpowder was poor, and opened Eleutherian Mills , a gunpowder mill on Brandywine Creek in 1802. The mill served as home for du Pont's family as well as
18209-819: 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
18348-615: Was embraced by the Whig Party in the early 19th century with their support for Henry Clay 's American System . This plan, proposed shortly after the War of 1812 , promoted not only protective tariffs , but also canals and roads to support the movement of manufactured goods around the country. As in Britain, the First Industrial Revolution in the United States revolved heavily around the textile industry. Early U.S. textile plants were located next to rivers and streams as they would use
18487-497: Was faster than using carts pulled by draft animals and cut transport costs by about 95%. The canal gave New York City's port a significant advantage over all other U.S. port cities and contributed to a growth in population in New York state and regions farther west. It inspired canals elsewhere, bringing a canal age . In response to British aggression against the U.S., Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807 . The embargo
18626-463: 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
18765-596: 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
18904-594: 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
19043-437: 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 ,
19182-409: Was the second-most spoken language, created a Franco-American Task Force to evaluate the current status of the language among Franco-Americans in Maine. Among its findings were that of this population, only 12.3% over the age of 5, about 40,000 individuals, spoke French. Some 98.5% of these Franco-Americans had been born in the United States, indicating the persistence of New England French. Nevertheless,
19321-462: Was underway by the early 1800s to such an extent that by the mid-19th century, southern slave plantations supplied 75% of the world's cotton. The introduction of the cotton gin was as unexpected as it was unprecedented. British textiles had expanded with no change in ginning principles in centuries. For the American planter class , up front costs were higher but productivity improvement among their slaves were clear and Whitney's original 1794 gin design
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