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99-565: (Redirected from Prix Poncelet ) [REDACTED] This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:   "Poncelet Prize"  –  news   · newspapers   · books   · scholar   · JSTOR ( April 2011 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) The Poncelet Prize ( French : Prix Poncelet )

198-744: 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

297-431: 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,

396-615: A different nationality. elected by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) whose principal task is to promote worldwide uniformity in units of measurement by taking direct action or by submitting proposals to the CGPM. The CIPM meets every year (since 2011 in two sessions per year) at the Pavillon de Breteuil where, among other matters, it discusses reports presented to it by its Consultative Committees. Reports of

495-555: 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

594-514: A member of the CIPM. Apart from the CCU, membership of a CC is open to National Metrology Institutes ( NMIs ) of Member States that are recognized internationally as most expert in the field. NMIs from Member States that are active in the field, but lack the expertise to become Members, are able to attend CC meetings as observers. These committees are: The CCU's role is to advise on matters related to

693-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on

792-494: 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

891-587: 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

990-526: 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

1089-941: 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

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1188-547: 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

1287-437: 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

1386-779: 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

1485-472: 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

1584-489: 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

1683-430: 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

1782-462: 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

1881-479: Is awarded by the French Academy of Sciences . The prize was established in 1868 by the widow of General Jean-Victor Poncelet for the advancement of the sciences. It was in the amount of 2,000 francs (as of 1868), mostly for the work in applied mathematics . The precise wording of the announcement by the academy varied from year to year and required the work be "in mechanics ", or "for work contributing to

1980-652: 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

2079-503: 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

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2178-404: 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

2277-469: 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

2376-828: 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

2475-576: 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 ,

2574-553: 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

2673-483: 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

2772-492: 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

2871-424: 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

2970-764: 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

3069-462: 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

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3168-590: The Convention du Mètre ( Metre Convention ) was signed by 17 states. This treaty established an international organisation, the Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM), which has two governing organs: The organization has a permanent laboratory and secretariat function (sometimes referred to as the Headquarters), the activities of which include the establishment of the basic standards and scales of

3267-539: 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

3366-485: 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

3465-559: 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,

3564-877: 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

3663-460: The International system of units . The brochure is produced by the CCU in conjunction with a number of other international organisations. Initially the brochure was only in French – the official language of the metre convention, but recent versions have been published simultaneously in both English and French, with the French text being the official text. The 6th edition was published in 1991,

3762-626: 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

3861-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin

3960-549: The 11th CGPM approved the title International System of Units , usually known as "SI". The General Conference receives the report of the CIPM on work accomplished; it discusses and examines the arrangements required to ensure the propagation and improvement of the International System of Units (SI); it endorses the results of new fundamental metrological determinations and various scientific resolutions of international scope; and it decides all major issues concerning

4059-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

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4158-836: 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

4257-1115: The 21st meeting of the CGPM in October 1999, the category of "associate" was created for states not yet BIPM members and for economic unions . Albania (2007) Azerbaijan (2015) Bangladesh (2010) Bolivia (2008) Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011) Botswana (2012) Cambodia (2021) Caribbean Community (2005) Chinese Taipei (2002) Ethiopia (2018) Georgia (2008) Ghana (2009) Hong Kong (2000) Jamaica (2003) Kuwait (2018) Latvia (2001) Luxembourg (2014) Malta (2001) Mauritius (2010) Moldova (2007) Mongolia (2013) Namibia (2012) North Macedonia (2006) Oman (2012) Panama (2003) Paraguay (2009) Peru (2009) Philippines (2002) Qatar (2016) Sri Lanka (2007) Syria (2012) Tanzania (2018) Uzbekistan (2018) Vietnam (2003) Zambia (2010) Zimbabwe (2010–2020, 2022) Cuba (2000–2021) Seychelles (2010–2021) Sudan (2014–2021) The International Committee for Weights and Measures consists of eighteen persons, each of

4356-1808: The British Government signed the convention on behalf of the United Kingdom. This number grew to 21 in 1900, 32 in 1950, and 49 in 2001. As of 18 November 2022 , there are 64 Member States and 36 Associate States and Economies of the General Conference (with year of partnership in parentheses): Argentina (1877) Australia (1947) Austria (1875) Belarus (2020) Belgium (1875) Brazil (1921) Bulgaria (1911) Canada (1907) Chile (1908) China (1977) Colombia (2012) Costa Rica (2022) Croatia (2008) Czech Republic (1922) Denmark (1875) Ecuador (2019) Egypt (1962) Estonia (2021) Finland (1913) France (1875) Germany (1875) Greece (2001) Hungary (1925) India (1880) Indonesia (1960) Iran (1975) Iraq (2013) Ireland (1925) Israel (1985) Italy (1875) Japan (1885) Kazakhstan (2008) Kenya (2010) Lithuania (2015) Malaysia (2001) Mexico (1890) Montenegro (2018) Morocco (2019) Netherlands (1929) New Zealand (1991) Norway (1875) Pakistan (1973) Poland (1925) Portugal (1876) Romania (1884) Russia (1875) Saudi Arabia (2011) Serbia (2001) Singapore (1994) Slovakia (1922) Slovenia (2016) South Africa (1964) South Korea (1959) Spain (1875) Sweden (1875) Switzerland (1875) Thailand (1912) Tunisia (2012) Turkey (1875) Ukraine (2018) United Arab Emirates (2015) United Kingdom (1884) United States (1878) Uruguay (1908) Cameroon (1970–2012) Dominican Republic (1954–2015) North Korea (1982–2012) Peru (1875–1956) Venezuela (1879–1907, 1960–2018) At

4455-514: The CIPM include: From time to time the CIPM has been charged by the CGPM to undertake major investigations related to activities affecting the CGPM or the BIPM. Reports produced include: The Blevin Report , published in 1998, examined the state of worldwide metrology. The report originated from a resolution passed at the 20th CGPM (October 1995) which committed the CIPM to study and report on

4554-703: 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

4653-614: 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,

4752-452: The Conference of the Metre in 1875, representatives of seventeen signed the convention on 20 May 1875. In April 1884, H. J. Chaney, Warden of Standards in London unofficially contacted the BIPM inquiring whether the BIPM would calibrate some metre standards that had been manufactured in the United Kingdom. Broch , director of the BIPM replied that he was not authorised to perform any such calibrations for non-member states. On 17 September 1884,

4851-408: 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

4950-580: The French Academy of Sciences 1868 establishments in France Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links CS1: long volume value CS1 French-language sources (fr) CS1 maint: untitled periodical Articles needing additional references from April 2011 All articles needing additional references Articles containing French-language text Articles needing more detailed references French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

5049-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained

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5148-1055: The International Geodetic Association" . Journal of Geodesy . 71 (3): 176–188. Bibcode : 1997JGeod..71..176S . CiteSeerX   10.1.1.492.3967 . doi : 10.1007/s001900050086 . ISSN   1432-1394 . S2CID   119447198 . ^ Académie des sciences (France) Auteur du texte (July 1890). "Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences / publiés... par MM. les secrétaires perpétuels" . Gallica (in French). p. 1025 . Retrieved 17 September 2020 . ^ "Séance du 18 décembre" . Le Moniteur Scientifique du Docteur Quesneville : 154–155. February 1906. ^ "Séance du 20 décembre" . Le Moniteur Scientifique du Docteur Quesneville : 143–144. February 1910. ^ "Séance du 19 décembre" . Le Moniteur Scientifique du Docteur Quesneville : 137–138. February 1911. ^ "Prix décernés année 1911" . Le Moniteur Scientifique du Docteur Quesneville : 143. February 1912. ^ Lockyer, Sir Norman (1 January 1914). "Prize Awards of

5247-402: The International System of Units (SI), approves the budget for the BIPM (over €13 million in 2018) and it decides all major issues concerning the organization and development of the BIPM. The structure is analogous to that of a stock corporation . The BIPM is the organisation, the CGPM is the general meeting of the shareholders, the CIPM is the board of directors appointed by the CGPM, and

5346-974: The Paris Academy of Sciences for 1913" . Nature . 92 (2305): 512–514. Bibcode : 1914Natur..92R.512. . doi : 10.1038/092512b0 . ^ "Séance du 27 décembre" . Le Moniteur Scientifique du Doctuer Quesneville : 65–66. March 1916. ^ À titre posthume; d'après les Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences , vol. 209, p. 918 (1939). ^ Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences: La vie des sciences , 10 (5), Gauthier-Villars: 479, 1993, Le prix est décerné à Marie Farge ... pour sa contribution à l'application de la transformée par ondelettes à l'étude de la turbulence {{ citation }} : CS1 maint: untitled periodical ( link ) . References [ edit ] Nature , different years. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Poncelet_Prize&oldid=1253132712 " Categories : Mathematics awards Awards established in 1868 Awards of

5445-695: The application of the wavelet transform to the study of turbulence " (1995) Yves Le Jan See also [ edit ] List of mathematics awards Notes [ edit ] ^ Jeremy Gray, " A History of Prizes in Mathematics Archived 2013-10-20 at the Wayback Machine ", Clay Mathematics Institute and American Mathematical Society , 2006. ^ "Prix" . Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences . Vol. Tomes XCII à CXXI, 3 Janvier 1881 à 30 Décembre 1895. Paris: Gauthier-Villars. 1900. p. 1570. ^ Soler, T. (1997-02-01). "A profile of General Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero: first president of

5544-419: The convention organisations and national governments is handled by the member state's ambassador to France, it is implicit that member states must have diplomatic relations with France, though during both world wars, nations that were at war with France retained their membership of the CGPM. CGPM meetings are chaired by the Président de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris . Of the twenty countries that attended

5643-412: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French General Conference on Weights and Measures Initially the work of the BIPM concerned the kilogram and the metre , but in 1921 the scope of the Metre Convention was extended to accommodate all physical measurements and hence all aspects of the metric system . In 1960

5742-404: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French

5841-416: The development of the SI and the preparation of the SI brochure. It has liaison with other international bodies such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) , International Astronomical Union (IAU) , International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) , International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and International Commission on Illumination (CIE) . Official reports of

5940-448: 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

6039-489: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as

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6138-406: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of

6237-439: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,

6336-715: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being

6435-550: The intelligent direction he gave to every matter related to his involvement at the International Committee for Weights and Measures . After more than twenty years of scrupulous studies, in 1889, and according to the resolutions of (the Convention of the Metre in) 1875, the new metre standards were distributed to countries in Europe and the Americas perpetuating the acceptance of the metric system ." (1891) Marie Georges Humbert (1892) Benjamin Baker and John Fowler (1893) Gabriel Koenigs (1894) Hermann Laurent , "for

6534-401: 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

6633-424: 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

6732-501: 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 ,

6831-428: 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

6930-574: The long-term national and international needs relating to metrology, the appropriate international collaborations and the unique role of the BIPM to meet these needs, and the financial and other commitments that will be required from the Member States in the coming decades. The report identified, amongst other things, a need for closer cooperation between the BIPM and other organisations such as International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) with clearly defined boundaries and interfaces between

7029-692: The mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism." (1874) Jacques Bresse , "for his work in applied mechanics." (1875) Gaston Darboux , "for the ensemble of his mathematical work." (1876) Xavier Kretz (1877) Edmond Laguerre , "for his mathematical works." (1878) Maurice Lévy (1879) Théodore Moutard (1880) Henry Léauté (1881) Charles Auguste Briot (1882) Rudolf Clausius (1883) Georges Henri Halphen (1884) Jules Hoüel (1885) Henri Poincaré (1886) Charles Émile Picard (1887) Paul Émile Appell (1888) Édouard Collignon (1889) Édouard Goursat (1890) Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero , "for his dedication and

7128-614: The meetings of the CGPM, the CIPM, and all the Consultative Committees, are published by the BIPM. The secretariat is based in Saint-Cloud , Hauts-de-Seine , France . In 1999, the CIPM has established the CIPM Arrangement de reconnaissance mutuelle (Mutual Recognition Arrangement, MRA), which serves as the framework for the mutual acceptance of national measurement standards and for recognition of

7227-485: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by

7326-589: 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;

7425-463: The organisations. Another major finding was the need for cooperation between accreditation laboratories and the need to involve developing countries in the world of metrology. The Kaarls Report published in 2003 examined the role of the BIPM in the evolving needs for metrology in trade, industry and society. The CIPM has responsibility for commissioning the SI brochure, which is the formal definition of

7524-531: The organization and development of the BIPM, including its financial endowment. The CGPM meets in Paris, usually once every four years. The 25th meeting of the CGPM took place from 18 to 20 November 2014, the 26th meeting of the CGPM took place in Versailles from 13 to 16 November 2018, and the 27th meeting of the CGPM took place from 15 to 18 November 2022. On 20 May 1875 an international treaty known as

7623-534: 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

7722-471: 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

7821-399: The principal physical quantities and maintenance of the international prototype standards. The CGPM acts on behalf of the governments of its members. In so doing, it elects members to the CIPM, receives reports from the CIPM which it passes on to the governments and national laboratories on member states, examines and where appropriate approves proposals from the CIPM in respect of changes to

7920-488: The progress of pure or applied mathematics", or simply "in applied mathematics", and sometimes included condition that the work must be "done during the ten years preceding the award." 19th century [ edit ] (1868) Alfred Clebsch (1869) Julius von Mayer (1870) Camille Jordan (1871) Joseph Boussinesq (1872) Amédée Mannheim , "for the general excellence of his geometrical disquisitions." (1873) William Thomson , "for his magnificent works on

8019-471: 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

8118-521: The staff at the site in Saint-Cloud perform the day-to-day work. The CGPM recognises two classes of membership – full membership for those states that wish to participate in the activities of the BIPM and associate membership for those countries or economies that only wish to participate in the CIPM MRA program. Associate members have observer status at the CGPM. Since all formal liaison between

8217-466: 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

8316-457: The totality of his researches in mechanics." (1914) Henri Lebesgue (1915) Charles Rabut (1916) Charles de la Vallée-Poussin (1917) Jules Andrade , "for his work in applied mechanics, especially that dealing with chronometry." (1918) Joseph Larmor (1919) Prosper Charbonnier , "for his work on ballistics" (1920) Élie Cartan , "for the whole of his work." (1921) Jacques Charles Émile Jouguet (1922) Jules Drach , "for

8415-679: 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

8514-508: 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

8613-485: 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

8712-452: The validity of calibration and measurement certificates issued by national metrology institutes. A recent focus area of the CIPM has been the revision of the SI . The CIPM has set up a number of consultative committees (CC) to assist it in its work. These committees are under the authority of the CIPM. The president of each committee, who is expected to take the chair at CC meetings, is usually

8811-827: The whole of his mathematical works." (1895) Gustave Robin (1896) Paul Painlevé , "for all of his mathematical work." (1897) Roger Liouville (1898) Jacques Hadamard (1899) Eugène Cosserat , "for the whole of his contributions to geometry and mechanics." (1900) Léon Lecornu 20th century [ edit ] (1901) Émile Borel (1902) Maurice d'Ocagne (1903) David Hilbert (1904) Désiré André (1905) Charles Lallemand (1857–1938) (1906) Claude Guichard (1907) Charles Renard (posthumously) (1908) Erik Ivar Fredholm , "for his researches on integral equations." (1909) Comte de Sparre, "for his studies relating to gunnery and his works on mechanics." (1910) Charles Riquier (1911) Auguste Rateau (1912) Edmond Maillet (1913) Maurice Leblanc , "for

8910-707: The whole of his mathematical works." (1932) Raoul Bricard , "for his work in geometry." (1934) René Maurice Fréchet , "for the whole of his mathematical works." (1936) Paul Lévy , "for the whole of his mathematical works." (1937) Joseph Bethenod , " for his work on mechanics and electricity." (1938) Szolem Mandelbrojt (1939) Henri Bénard (1942) René Garnier (1945) Alphonse Demoulin (1948) Georges Valiron (1951) Joseph Kampé de Fériet (1954) Georges Darmois (1972) Michel Lazard (1975) Jean Céa (1978) Henri Skoda (1981) Philippe G. Ciarlet (1987) Pierre Ladeveze (1990) Jean-Yves Girard (1993) Marie Farge "for her work on

9009-418: The whole of his work in mathematics." (1923) Auguste Boulanger ( posthumously ), "for the whole of his scientific work." (1924) Ernest Vessiot , "for the whole of his work in mathematics." (1925) Denis Eydoux, "for the whole of his work in hydraulics." (1926) Paul Montel , "for his mathematical work as a whole." (1927) Henri Villat (1929) Alfred-Marie Liénard (1930) Arnaud Denjoy , "for

9108-536: 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

9207-402: 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

9306-417: 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

9405-819: 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

9504-451: 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

9603-708: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates

9702-594: 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

9801-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,

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