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| Europe | |
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French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.[13][citation needed] It is also the third-most widely understood language in the EU, after English and German, and is one of the three working languages of the European Commission, again, along with English and German.[14]
[edit] Tags:English,European Union,Working Languages,European Commission,German, | |
| Legal status in France | |
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See also: Toubon Law and Languages of France
According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992[15] (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.
In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against its 1958 Constitution.[16]
[edit] Tags:Dialects,Ordinance Of Villers-cotterêts,France,Official Language,Languages Of France,Constitution Of France,Education,Contracts,Advertisements, | |
| Switzerland | |
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Further information: Languages of Switzerland, Swiss French, and Romandie
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 Romandie, 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 Biel/Bienne or cantons such as Valais-Fribourg-Berne. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population and is spoken by 50.4%[17] of the population.
Most of Swiss French is mutually compatible with the standard French spoken in France, but it is often used with small differences, such as those involving numbers after 69 and slight differences in other vocabulary terms.
[edit] Tags:Switzerland,Italian,Romandie,Romansh,Geneva,Cantons,Bilingual, | |
| Belgium | |
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Further information: Languages of Belgium and Belgian French
Bilingual signs in Brussels.
In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages—along with Dutch—of the Brussels-Capital Region, where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language.[18] French and German are not official languages nor recognized minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch as a first language. Of the latter, 59% claim French as a second or third language, meaning that about three quarters of the Belgian population can speak French.[19][20]
[edit] Tags:Ipa,Wallonia,Brussels,Belgium,Belgian French,East Cantons,German-speaking,Dutch,Brussels-capital Region,Flemish Region,Municipalities With Language Facilities, | |
| Monaco and Andorra | |
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Further information: Languages of Monaco and Languages of Andorra
Although Monégasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population.
Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used because of the proximity to France and the fact that France is, with the Urgel's Bishop, part of the government. French nationals make up 7% of the population.
Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries[21] (Note that around 40% of Belgium's population are native French speakers,[22] totaling 88%[23] of the country's population.)
[edit] Tags:Monaco,Catalan,Languages Of Andorra,Monégasque,Principality Of Monaco,Andorra, | |
| Luxembourg | |
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Further information: Languages of Luxembourg and Multilingualism in Luxembourg
French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively spoken language of Luxembourg. French is primarily used for administrative purposes by the government, and is also the language used to converse with foreigners.[24] Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French.[24]
[edit] Tags:Multilingualism In Luxembourg,The Grand Duchy Of Luxembourg,Luxembourgish, | |
| Italy | |
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Further information: Languages of Italy
French is also an official language in the small region of Aosta Valley, Italy.[25] Though most non-Italophone people in the region speak Franco-Provençal,[26] they use standard French to write. That is because the international recognition of Franco-Provençal as a separate language (as opposed to a dialect or patois of French) was quite recent.
[edit] Tags:Aosta Valley,Languages Of Italy,Italy,Franco-provençal, | |
| The United Kingdom and the Channel Islands | |
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Further information: Languages of Jersey, Languages of Guernsey, and Languages of the United Kingdom
French is a large minority language and immigrant language in the United Kingdom, with over 300,000 French-born people in the UK. It is also the most popular foreign language. French is spoken and understood by 23% of the UK population.[27]
Modern and Middle English reflect a mixture of Oïl and Old English lexicons after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, when a Norman-speaking aristocracy took control of a population whose mother tongue was Germanic in origin. As a result of the intertwined histories of England and continental possessions of the English Crown many formal and legal words from Modern English have French roots. Thus whilst words such as buy and sell are of Germanic origin, purchase and vend are from Old French.
French is an official language in both Jersey and Guernsey. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative or ceremonial capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman (in its local forms, Guernésiais and Jèrriais) is the historical vernacular of the islands.
[edit] Tags:Oïl,Germanic,Languages Of The United Kingdom,Language In The United Kingdom,Modern,Middle English,Old English,Old French,Jersey,Guernsey,Jersey Legal French,Norman,Guernésiais,Jèrriais,Vernacular, | |
| Canada | |
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See also: Canadian French, French language in Canada, Spoken languages of Canada, and Official bilingualism in Canada
The "arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in Quebec while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people, or almost 80.1% (2006 Census) of the Province. About 95.0% of the people of Quebec speak French as either their first or second language, and for some as their third language. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal, which is the world's second largest French speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Eastern Ontario, Northeastern Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Manitoba have sizable French minorities, and many provinces provide service in French for its linguistic minorities. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces.
About 9,487,500 of Canadians speak French as their first language, or around 30% of the country,[28][29] with 2,065,300 constituting secondary speakers.[30] Due to the increased bilingual school programs and French Immersion Classes in English Canada, the portion of Canadians proficient in French has risen significantly in the past two decades, and is still rising.
The difference between French spoken in Quebec and French spoken in France is similar in degree to that between American and British English. In Quebec, where the majority of French-speaking Canadians live, the Office québécois de la langue française (English: Quebec Board of the French language) regulates Quebec French and ensures the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101 & 104) is respected. The Office québécois de la langue française determined that "stop" is a valid French word; however, it is observed that stop signs reading "ARRÊT" predominate in French-speaking areas, and "STOP" can be found in majority English-speaking areas.
[edit] Tags:Quebec,Canada, | |
| Haiti | |
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French is one of Haiti's two official languages. It is the principal language of writing, school instruction, and administrative use. It is spoken by all educated Haitians and is used in the business sector. It is also used in ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations and church masses. About 10-15% of the country's population have French as their first language; the rest speak it as a secondary language in varying degrees of proficiency from basic level to fluent. The second official language is the recently standardized Haitian Creole which is spoken by virtually the entire population of Haiti. Haitian Creole is one of the French-based creole languages, drawing the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. Haitian Creole is closely related to Louisiana Creole and all other French creoles.
[edit] Tags:Creoles,French-based Creole Languages,Haitian Creole, | |
| French overseas departments and territories in the Americas | |
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French is also the official language in France's overseas departments and territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre et Miquelon.
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| United States | |
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Main article: French in the United States
See also: Cajun French, Louisiana Creole French, Acadian French, and Missouri French
French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6–12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12–18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included.
French is the fourth[31][32] most-spoken language in the United States, after English, Spanish and Chinese, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French. Cajun French has the largest number of speakers, mostly living in Acadiana. According to the 2000 United States Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if Creole French is excluded.[32] New England French, essentially 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.[33]
[edit] Tags:Acadia,Spanish, | |
| Brazil | |
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The French language was spoken in Brazil for a brief period during the colonial attempts of France Antarctique and France Ecquinociale. Also, the language was used by the community of French immigrants and expatriates in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and by the Brazilian public education system.
Today the Karipuna indigenous community (nearly 30,000 people) of Amapá in North Brazil speaks a French creole, the Lanc-Patuá, possibly related to the French Guiana Creole.
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| Africa | |
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Main articles: African French and Maghreb French
Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal.
Countries usually considered as Francophone Africa. These countries had a population of 349 million in 2011.[34] Their population is projected to reach between 710 million[35] and 729 million[34] in 2050.
Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa
Countries that are not Francophone but are Members or Observers of the OIF
A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 Francophone African countries can speak French as either a first or a second language.[5] This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language.[5] Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050.[36]
French is mostly a second language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire[37] and in Libreville, Gabon.[38] The classification of French as a second language in Francophone Africa is debatable because it is often the only language spoken and written in schools, administrations, radio, TV and the Internet. This prevalence of French is noticeable in popular music, in which French is often mixed with the language of the song. It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed because of the contact with many indigenous African languages.[39] In fact, the term African French is a misnomer, as forms are different from country to country, and the root of the French spoken in a particular country depends on its former colonial empire. French spoken in the Benin, for example, is closer to that spoken in France than to French spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is rooted in Belgian French.
In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth.[40] It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.[41][42] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,[43] but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.
French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies:
Benin
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Tags:Francophonie,Francophone Africa,Gabon, | |
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