French language

Not to be confused with Lingua franca.

French
français
Pronunciation[fʁɑ̃sɛ]
Native toFrance, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, Francophone Africa, Canada, and other locations in the Francophonie
SpeakersL1: 74 million (2020)[1]
L2: 238 million (2022)[1]
Total: 310 million[1]
Early forms
Latin script (French alphabet)
French Braille
Signed French
(français signé)
Official status
Official language in



Regulated byAcadémie Française (French Academy, France)
Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Board of the French Language, Quebec)
Direction de la langue française [fr] (Belgium)
Language codes
ISO 639-1fr
ISO 639-2fre (B)
fra (T)
ISO 639-3fra
Glottologstan1290
Linguasphere51-AAA-i
  Countries and regions where French is the native language of the majority[a]
  Countries and territories where French is an official language but not a majority native language
  Countries, regions, and territories where French is an administrative or cultural language but with no official status
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Part of a series on the
French language
History
Grammar
Orthography
Phonology

French (français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] ⓘ or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ⓘ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

French 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.[4] Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share 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; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere.[5]

French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers.[6] According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022,[7] without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.[8]

In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language, thought it has also become a native language in a small number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast,[9][10] Cameroon,[11][12] Gabon,[13][14] Madagascar,[15] and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[16][17][18] 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 a second one among the general population.[19]

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.[20] French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.[21] Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language.[22] 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).[23] French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers, and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017.[24] 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 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.

  1. ^ a b c French at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (24 May 2022). "Glottolog 4.8 - Shifted Western Romance". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 27 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  3. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (24 May 2022). "Glottolog 4.8 - Oil". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 11 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  4. ^ "The world's languages, in 7 maps and charts". The Washington Post. 18 April 2022. Archived from the original on 16 August 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Census in Brief: English, French and official language minorities in Canada". www12.statcan.gc.ca. 2 August 2017. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  6. ^ French at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  7. ^ "La langue française dans le monde" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  8. ^ "French language is on the up, report reveals". thelocal.fr. 6 November 2014. Archived from the original on 1 September 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  9. ^ Andrew Simpson, Andrew Simpson (2008). Language and National Identity in Africa. y Oxford University Press Language and National Identity in Asia. ISBN ISBN 978–0–19–928674–4 HB ISBN 978–0–19–928675–1 PB. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  10. ^ Ploog, Katja (25 September 2002). Le français à Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard Broché – 25 septembre 2002. ASIN 2271059682.
  11. ^ Kelen Ernesta Fonyuy, Kelen Ernesta Fonyuy (24 October 2024). "Revitalizing Cameroon Indigenous Languages Usage in Empowering Realms".
  12. ^ Tove Rosendal, Tove Rosendal (2008). "Multilingual Cameroon Policy, Practice, Problems and Solutions" (PDF).
  13. ^ Ndinga-Koumba-Binza, H.S. (22 June 2011). "From foreign to national: a review of the status of the French language in Gabon". Literator. 32 (2): 135–150. doi:10.4102/lit.v32i2.15. ISSN 2219-8237.
  14. ^ Ursula, Reutner (December 2023). "Manual of Romance Languages in Africa".
  15. ^ Øyvind, Dahl (19 June 2024). "Linguistic policy challenges in Madagascar" (PDF). core.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  16. ^ Lu, Marcus (31 August 2024). "Mapped: Top 15 Countries by Native French Speakers".
  17. ^ Hulstaert, Karen (2 November 2018). ""French and the school are one" – the role of French in postcolonial Congolese education: memories of pupils". Paedagogica Historica. 54 (6): 822–836. doi:10.1080/00309230.2018.1494203. ISSN 0030-9230.
  18. ^ Katabe, Isidore M.; Tibategeza, Eustard R. (17 January 2023). "Language-in-Education Policy and Practice in the Democratic Republic of Congo". European Journal of Language and Culture Studies. 2 (1): 4–12. doi:10.24018/ejlang.2023.2.1.58. ISSN 2796-0064.
  19. ^ Benrabah, Mohamed (2007). "Language Maintenance and Spread: French in Algeria". International Journal of Francophone Studies. 10: 193–215. doi:10.1386/ijfs.10.1and2.193_1. Archived from the original on 25 May 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2024 – via ResearchGate.
  20. ^ "The status of French in the world". Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  21. ^ European Commission (June 2012), "Europeans and their Languages" (PDF), Special Eurobarometer 386, Europa, p. 5, archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2016, retrieved 7 September 2014
  22. ^ "Why Learn French". Archived from the original on 19 June 2008.
  23. ^ Develey, Alice (25 February 2017). "Le français est la deuxième langue la plus étudiée dans l'Union européenne". Archived from the original on 24 April 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017 – via Le Figaro.
  24. ^ "How many people speak French and where is French spoken". Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.


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