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Wikipedia

French language

January 10, 2023

French (français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. 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 France's past overseas expansion, 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
français
Pronunciation[fʁɑ̃sɛ]
Native toFrance, now worldwide
SpeakersNative: 80 million (2022)[1]
Total (L1 + L2): 270 (2022)[1]
Early forms
Latin (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)
Language codes
ISO 639-1fr
ISO 639-2fre (B)
fra (T)
ISO 639-3fra
Glottologstan1290
Linguasphere51-AAA-i
  States where French is the majority native language
  States where it is an official or administrative language but not a majority native language
  States where it is a minority or secondary language
  States that have a local francophone minority
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.

French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents,[2] most of which are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 84 countries which share the official use or teaching of French. French is also one of six official languages used in the United Nations.[3] 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, as well as other Francophone regions); 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.[4]

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.[5] French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.[6] Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language.[7] 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 certain institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union).[8] French is also the 18th most natively spoken language in the world, fifth most spoken language by total number of speakers and the second or third most studied language worldwide (with about 120 million learners as of 2017).[9] 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. Most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast.[10]

French is estimated to have about 76 million native speakers; about 235 million daily, fluent speakers;[11][1][12] and another 77–110 million secondary speakers who speak it as a second language to varying degrees of proficiency, mainly in Africa.[13] According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language",[14] without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.[15] According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050.[16] OIF estimates 700 million by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.[5]

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, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese.[17]

History

Main article: History of French

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.

Vulgar Latin in Gallia

See also: Gallo-Romance

Due to Roman rule, Latin was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul, and 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 being attested on graffiti.[18] 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 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.[19] The population remained 90% indigenous in origin;[20][21] 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 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.[22] 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 the urban intellectual elite.[22]

The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization.[19] Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French[22][19] contributing loanwords and calques (including oui,[23] the word for "yes"),[24] sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence,[25][26][27] and influences in conjugation and word order.[24][28][18] Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.[29]

The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert,[30] which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240.[31] 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,[32] and products traded regionally rather than further afield.[33] This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish.[33][32]

Old French

Main article: Old French

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.[34] 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.[34] Langue d'oïl grew into what 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.[35] The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from the Germanic Frankish language, which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order,[36] a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary[37]) 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 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.[citation needed]

The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in 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.[citation needed]

Middle French

Main article: Middle French

Within Old French many dialects emerged but the Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries).[34] Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect.[34] 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.[38] Politically, the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law.

Modern French

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 the 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War.[39][40] 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.[41]

During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV, enjoyed 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 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 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".[42] 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..."[42] Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha.

Geographic distribution

Main article: Geographical distribution of French speakers

Europe

Main article: European French
 
Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries[43]

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.[6][44]

Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992,[45] although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates 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 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.[46]

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 Berne. French is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50%[47] 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 the Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 30% 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.[48][49]

 
Distribution of native French speakers in 6 countries in 2021

Africa

Main article: African French
 
  Countries usually considered part of Francophone Africa
Their population was 442.1 million in 2020,[50] and it is forecast to reach between 845 million[51] and 891 million[52] in 2050.
  Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa
  Countries that are not Francophone but are Members or Observers of the OIF

The majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2018 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 141 million African people spread across 34 countries and territories[Note 1] can speak French as either a first or a second language.[53][54] This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as 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.[55] French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).[56][57] French is mostly a second language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast[58] and in Libreville, Gabon.[59] There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages.[60]

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.[61] It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.[62][63] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,[64] but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.

Americas

Further information: Languages of North America, Languages of South America, Languages of the Caribbean, and French language in Canada

Canada

 
French language distribution in Canada
  Regions where French is the main language
  Regions where French is an official language but not a majority native language
 
The "arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in Canada while the English stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France and 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. It is the first language of 9.5 million people or 29% and the second language for 2.07 million or 6% of the entire population of Canada.[12] French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people, or almost 80% (2006 Census) of the province[citation needed]. About 95% 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 fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers.[65][citation needed] New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism 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.[66] Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario, the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are to be available in 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, 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 across a river from Quebec, opposite the major city of Gatineau with which it forms a single metropolitan area.[citation needed]

United States

 
French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in lighter pink are those where 6–12% of the population speaks French at home; medium pink, 12–18%; darker pink, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included.

According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth[67] 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 is the second most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and Vermont. 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.[68] Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French. 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.[69] 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 the 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct.

Caribbean

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; the rest largely speak French as a first language.[70] 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.[71]

French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in the Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies, namely Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, and Martinique.

Other territories

French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent,[72] and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon,[73] an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America.

Asia

Southeast Asia

See also: French language in Vietnam, French language in Laos, and French language in Cambodia

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.[74] In colonial Vietnam, 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.[75] 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 the other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language.[76] All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF).

India

See also: Indian French

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.[77] A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of the language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English.[77][78]

Western Asia

Lebanon
See also: French language in Lebanon
 
Town sign in Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of Rechmaya in Lebanon

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".[79] The French language in Lebanon 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.[80] The use of English 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.[81] 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 is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value.[82]

United Arab Emirates and Qatar

The UAE has the status in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie as an observer state, and Qatar has the status in the organization as an associate state. However, in both countries, French is not spoken by almost any of the general population or migrant workers, but spoken by a small minority of those who invest in Francophone countries or have other financial or family ties. Their entrance as observer and associate states respectively into the organization was aided a good deal by their investments into the Organisation and France itself.[83] A country's status as an observer state in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie gives the country the right to send representatives to organization meetings and make formal requests to the organization but they do not have voting rights within the OIF.[84] A country's status as an associate state also does not give a country voting abilities but associate states can discuss and review organization matters.[85]

Oceania and Australasia

 
A 500-CFP franc (€4.20; US$5.00) banknote, used in French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna

French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2018.[53] In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French[86] while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%,[87] and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%.[88]

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 was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census.[89][87] 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.[88][90]

Future

The future of the French language is often discussed in the news. For example, in 2014, The New York Times documented an increase in the teaching of French in New York, especially in K-12 dual-language programs where Spanish and Mandarin are the only second-language options more popular than French.[91] 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. It noted that French is spreading in areas where the population is rapidly increasing, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.[92]

In 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 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.[93]

Varieties

Main article: Varieties of French
 
Varieties of the French language in the world

Current status and importance

A leading world language, French 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.[94] 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[95]), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union, an official language of NATO, 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 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).[96] Given 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".[97]

Significant as a judicial language, French 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 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.[98]

In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today, a comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages".[99] In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish.[99] 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, 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).[99] In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged."[99]

Knowledge of French 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%).[100] MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace.[101]

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 the country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught.

Phonology

Main article: French phonology
Spoken French (Africa)

Vowel phonemes in French

Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally use only one variety of the language.

  • There are a maximum of 17 vowels in French, not all of which are used in every dialect: /a/, /ɑ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /ɛː/, /ə/, /i/, /o/, /ɔ/, /y/, /u/, /œ/, /ø/, plus the nasalized vowels /ɑ̃/, /ɛ̃/, /ɔ̃/ and /œ̃/. In France, the vowels /ɑ/, /ɛː/ and /œ̃/ are tending to be replaced by /a/, /ɛ/ and /ɛ̃/ in many people's speech, but the distinction of /ɛ̃/ and /œ̃/ is present in Meridional French. In Quebec and Belgian French, the vowels /ɑ/, /ə/, /ɛː/ and /œ̃/ are present.
  • Voiced stops (i.e., /b, d, ɡ/) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
  • Voiceless stops (i.e., /p, t, k/) are unaspirated.
  • The velar nasal /ŋ/ can occur in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal /ɲ/ can occur in word initial position (e.g., gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g., montagne).
  • French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e., labiodental /f/~/v/, dental /s/~/z/, and palato-alveolar /ʃ/~/ʒ/. /s/~/z/ are dental, like the plosives /t/~/d/ and the nasal /n/.
  • French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general, it is described as a voiced uvular fricative, as in [ʁu] roue, "wheel". Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g., fort), or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also common, and an apical trill [r] occurs in some dialects.
  • Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant /l/ is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants [w], [ɥ], and [j] each correspond to a high vowel, /u/, /y/, and /i/ respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between /j/ and /i/ occur in final position as in /pɛj/ paye, "pay", vs. /pɛi/ pays, "country".

French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:

  • Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n, p and g, are normally silent. (A consonant is considered "final" when no vowel follows it even if one or more consonants follow it.) The final letters f, k, q, and l, however, are normally pronounced. The final c is sometimes pronounced like in bac, sac, roc but can also be silent like in blanc or estomac. The final r is usually silent when it follows an e in a word of two or more syllables, but it is pronounced in some words (hiver, super, cancer etc.).
    • When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example, the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example, the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-à-terre.
    • Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g., chien → chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g., gentil → gentille) adds a [j] sound if the l is preceded by the letter i.
  • Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g., *je ai is instead pronounced and spelled → j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). However, for Belgian French the sentences are pronounced differently; in the first sentence the syllable break is as "qu'il-a", while the second breaks as "qui-l'a". It can also be noted that, in Quebec French, the second example (l'homme qui l'a vu) is more emphasized on l'a vu.

Writing system

Alphabet

Main articles: French alphabet and French braille

French is written with the 26 letters of the basic Latin script, with four diacritics appearing on vowels (circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis) and the cedilla appearing in "ç".

There are two ligatures, "œ" and "æ", but they are often replaced in contemporary French with "oe" and "ae", because the ligatures do not appear on the AZERTY keyboard layout used in French-speaking countries. However this is nonstandard in formal and literary texts.

Orthography

Main articles: French orthography and Reforms of French orthography

French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography (as with some English words such as "debt"):

  • Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus)
  • Old French pie > French pied "foot" [Latin pes (stem: ped-)]

French orthography is morphophonemic. While it contains 130 graphemes that denote only 36 phonemes, many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and prefixes.[102] Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme. However, there is not a one-to-one relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme, which can be seen in how tomber and tombé both end with the /e/ phoneme.[103] Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how the x in paix is not pronounced though at the end of Aix it is.

As a result, it can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word based on the sound. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel (see Liaison (French)). For example, the following words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, finit, beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-à-terre.

French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. The /als/ sequence was unstable and was turned into a diphthong /aus/. This change was then reflected in the orthography: animaus. The us ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copyists (monks) by the letter x, resulting in a written form animax. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation of au turned into /o/ so that the u was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern French animaux (pronounced first /animos/ before the final /s/ was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. In addition, castel pl. castels became château pl. châteaux.

  • Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e., pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules are more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
  • Digraphs: French uses not only diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended.
  • Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced [ilyzjɔ̃] and not [ilːyzjɔ̃]. However, gemination does occur between words; for example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced [ynɛ̃fo], whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced [ynːɛ̃fo].
  • Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes based on etymology alone.
    • Accents that affect pronunciation
      • The acute accent (l'accent aigu) é (e.g., école—school) means that the vowel is pronounced /e/ instead of the default /ə/.
      • The grave accent (l'accent grave) è (e.g., élève—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced /ɛ/ instead of the default /ə/.
      • The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) ê (e.g. forêt—forest) shows that an e is pronounced /ɛ/ and that an ô is pronounced /o/. In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of /ɑ/ for the letter â, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the mid-18th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not pronounced. Thus, forest became forêt, hospital became hôpital, and hostel became hôtel.
      • Diaeresis or tréma (ë, ï, ü, ÿ): over e, i, u or y, indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: naïve, Noël.
        • The combination of e with diaeresis following o (Noël [ɔɛ]) is nasalized in the regular way if followed by n (Samoëns [wɛ̃])
        • The combination of e with diaeresis following a is either pronounced [ɛ] (Raphaël, Israël [aɛ]) or not pronounced, leaving only the a (Staël [a]) and the a is nasalized in the regular way if aë is followed by n (Saint-Saëns [ɑ̃])
        • A diaeresis on y only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts. Some proper names in which ÿ appears include Aÿ (a commune in Marne, formerly Aÿ-Champagne), Rue des Cloÿs (an alley in Paris), Croÿ (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), Château du Feÿ (near Joigny), Ghÿs (name of Flemish origin spelt Ghijs where ij in handwriting looked like ÿ to French clerks), L'Haÿ-les-Roses (commune near Paris), Pierre Louÿs (author), Moÿ-de-l'Aisne (commune in Aisne and a family name), and Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ (an insurance company in eastern France).
        • The diaeresis on u appears in the Biblical proper names Archélaüs, Capharnaüm, Emmaüs, Ésaü, and Saül, as well as French names such as Haüy. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in words containing guë (such as aiguë or ciguë) may be moved onto the u: aigüe, cigüe, and by analogy may be used in verbs such as j'argüe.
        • In addition, words coming from German retain their umlaut (ä, ö and ü) if applicable but use often French pronunciation, such as Kärcher (trademark of a pressure washer).
      • The cedilla (la cédille) ç (e.g., garçon—boy) means that the letter ç is pronounced /s/ in front of the back vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise /k/ before a back vowel). C is always pronounced /s/ in front of the front vowels e, i, and y, thus ç is never found in front of front vowels.
    • Accents with no pronunciation effect
      • The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, nor, in most dialects, a. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in île (from former isle, compare with English word "isle"). The explanation is that some words share the same orthography, so the circumflex is put here to mark the difference between the two words. For example, dites (you say) / dîtes (you said), or even du (of the) / dû (past participle for the verb devoir = must, have to, owe; in this case, the circumflex disappears in the plural and the feminine).
      • All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs là and où ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" feminine singular) and the conjunction ou ("or"), respectively.

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.[104][105][106][107]

In 1990, a reform accepted some changes to French orthography. At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.[108]

Grammar

Main article: French grammar

French is a moderately inflected language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number (singular or plural, though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled differently); adjectives, for number and gender (masculine or feminine) of their nouns; personal pronouns and a few other pronouns, for person, number, gender, and case; and verbs, for tense, aspect, mood, and the person and number of their subjects. Case is primarily marked using word order and prepositions, while certain verb features are marked using auxiliary verbs. According to the French lexicogrammatical system, French has a rank-scale hierarchy with clause as the top rank, which is followed by group rank, word rank, and morpheme rank. A French clause is made up of groups, groups are made up of words, and lastly, words are made up of morphemes.[109]

French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including

Nouns

Every French noun is either masculine or feminine. Because French nouns are not inflected for gender, a noun's form cannot specify its gender. For nouns regarding the living, their grammatical genders often correspond to that which they refer to. For example, a male teacher is an "enseignant" while a female teacher is an "enseignante". However, plural nouns that refer to a group that includes both masculine and feminine entities are always masculine. So a group of two male teachers would be "enseignants". A group of two male teachers and two female teachers would still be "enseignants". In many situations, and in the case of "enseignant", both the singular and plural form of a noun are pronounced identically. The article used for singular nouns is different from that used for plural nouns and the article provides a distinguishing factor between the two in speech. For example, the singular "le professeur" or "la professeur(e)" (the male or female teacher, professor) can be distinguished from the plural "les professeurs" because "le", "la", and "les" are all pronounced differently. There are some situations where both the feminine and masculine form of a noun are the same and the article provides the only difference. For example, "le dentiste" refers to a male dentist while "la dentiste" refers to a female dentist.

Verbs

Main article: French verbs

Moods and tense-aspect forms

The French language consists of both finite and non-finite moods. The finite moods include the indicative mood (indicatif), the subjunctive mood (subjonctif), the imperative mood (impératif), and the conditional mood (conditionnel). The non-finite moods include the infinitive mood (infinitif), the present participle (participe présent), and the past participle (participe passé).

Finite moods
Indicative (Indicatif)

The indicative mood makes use of eight tense-aspect forms. These include the present (présent), the simple past (passé composé and passé simple), the past imperfective (imparfait), the pluperfect (plus-que-parfait), the simple future (futur simple), the future perfect (futur antérieur), and the past perfect (passé antérieur). Some forms are less commonly used today. In today's spoken French, the passé composé is used while the passé simple is reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes. Similarly, the plus-que-parfait is used for speaking rather than the older passé antérieur seen in literary works.

Within the indicative mood, the passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, and passé antérieur all use auxiliary verbs in their forms.

Indicatif
Présent Imparfait Passé composé Passé simple
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st Person j'aime nous aimons j'aimais nous aimions j'ai aimé nous avons aimé j'aimai nous aimâmes
2nd Person tu aimes vous aimez tu aimais vous aimiez tu as aimé vous avez aimé tu aimas vous aimâtes
3rd Person il/elle aime ils/elles aiment il/elle aimait ils/elles aimaient il/elle a aimé ils/elles ont aimé il/elle aima ils/elles aimèrent
Futur simple Futur antérieur Plus-que-parfait Passé antérieur
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st Person j'aimerai nous aimerons j'aurai aimé nous aurons aimé j'avais aimé nous avions aimé j'eus aimé nous eûmes aimé
2nd Person tu aimeras vous aimerez tu auras aimé vous aurez aimé tu avais aimé vous aviez aimé tu eus aimé vous eûtes aimé
3rd Person il/elle aimera ils/elles aimeront il/elle aura aimé ils/elles auront aimé il/elle avait aimé ils/elles avaient aimé il/elle eut aimé ils/elles eurent aimé
Subjunctive (Subjonctif)

The subjunctive mood only includes four of the tense-aspect forms found in the indicative: present (présent), simple past (passé composé), past imperfective (imparfait), and pluperfect (plus-que-parfait).

Within the subjunctive mood, the passé composé and plus-que-parfait use auxiliary verbs in their forms.

Subjonctif
Présent Imparfait Passé composé Plus-que-parfait
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st Person j'aime nous aimions j'aimasse nous aimassions j'aie aimé nous ayons aimé j'eusse aimé nous eussions aimé
2nd Person tu aimes vous aimiez tu aimasses vous aimassiez tu aies aimé vous ayez aimé tu eusses aimé vous eussiez aimé
3rd Person il/elle aime ils/elles aiment il/elle aimât ils/elles aimassent il/elle ait aimé ils/elles aient aimé il/elle eût aimé ils/elles eussent aimé
Imperative (Imperatif)

The imperative is used in the present tense (with the exception of a few instances where it is used in the perfect tense). The imperative is used to give commands to you (tu), we/us (nous), and plural you (vous).

Imperatif
Présent
Singular Plural
1st Person aimons
2nd Person aime aimez
Conditional (Conditionnel)

The conditional makes use of the present (présent) and the past (passé).

The passé uses auxiliary verbs in its forms.

Conditionnel
Présent Passé
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st Person j'aimerais nous aimerions j'aurais aimé nous aurions aimé
2nd Person tu aimerais vous aimeriez tu aurais aimé vous auriez aimé
3rd Person il/elle aimerait ils/elles aimeraient il/elle aurait aimé ils/elles auraient aimé

Voice

French uses both the active voice and the passive voice. The active voice is unmarked while the passive voice is formed by using a form of verb être ("to be") and the past participle.

Example of the active voice:

  • "Elle aime le chien." She loves the dog.
  • "Marc a conduit la voiture." Marc drove the car.

Example of the passive voice:

  • "Le chien est aimé par elle." The dog is loved by her.
  • "La voiture a été conduite par Marc." The car was driven by Marc.

Syntax

Word order

French declarative word order is subject–verb–object although a pronoun object precedes the verb. Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders, in particular inversion of the subject and verb, as in "Parlez-vous français ?" when asking a question rather than "Vous parlez français ?" Both formulations are used, and carry a rising inflection on the last word. The literal English translations are "Do you speak French?" and "You speak French?", respectively. To avoid inversion while asking a question, "Est-ce que" (literally "is it that") may be placed at the beginning of the sentence. "Parlez-vous français ?" may become "Est-ce que vous parlez français ?" French also uses verb–object–subject (VOS) and object–subject–verb (OSV) word order. OSV word order is not used often and VOS is reserved for formal writings.[35]

Vocabulary

Root languages of loanwords[110]

  English (25.10%)
  Italian (16.83%)
  Germanic (20.65%)
  Romance (15.26%)
  Celtic (3.81%)
  Persian and Sanskrit (2.67%)
  Native American (2.41%)
  Other Asian languages (2.12%)
  Afro-Asiatic (6.45%)
  Balto-Slavic (1.31%)
  Basque (0.24%)
  Other languages (3.43%)

The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. In many cases, a single etymological root appears in French in a "popular" or native form, inherited from Vulgar Latin, and a learned form, borrowed later from Classical Latin. The following pairs consist of a native noun and a learned adjective:

  • brother: frère / fraternel from Latin frater / fraternalis
  • finger: doigt / digital from Latin digitus / digitalis
  • faith: foi / fidèle from Latin fides / fidelis
  • eye: œil / oculaire from Latin oculus / ocularis

However, a historical tendency to Gallicise Latin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:

  • rayonnement / radiation from Latin radiatio
  • éteindre / extinguish from Latin exstinguere
  • noyau / nucleus from Latin nucleus
  • ensoleillement / insolation from Latin insolatio

There are also noun-noun and adjective-adjective pairs:

  • thing/cause: chose / cause from Latin causa
  • cold: froid / frigide from Latin frigidum

It can be difficult to identify the Latin source of native French words because in the evolution from Vulgar Latin, unstressed syllables were severely reduced and the remaining vowels and consonants underwent significant modifications.

More recently[when?] the linguistic policy of the French language academies of France and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents[111] to (mainly English) imported words, either by using existing vocabulary, extending its meaning or deriving a new word according to French morphological rules. The result is often two (or more) co-existing terms for describing the same phenomenon.

  • mercatique / marketing
  • finance fantôme / shadow banking
  • bloc-notes / notepad
  • ailière / wingsuit
  • tiers-lieu / coworking

It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse or Micro-Robert Plus (35,000 words) are of foreign origin (where Greek and Latin learned words are not seen as foreign). About 25% (1,054) of these foreign words come from English and are fairly recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from Italian, 550 from ancient Germanic languages, 481 from other Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 from Celtic languages, 159 from Spanish, 153 from Dutch, 112 from Persian and Sanskrit, 101 from Native American languages, 89 from other Asian languages, 56 from other Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Balto-Slavic languages, 10 from Basque and 144 (about 3%) from other languages.[110]

One study analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin estimated that among the languages analyzed French has the greatest distance from Latin.[112] Lexical similarity is 89% with Italian, 80% with Sardinian, 78% with Rhaeto-Romance, and 75% with Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese.[113][1]

Numerals

The numeral system used in the majority of Francophone countries employs both decimal and vigesimal counting. After the use of unique names for the numbers 1-16, those from 17 to 69 are counted by tens, while twenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99. The French word for 80 is quatre-vingts, literally "four twenties", and the word for 75 is soixante-quinze, literally "sixty-fifteen". The vigesimal method of counting is analogous to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).

Belgian, Swiss, and Aostan French[114] as well as that used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, use different names for 70 and 90, namely septante and nonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). The Aosta Valley similarly uses huitante[114] for 80. Conversely, Belgium and in its former African colonies use quatre-vingts for 80.

In Old French (during the Middle Ages), all numbers from 30 to 99 could be said in either base 10 or base 20, e.g. vint et doze (twenty and twelve) for 32, dous vinz et diz (two twenties and ten) for 50, uitante for 80, or nonante for 90.[115]

The term octante was historically used in Switzerland for 80, but is now considered archaic.[116]

French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands.[117] The comma (French: virgule) is used in French numbers as a decimal point, i.e. "2,5" instead of "2.5". In the case of currencies, the currency markers are substituted for decimal point, i.e. "5$7" for "5 dollars and 7 cents".

Example text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in French:

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.[118]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[119]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ 29 full members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF): Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, DR Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, and Tunisia.
    One associate member of the OIF: Ghana.
    One observer of the OIF: Mozambique.
    One country not member or observer of the OIF: Algeria.
    Two French territories in Africa: Réunion and Mayotte.

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  32. ^ a b Urban Holmes and Alexander Herman Schutz (June 1938). A History of the French Language. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 30. ISBN 9780819601919. "...sixty-eight or more Celtic words in standard Latin; not all of these came down into Romance.... did not survive among the people. Vulgar speech in Gaul used many others... at least 361 words of Gaulish provenance in French and Provençal. These Celtic words fell into more homely types than... borrowings from Germanː agriculture... household effects... animals... food and drink... trees... body -- 17 (dor < durnu), dress... construction... birds... fish... insects... pièce < *pettia, and the remainder divided among weapons, religion, literature, music, persons, sickness and mineral. It is evident that the peasants were the last to hold to their Celtic. The count on the Celtic element was made by Leslie Moss at the University of North Carolina... based on unanimity of agreement among the best lexicographers...
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Further reading

  • Marc Fumaroli (2011). When the World Spoke French. Translated by Richard Howard. ISBN 978-1-59017-375-6.
  • Nadeau, Jean-Benoît, and Julie Barlow (2006). The Story of French. (First U.S. ed.) New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-34183-0.
  • Ursula Reutner (2017). Manuel des francophonies. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-034670-1.
  • (PDF) (in French). Nathan. 2014. ISBN 978-2-09-882654-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.

External links

Organisations

  • Fondation Alliance française: an international organisation for the promotion of French language and culture (in French)
  • : Agency for promoting French as a foreign language

Courses and tutorials

Online dictionaries

  • Oxford Dictionaries
  • Collins Online English↔French Dictionary
  • Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales: monolingual dictionaries (including the Trésor de la langue française), language corpora, etc.
For other unilingual dictionaries, see fr:Dictionnaire.

Grammar

Verbs

  • at Verbix

Vocabulary

  • Swadesh list in English and French

Numbers

  • Smith, Paul. . Numberphile. Brady Haran. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2013.

Books

  • (in French) (Full book freely accessible)

Articles

January 10, 2023
french, language, french, français, fʁɑ, langue, française, fʁɑ, sɛz, romance, language, indo, european, family, descended, from, vulgar, latin, roman, empire, romance, languages, french, evolved, from, gallo, romance, latin, spoken, gaul, more, specifically, . French francais fʁɑ sɛ or langue francaise lɑ ɡ fʁɑ sɛz is a Romance language of the Indo European family It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire as did all Romance languages French evolved from Gallo Romance the Latin spoken in Gaul and more specifically in Northern Gaul Its closest relatives are the other langues d oil 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 France s past overseas expansion 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 FrenchfrancaisPronunciation fʁɑ sɛ Native toFrance now worldwideSpeakersNative 80 million 2022 1 Total L1 L2 270 2022 1 Language familyIndo European ItalicLatino FaliscanRomanceWestern RomanceGallo RomanceOilFrenchEarly formsOld Latin Classical Latin Vulgar Latin Old Gallo Romance Old French Middle FrenchWriting systemLatin French alphabet French BrailleSigned formsSigned French francais signe Official statusOfficial language in29 countries BelgiumBeninBurkina FasoBurundiCameroonCanadaCentral African RepublicChadComorosCongoDemocratic Republic of the CongoDjiboutiEquatorial GuineaFranceGabonGuineaHaitiIvory CoastLuxembourgMadagascarMaliMonacoNigerRwandaSenegalSeychellesSwitzerlandTogoVanuatu 10 dependent and sub regional entities Aosta Valley Italy French PolynesiaLouisiana United States Maine United States New CaledoniaNew Hampshire United States Saint BarthelemySaint MartinSaint Pierre and MiquelonWallis and Futuna Intergovernmental organizations FrancophonieUnited NationsInternational Olympic CommitteeEuropean UnionAfrican UnionNATOWorld Trade OrganizationCouncil of EuropeRegulated byAcademie Francaise French Academy France Office quebecois de la langue francaise Quebec Board of the French Language Quebec Language codesISO 639 1 span class plainlinks fr span ISO 639 2 span class plainlinks fre span B span class plainlinks fra span T ISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code fra class extiw title iso639 3 fra fra a Glottologstan1290Linguasphere51 AAA i States where French is the majority native language States where it is an official or administrative language but not a majority native language States where it is a minority or secondary language States that have a local francophone minorityThis 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 French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents 2 most of which are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie OIF the community of 84 countries which share the official use or teaching of French French is also one of six official languages used in the United Nations 3 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 as well as other Francophone regions 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 4 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 5 French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union 6 Of Europeans who speak other languages natively approximately one fifth are able to speak French as a second language 7 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 certain institutions French is the sole working language e g at the Court of Justice of the European Union 8 French is also the 18th most natively spoken language in the world fifth most spoken language by total number of speakers and the second or third most studied language worldwide with about 120 million learners as of 2017 9 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 Most second language speakers reside in Francophone Africa in particular Gabon Algeria Morocco Tunisia Mauritius Senegal and Ivory Coast 10 French is estimated to have about 76 million native speakers about 235 million daily fluent speakers 11 1 12 and another 77 110 million secondary speakers who speak it as a second language to varying degrees of proficiency mainly in Africa 13 According to the OIF approximately 321 million people worldwide are able to speak the language 14 without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses 15 According to a demographic projection led by the Universite Laval and the Reseau Demographie de l Agence universitaire de la Francophonie the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050 16 OIF estimates 700 million by 2050 80 of whom will be in Africa 5 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 and the International Committee of the Red Cross In 2011 Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese 17 Contents 1 History 1 1 Vulgar Latin in Gallia 1 2 Old French 1 3 Middle French 1 4 Modern French 2 Geographic distribution 2 1 Europe 2 2 Africa 2 3 Americas 2 3 1 Canada 2 3 2 United States 2 3 3 Caribbean 2 3 4 Other territories 2 4 Asia 2 4 1 Southeast Asia 2 4 2 India 2 4 3 Western Asia 2 4 3 1 Lebanon 2 4 3 2 United Arab Emirates and Qatar 2 5 Oceania and Australasia 2 6 Future 3 Varieties 4 Current status and importance 5 Phonology 6 Writing system 6 1 Alphabet 6 2 Orthography 7 Grammar 7 1 Nouns 7 2 Verbs 7 2 1 Moods and tense aspect forms 7 2 1 1 Finite moods 7 2 1 1 1 Indicative Indicatif 7 2 1 1 2 Subjunctive Subjonctif 7 2 1 1 3 Imperative Imperatif 7 2 1 1 4 Conditional Conditionnel 7 2 2 Voice 7 2 3 Syntax 7 2 3 1 Word order 8 Vocabulary 8 1 Numerals 9 Example text 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links 14 1 Organisations 14 2 Courses and tutorials 14 3 Online dictionaries 14 4 Grammar 14 4 1 Verbs 14 5 Vocabulary 14 5 1 Numbers 14 5 2 Books 14 5 3 ArticlesHistoryMain article History of French 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 Vulgar Latin in Gallia See also Gallo Romance Due to Roman rule Latin was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul and 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 being attested on graffiti 18 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 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 19 The population remained 90 indigenous in origin 20 21 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 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 22 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 the urban intellectual elite 22 The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization 19 Coexisting with Latin Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French 22 19 contributing loanwords and calques including oui 23 the word for yes 24 sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence 25 26 27 and influences in conjugation and word order 24 28 18 Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish 29 The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert 30 which is often viewed as representing standardized French while if non standard dialects are included the number increases to 240 31 Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields such as plant life chene bille etc animals mouton cheval etc nature boue etc domestic activities ex berceau farming and rural units of measure arpent lieue borne boisseau weapons 32 and products traded regionally rather than further afield 33 This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish 33 32 Old French Main article Old FrenchThe 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 34 A language divide began to grow across the country The population in the north spoke langue d oil while the population in the south spoke langue d oc 34 Langue d oil grew into what 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 35 The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from the Germanic Frankish language which non exhaustively included the use in upper class speech and higher registers of V2 word order 36 a large percentage of the vocabulary now at around 15 of modern French vocabulary 37 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 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 citation needed The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in 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 citation needed Middle French Main article Middle French Within Old French many dialects emerged but the Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period 14th 17th centuries 34 Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect 34 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 38 Politically the Ordinance of Villers Cotterets 1539 named French the language of law Modern French 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 the 20th century when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War 39 40 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 41 During the Grand Siecle 17th century France under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV enjoyed a period of prosperity and prominence among European nations Richelieu established the Academie Francaise 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 Gregoire s Report on 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 a French official to teachers in the department of Finistere in western Brittany included the following And remember Gents you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language 42 The prefect of Basses Pyrenees in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846 Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French 42 Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them this process was known in the Occitan speaking region as Vergonha Geographic distributionMain article Geographical distribution of French speakers Europe Main article European French Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries 43 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 6 44 Under the Constitution of France French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992 45 although the Ordinance of Villers Cotterets made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539 France mandates 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 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 46 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 Berne French is the native language of about 23 of the Swiss population and is spoken by 50 47 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 the Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 30 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 48 49 Distribution of native French speakers in 6 countries in 2021 Africa Main article African French Countries usually considered part of Francophone Africa Their population was 442 1 million in 2020 50 and it is forecast to reach between 845 million 51 and 891 million 52 in 2050 Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa Countries that are not Francophone but are Members or Observers of the OIF The majority of the world s French speaking population lives in Africa According to a 2018 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie code fra promoted to code fr an estimated 141 million African people spread across 34 countries and territories Note 1 can speak French as either a first or a second language 53 54 This number does not include the people living in non Francophone African countries who have learned French as 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 55 French is the fastest growing language on the continent in terms of either official or foreign languages 56 57 French is mostly a second language in Africa but it has become a first language in some urban areas such as the region of Abidjan Ivory Coast 58 and in Libreville Gabon 59 There is not a single African French but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages 60 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 61 It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years 62 63 Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries 64 but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French speaking world Americas Further information Languages of North America Languages of South America Languages of the Caribbean and French language in CanadaThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Canada French language distribution in Canada Regions where French is the main language Regions where French is an official language but not a majority native language The arret signs French for stop are used in Canada while the English stop which is also a valid French word is used in France and 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 It is the first language of 9 5 million people or 29 and the second language for 2 07 million or 6 of the entire population of Canada 12 French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec being the mother tongue for some 7 million people or almost 80 2006 Census of the province citation needed About 95 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 fourth largest French speaking city by number of first language speakers 65 citation needed New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces though full bilingualism 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 66 Furthermore while French is not an official language in Ontario the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are to be available in 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 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 across a river from Quebec opposite the major city of Gatineau with which it forms a single metropolitan area citation needed United States French language spread in the United States Counties marked in lighter pink are those where 6 12 of the population speaks French at home medium pink 12 18 darker pink over 18 French based creole languages are not included According to the United States Census Bureau 2011 French is the fourth 67 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 is the second most spoken language after English in the states of Maine and Vermont 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 68 Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects collectively known as Louisiana French 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 69 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 the 1990s but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct Caribbean 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 the rest largely speak French as a first language 70 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 71 French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in the Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies namely Guadeloupe Saint Barthelemy Saint Martin and Martinique Other territories French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent 72 and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon 73 an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America Asia Southeast Asia See also French language in Vietnam French language in Laos and French language in Cambodia 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 74 In colonial Vietnam the elites primarily spoke French while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as Tay Bồi now extinct After French rule ended South Vietnam continued to use French in administration education and trade 75 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 the other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language 76 All three countries are full members of La Francophonie OIF India See also Indian French 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 77 A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of the language although it has now given way to Tamil and English 77 78 Western Asia Lebanon See also French language in Lebanon Town sign in Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of Rechmaya in Lebanon 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 79 The French language in Lebanon 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 80 The use of English 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 81 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 is the language of business and communication with French being an element of social distinction chosen for its emotional value 82 United Arab Emirates and Qatar The UAE has the status in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie as an observer state and Qatar has the status in the organization as an associate state However in both countries French is not spoken by almost any of the general population or migrant workers but spoken by a small minority of those who invest in Francophone countries or have other financial or family ties Their entrance as observer and associate states respectively into the organization was aided a good deal by their investments into the Organisation and France itself 83 A country s status as an observer state in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie gives the country the right to send representatives to organization meetings and make formal requests to the organization but they do not have voting rights within the OIF 84 A country s status as an associate state also does not give a country voting abilities but associate states can discuss and review organization matters 85 Oceania and Australasia A 500 CFP franc 4 20 US 5 00 banknote used in French Polynesia New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu where 31 of the population was estimated to speak it in 2018 53 In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia 97 of the population can speak read and write French 86 while in French Polynesia this figure is 95 87 and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna it is 84 88 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 was the language they use the most at home rose from 67 at the 2007 census to 74 at the 2017 census 89 87 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 88 90 Future The future of the French language is often discussed in the news For example in 2014 The New York Times documented an increase in the teaching of French in New York especially in K 12 dual language programs where Spanish and Mandarin are the only second language options more popular than French 91 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 It noted that French is spreading in areas where the population is rapidly increasing especially in sub Saharan Africa 92 In 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 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 93 VarietiesMain article Varieties of French African French Maghreb French North African French Aostan French Belgian French Cambodian French Canadian French Acadian French Newfoundland French New England French Ontario French Quebec French French French Guianese French Meridional French Haitian French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Louisiana French Cajun French Missouri French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Varieties of the French language in the worldCurrent status and importanceA leading world language French 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 94 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 95 one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union an official language of NATO 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 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 Medecins sans Frontieres used alongside English Spanish Portuguese and Arabic and Medecins du Monde used alongside English 96 Given 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 97 Significant as a judicial language French 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 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 98 In 1997 George Weber published in Language Today a comprehensive academic study entitled The World s 10 most influential languages 99 In the article Weber ranked French as after English the second most influential language of the world ahead of Spanish 99 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 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 99 In a 2008 reassessment of his article Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since the situation among the top ten remains unchanged 99 Knowledge of French 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 44 100 MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2 3 premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace 101 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 the country near French speaking Quebec however it is the foreign language more commonly taught PhonologyMain article French phonology source source Spoken French Africa Consonant phonemes in French Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Postalveolar Velar UvularNasal m n ɲ ŋStop voiceless p t kvoiced b d ɡFricative voiceless f s ʃ ʁvoiced v z ʒApproximant plain l jlabial ɥ wVowel phonemes in French Oral Front Central Backunrounded roundedClose i y uClose mid e o e oOpen mid ɛ ɛː œ ɔOpen a ɑ Nasal Front Backunrounded roundedOpen mid ɛ œ ɔ Open ɑ Although there are many French regional accents foreign learners normally use only one variety of the language There are a maximum of 17 vowels in French not all of which are used in every dialect a ɑ e ɛ ɛː e i o ɔ y u œ o plus the nasalized vowels ɑ ɛ ɔ and œ In France the vowels ɑ ɛː and œ are tending to be replaced by a ɛ and ɛ in many people s speech but the distinction of ɛ and œ is present in Meridional French In Quebec and Belgian French the vowels ɑ e ɛː and œ are present Voiced stops i e b d ɡ are typically produced fully voiced throughout Voiceless stops i e p t k are unaspirated The velar nasal ŋ can occur in final position in borrowed usually English words parking camping swing The palatal nasal ɲ can occur in word initial position e g gnon but it is most frequently found in intervocalic onset position or word finally e g montagne French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing i e labiodental f v dental s z and palato alveolar ʃ ʒ s z are dental like the plosives t d and the nasal n French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in ʁu roue wheel Vowels are often lengthened before this segment It can be reduced to an approximant particularly in final position e g fort or reduced to zero in some word final positions For other speakers a uvular trill is also common and an apical trill r occurs in some dialects Lateral and central approximants The lateral approximant l is unvelarised in both onset lire and coda position il In the onset the central approximants w ɥ and j each correspond to a high vowel u y and i respectively There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast but there are also many cases where they are in free variation Contrasts between j and i occur in final position as in pɛj paye pay vs pɛi pays country French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects but the standard rules are Final single consonants in particular s x z t d n p and g are normally silent A consonant is considered final when no vowel follows it even if one or more consonants follow it The final letters f k q and l however are normally pronounced The final c is sometimes pronounced like in bac sac roc but can also be silent like in blanc or estomac The final r is usually silent when it follows an e in a word of two or more syllables but it is pronounced in some words hiver super cancer etc When the following word begins with a vowel however a silent consonant may once again be pronounced to provide a liaison or link between the two words Some liaisons are mandatory for example the s in les amants or vous avez some are optional depending on dialect and register for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais and some are forbidden for example the s in beaucoup d hommes aiment The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied a terre Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word e g chien chienne makes it clearly pronounced Doubling a final l and adding a silent e e g gentil gentille adds a j sound if the l is preceded by the letter i Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e such as je and que drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound thus avoiding a hiatus The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe e g je ai is instead pronounced and spelled j ai This gives for example the same pronunciation for l homme qu il a vu the man whom he saw and l homme qui l a vu the man who saw him However for Belgian French the sentences are pronounced differently in the first sentence the syllable break is as qu il a while the second breaks as qui l a It can also be noted that in Quebec French the second example l homme qui l a vu is more emphasized on l a vu Writing systemAlphabet Main articles French alphabet and French braille French is written with the 26 letters of the basic Latin script with four diacritics appearing on vowels circumflex accent acute accent grave accent diaeresis and the cedilla appearing in c There are two ligatures œ and ae but they are often replaced in contemporary French with oe and ae because the ligatures do not appear on the AZERTY keyboard layout used in French speaking countries However this is nonstandard in formal and literary texts Orthography Main articles French orthography and Reforms of French orthography French spelling like English spelling tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period without a corresponding change in spelling Moreover some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography as with some English words such as debt Old French doit gt French doigt finger Latin digitus Old French pie gt French pied foot Latin pes stem ped French orthography is morphophonemic While it contains 130 graphemes that denote only 36 phonemes many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and prefixes 102 Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound In particular a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme However there is not a one to one relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme which can be seen in how tomber and tombe both end with the e phoneme 103 Additionally there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words demonstrated by how the x in paix is not pronounced though at the end of Aix it is As a result it can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word based on the sound Final consonants are generally silent except when the following word begins with a vowel see Liaison French For example the following words end in a vowel sound pied aller les finit beaux The same words followed by a vowel however may sound the consonants as they do in these examples beaux arts les amis pied a terre French writing as with any language is affected by the spoken language In Old French the plural for animal was animals The als sequence was unstable and was turned into a diphthong aus This change was then reflected in the orthography animaus The us ending very common in Latin was then abbreviated by copyists monks by the letter x resulting in a written form animax As the French language further evolved the pronunciation of au turned into o so that the u was reestablished in orthography for consistency resulting in modern French animaux pronounced first animos before the final s was dropped in contemporary French The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others In addition castel pl castels became chateau pl chateaux Nasal n and m When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized i e pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled or immediately followed by a vowel The prefixes en and em are always nasalized The rules are more complex than this but may vary between dialects Digraphs French uses not only diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs but also specific combinations of vowels sometimes with following consonants to show which sound is intended Gemination Within words double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s and in very refined elocution they may still occur For example illusion is pronounced ilyzjɔ and not ilːyzjɔ However gemination does occur between words for example une info a news item or a piece of information is pronounced ynɛ fo whereas une nympho a nymphomaniac is pronounced ynːɛ fo Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation sometimes to distinguish similar words and sometimes based on etymology alone Accents that affect pronunciation The acute accent l accent aigu e e g ecole school means that the vowel is pronounced e instead of the default e The grave accent l accent grave e e g eleve pupil means that the vowel is pronounced ɛ instead of the default e The circumflex l accent circonflexe e e g foret forest shows that an e is pronounced ɛ and that an o is pronounced o In standard French it also signifies a pronunciation of ɑ for the letter a but this differentiation is disappearing In the mid 18th century the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel where that letter s was not pronounced Thus forest became foret hospital became hopital and hostel became hotel Diaeresis or trema e i u y over e i u or y indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one naive Noel The combination of e with diaeresis following o Noel ɔɛ is nasalized in the regular way if followed by n Samoens wɛ The combination of e with diaeresis following a is either pronounced ɛ Raphael Israel aɛ or not pronounced leaving only the a Stael a and the a is nasalized in the regular way if ae is followed by n Saint Saens ɑ A diaeresis on y only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts Some proper names in which y appears include Ay a commune in Marne formerly Ay Champagne Rue des Cloys an alley in Paris Croy family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail Paris Chateau du Fey near Joigny Ghys name of Flemish origin spelt Ghijs where ij in handwriting looked like y to French clerks L Hay les Roses commune near Paris Pierre Louys author Moy de l Aisne commune in Aisne and a family name and Le Blanc de Nicolay an insurance company in eastern France The diaeresis on u appears in the Biblical proper names Archelaus Capharnaum Emmaus Esau and Saul as well as French names such as Hauy Nevertheless since the 1990 orthographic changes the diaeresis in words containing gue such as aigue or cigue may be moved onto the u aigue cigue and by analogy may be used in verbs such as j argue In addition words coming from German retain their umlaut a o and u if applicable but use often French pronunciation such as Karcher trademark of a pressure washer The cedilla la cedille c e g garcon boy means that the letter c is pronounced s in front of the back vowels a o and u c is otherwise k before a back vowel C is always pronounced s in front of the front vowels e i and y thus c is never found in front of front vowels Accents with no pronunciation effect The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u nor in most dialects a It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago as in ile from former isle compare with English word isle The explanation is that some words share the same orthography so the circumflex is put here to mark the difference between the two words For example dites you say dites you said or even du of the du past participle for the verb devoir must have to owe in this case the circumflex disappears in the plural and the feminine All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs la and ou there where from the article la the feminine singular and the conjunction ou or respectively Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system but they still fail to gather interest 104 105 106 107 In 1990 a reform accepted some changes to French orthography At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions In 2016 schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct 108 GrammarMain article French grammar French is a moderately inflected language Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number singular or plural though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled differently adjectives for number and gender masculine or feminine of their nouns personal pronouns and a few other pronouns for person number gender and case and verbs for tense aspect mood and the person and number of their subjects Case is primarily marked using word order and prepositions while certain verb features are marked using auxiliary verbs According to the French lexicogrammatical system French has a rank scale hierarchy with clause as the top rank which is followed by group rank word rank and morpheme rank A French clause is made up of groups groups are made up of words and lastly words are made up of morphemes 109 French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages including the loss of Latin declensions the loss of the neuter gender the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives the loss of certain Latin tenses and the creation of new tenses from auxiliaries Nouns Every French noun is either masculine or feminine Because French nouns are not inflected for gender a noun s form cannot specify its gender For nouns regarding the living their grammatical genders often correspond to that which they refer to For example a male teacher is an enseignant while a female teacher is an enseignante However plural nouns that refer to a group that includes both masculine and feminine entities are always masculine So a group of two male teachers would be enseignants A group of two male teachers and two female teachers would still be enseignants In many situations and in the case of enseignant both the singular and plural form of a noun are pronounced identically The article used for singular nouns is different from that used for plural nouns and the article provides a distinguishing factor between the two in speech For example the singular le professeur or la professeur e the male or female teacher professor can be distinguished from the plural les professeurs because le la and les are all pronounced differently There are some situations where both the feminine and masculine form of a noun are the same and the article provides the only difference For example le dentiste refers to a male dentist while la dentiste refers to a female dentist Verbs Main article French verbs Moods and tense aspect forms The French language consists of both finite and non finite moods The finite moods include the indicative mood indicatif the subjunctive mood subjonctif the imperative mood imperatif and the conditional mood conditionnel The non finite moods include the infinitive mood infinitif the present participle participe present and the past participle participe passe Finite moods Indicative Indicatif The indicative mood makes use of eight tense aspect forms These include the present present the simple past passe compose and passe simple the past imperfective imparfait the pluperfect plus que parfait the simple future futur simple the future perfect futur anterieur and the past perfect passe anterieur Some forms are less commonly used today In today s spoken French the passe compose is used while the passe simple is reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes Similarly the plus que parfait is used for speaking rather than the older passe anterieur seen in literary works Within the indicative mood the passe compose plus que parfait futur anterieur and passe anterieur all use auxiliary verbs in their forms IndicatifPresent Imparfait Passe compose Passe simpleSingular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural1st Person j aime nous aimons j aimais nous aimions j ai aime nous avons aime j aimai nous aimames2nd Person tu aimes vous aimez tu aimais vous aimiez tu as aime vous avez aime tu aimas vous aimates3rd Person il elle aime ils elles aiment il elle aimait ils elles aimaient il elle a aime ils elles ont aime il elle aima ils elles aimerentFutur simple Futur anterieur Plus que parfait Passe anterieurSingular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural1st Person j aimerai nous aimerons j aurai aime nous aurons aime j avais aime nous avions aime j eus aime nous eumes aime2nd Person tu aimeras vous aimerez tu auras aime vous aurez aime tu avais aime vous aviez aime tu eus aime vous eutes aime3rd Person il elle aimera ils elles aimeront il elle aura aime ils elles auront aime il elle avait aime ils elles avaient aime il elle eut aime ils elles eurent aimeSubjunctive Subjonctif The subjunctive mood only includes four of the tense aspect forms found in the indicative present present simple past passe compose past imperfective imparfait and pluperfect plus que parfait Within the subjunctive mood the passe compose and plus que parfait use auxiliary verbs in their forms SubjonctifPresent Imparfait Passe compose Plus que parfaitSingular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural1st Person j aime nous aimions j aimasse nous aimassions j aie aime nous ayons aime j eusse aime nous eussions aime2nd Person tu aimes vous aimiez tu aimasses vous aimassiez tu aies aime vous ayez aime tu eusses aime vous eussiez aime3rd Person il elle aime ils elles aiment il elle aimat ils elles aimassent il elle ait aime ils elles aient aime il elle eut aime ils elles eussent aimeImperative Imperatif The imperative is used in the present tense with the exception of a few instances where it is used in the perfect tense The imperative is used to give commands to you tu we us nous and plural you vous ImperatifPresentSingular Plural1st Person aimons2nd Person aime aimezConditional Conditionnel The conditional makes use of the present present and the past passe The passe uses auxiliary verbs in its forms ConditionnelPresent PasseSingular Plural Singular Plural1st Person j aimerais nous aimerions j aurais aime nous aurions aime2nd Person tu aimerais vous aimeriez tu aurais aime vous auriez aime3rd Person il elle aimerait ils elles aimeraient il elle aurait aime ils elles auraient aimeVoice French uses both the active voice and the passive voice The active voice is unmarked while the passive voice is formed by using a form of verb etre to be and the past participle Example of the active voice Elle aime le chien She loves the dog Marc a conduit la voiture Marc drove the car Example of the passive voice Le chien est aime par elle The dog is loved by her La voiture a ete conduite par Marc The car was driven by Marc Syntax Word order French declarative word order is subject verb object although a pronoun object precedes the verb Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders in particular inversion of the subject and verb as in Parlez vous francais when asking a question rather than Vous parlez francais Both formulations are used and carry a rising inflection on the last word The literal English translations are Do you speak French and You speak French respectively To avoid inversion while asking a question Est ce que literally is it that may be placed at the beginning of the sentence Parlez vous francais may become Est ce que vous parlez francais French also uses verb object subject VOS and object subject verb OSV word order OSV word order is not used often and VOS is reserved for formal writings 35 VocabularyRoot languages of loanwords 110 English 25 10 Italian 16 83 Germanic 20 65 Romance 15 26 Celtic 3 81 Persian and Sanskrit 2 67 Native American 2 41 Other Asian languages 2 12 Afro Asiatic 6 45 Balto Slavic 1 31 Basque 0 24 Other languages 3 43 The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots In many cases a single etymological root appears in French in a popular or native form inherited from Vulgar Latin and a learned form borrowed later from Classical Latin The following pairs consist of a native noun and a learned adjective brother frere fraternel from Latin frater fraternalis finger doigt digital from Latin digitus digitalis faith foi fidele from Latin fides fidelis eye œil oculaire from Latin oculus ocularisHowever a historical tendency to Gallicise Latin roots can be identified whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin rayonnement radiation from Latin radiatio eteindre extinguish from Latin exstinguere noyau nucleus from Latin nucleus ensoleillement insolation from Latin insolatioThere are also noun noun and adjective adjective pairs thing cause chose cause from Latin causa cold froid frigide from Latin frigidumIt can be difficult to identify the Latin source of native French words because in the evolution from Vulgar Latin unstressed syllables were severely reduced and the remaining vowels and consonants underwent significant modifications More recently when the linguistic policy of the French language academies of France and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents 111 to mainly English imported words either by using existing vocabulary extending its meaning or deriving a new word according to French morphological rules The result is often two or more co existing terms for describing the same phenomenon mercatique marketing finance fantome shadow banking bloc notes notepad ailiere wingsuit tiers lieu coworkingIt is estimated that 12 4 200 of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse or Micro Robert Plus 35 000 words are of foreign origin where Greek and Latin learned words are not seen as foreign About 25 1 054 of these foreign words come from English and are fairly recent borrowings The others are some 707 words from Italian 550 from ancient Germanic languages 481 from other Gallo Romance languages 215 from Arabic 164 from German 160 from Celtic languages 159 from Spanish 153 from Dutch 112 from Persian and Sanskrit 101 from Native American languages 89 from other Asian languages 56 from other Afro Asiatic languages 55 from Balto Slavic languages 10 from Basque and 144 about 3 from other languages 110 One study analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin estimated that among the languages analyzed French has the greatest distance from Latin 112 Lexical similarity is 89 with Italian 80 with Sardinian 78 with Rhaeto Romance and 75 with Romanian Spanish and Portuguese 113 1 Numerals The numeral system used in the majority of Francophone countries employs both decimal and vigesimal counting After the use of unique names for the numbers 1 16 those from 17 to 69 are counted by tens while twenty vingt is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99 The French word for 80 is quatre vingts literally four twenties and the word for 75 is soixante quinze literally sixty fifteen The vigesimal method of counting is analogous to the archaic English use of score as in fourscore and seven 87 or threescore and ten 70 Belgian Swiss and Aostan French 114 as well as that used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Rwanda and Burundi use different names for 70 and 90 namely septante and nonante In Switzerland depending on the local dialect 80 can be quatre vingts Geneva Neuchatel Jura or huitante Vaud Valais Fribourg The Aosta Valley similarly uses huitante 114 for 80 Conversely Belgium and in its former African colonies use quatre vingts for 80 In Old French during the Middle Ages all numbers from 30 to 99 could be said in either base 10 or base 20 e g vint et doze twenty and twelve for 32 dous vinz et diz two twenties and ten for 50 uitante for 80 or nonante for 90 115 The term octante was historically used in Switzerland for 80 but is now considered archaic 116 French like most European languages uses a space to separate thousands 117 The comma French virgule is used in French numbers as a decimal point i e 2 5 instead of 2 5 In the case of currencies the currency markers are substituted for decimal point i e 5 7 for 5 dollars and 7 cents Example textArticle 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in French Tous les etres humains naissent libres et egaux en dignite et en droits Ils sont doues de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternite 118 Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood 119 See also Language portalAlliance Francaise AZERTY Francais fondamental Francization Francophile Francophobia Francophonie French language in the United States French language in Canada French poetry Glossary of French expressions in English Influence of French on English Language education List of countries where French is an official language List of English words of French origin List of French loanwords in Persian List of French words and phrases used by English speakers List of German words of French origin Official bilingualism in Canada Varieties of FrenchNotes 29 full members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie OIF Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros DR Congo Republic of the Congo Cote d Ivoire Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Gabon Guinea Guinea Bissau Madagascar Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Niger Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Seychelles Togo and Tunisia One associate member of the OIF Ghana One observer of the OIF Mozambique One country not member or observer of the OIF Algeria Two French territories in Africa Reunion and Mayotte References a b c d French at Ethnologue 25th ed 2022 In which countries of the world is this language spoken Retrieved 21 November 2017 Official Languages www un org 18 November 2014 Retrieved 19 April 2020 Census in Brief English French and official language minorities in Canada www12 statcan gc ca 2 August 2017 Retrieved 25 March 2018 a b The status of French in the world Archived from the original on 22 September 2015 Retrieved 23 April 2015 a b 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 Why Learn French Archived from the original on 19 June 2008 Develey Alice 25 February 2017 Le francais est la deuxieme langue la plus etudiee dans l Union europeenne via Le Figaro How many people speak French and where is French spoken Retrieved 21 November 2017 in French La Francophonie dans le monde 2006 2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie Nathan Archived 14 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine Paris 2007 Estimation des francophones dans le monde en 2015 Sources et demarches methodologiques archive PDF sur Observatoire demographique et statistique de l espace francophone archive a b Francophonie Qu est ce que la Francophonie www axl cefan ulaval ca The World s Most Widely Spoken Languages Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 La langue francaise dans le monde PDF Retrieved 30 March 2022 French language is on the up report reveals thelocal fr 6 November 2014 Agora La francophonie de demain 24 November 2004 Retrieved 13 June 2011 Lauerman John 30 August 2011 Mandarin Chinese Most Useful Business Language After English Bloomberg New York Archived from the original on 29 March 2015 French spoken by 68 million people worldwide and the official language of 27 countries was 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discussed in pages 64 67 Page 65 In recent years the primary role of the substratum has been disputed Beset doucmented is the CT gt it change which is found in all Western Romania more reservations have been expressed about u gt y Summary on page 67 There can be no doubt that the way French stands out from the other Western Romance languages Vidos 1956 363 is largely due to the intensity of its Celtic substratum compared with lateral areas like Iberia and Venetia Henri Guiter Sur le substrat gaulois dans la Romania in Munus amicitae Studia linguistica in honorem Witoldi Manczak septuagenarii eds Anna Bochnakowa amp Stanislan Widlak Krakow 1995 Eugeen Roegiest Vers les sources des langues romanes Un itineraire linguistique a travers la Romania Leuven Belgium Acco 2006 83 Matasovic Ranko 2007 Insular Celtic as a Language Area Papers from the Workship within the Framework of the XIII International Congress of Celtic Studies The Celtic Languages in Contact 106 Polinsky Maria Van Everbroeck Ezra 2003 Development of Gender Classifications Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French Language 79 2 356 390 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 134 9933 doi 10 1353 lan 2003 0131 JSTOR 4489422 S2CID 6797972 Christian Schmitt 1997 Keltische im heutigen Franzosisch Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie 49 50 814 829 Muller Bodo 1982 Geostatistik der gallischen keltischen Substratworter in der Galloromania In Winkelmann Otto ed Festschrift fur Johannes Hubschmid zum 65 Geburtsag Beitrage zur allgemeinen indogermanischen und romanischen Sprachwissenschaft pp 603 620 a b Urban Holmes and Alexander Herman Schutz June 1938 A History of the French Language Biblo amp Tannen Publishers p 30 ISBN 9780819601919 sixty eight or more Celtic words in standard Latin not all of these came down into Romance did not survive among the people Vulgar speech in Gaul used many others at least 361 words of Gaulish provenance in French and Provencal These Celtic words fell into more homely types than borrowings from Germanː agriculture household effects animals food and drink trees body 17 dor lt durnu dress construction birds fish insects piece lt pettia and the remainder divided among weapons religion literature music persons sickness and mineral It is evident that the peasants were the last to hold to their Celtic The count on the Celtic element was made by Leslie Moss at the University of North Carolina based on unanimity of agreement among the best lexicographers a b Eugeen Roegiest Vers les sources des langues romanes Un itineraire linguistique a travers la Romania Leuven Belgium Acco 2006 page 82 a b c d HarvardKey Login www pin1 harvard edu Archived from the original on 13 August 2021 Retrieved 16 May 2019 a b Lahousse Karen Lamiroy Beatrice 2012 Word order in French Spanish and Italian A grammaticalization account Folia Linguistica 46 2 doi 10 1515 flin 2012 014 ISSN 1614 7308 S2CID 146854174 Rowlett P 2007 The Syntax of French Cambridge Cambridge University Press Page 4 Pope Mildred K 1934 From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo Norman Phonology and Morphology Manchester Manchester University Press Victor Joseph M 1978 Charles de Bovelles 1479 1553 An Intellectual Biography Librairie Droz p 28 The World s 10 Most Influential Languages Archived 12 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine Top Languages Retrieved 11 April 2011 Battye Adrian Hintze Marie Anne Rowlett Paul 2003 The French Language Today A Linguistic Introduction Taylor amp Francis ISBN 978 0 203 41796 6 Meisler Stanley 1 March 1986 Seduction Still Works French a Language in Decline The Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 2 July 2015 Retrieved 18 October 2021 a b Labouysse Georges 2007 L Imposture Mensonges et manipulations de l Histoire officielle France Institut d etudes occitanes ISBN 978 2 85910 426 9 EUROPA data for EU25 published before 2007 enlargement Explore language knowledge in Europe languageknowledge eu Novoa Cristina Moghaddam Fathali M 2014 Applied Perspectives Policies for Managing Cultural Diversity In Benet Martinez Veronica Hong Ying Yi eds The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity Oxford Library of Psychology New York Oxford University Press p 468 ISBN 978 0 19 979669 4 LCCN 2014006430 OCLC 871965715 Van Parijs Philippe Professor of economic and social ethics at the UCLouvain Visiting Professor at Harvard University and the KULeuven Belgium s new linguistic challenge PDF KVS Express Supplement to Newspaper de Morgen March April 2006 Article from original source pdf 4 9 MB pp 34 36 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service ministry of Economy Directorate general Statistics Belgium Archived from the original PDF on 13 June 2007 Retrieved 5 May 2007 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link The linguistic situation in Belgium and in particular various estimates of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels is discussed in detail Abalain Herve 2007 Le francais et les langues ISBN 978 2 87747 881 6 Retrieved 10 September 2010 Allemagne le francais bientot la deuxieme langue officielle de la Sarre 28 April 2014 German region of Saarland moves towards bilingualism BBC News 21 January 2014 Population Reference Bureau 2020 World Population Data Sheet Population mid 2020 Retrieved 24 November 2020 United Nations World Population Prospects The 2019 Revision XLSX Retrieved 28 September 2019 Population Reference Bureau 2020 World Population Data Sheet Population mid 2050 Retrieved 24 November 2020 a b Observatoire de la langue francaise de l Organisation internationale de la Francophonie Estimation du nombre de francophones 2018 PDF Retrieved 24 November 2020 Observatoire demographique et statistique de l espace francophone ODSEF Estimation des populations francophones dans le monde en 2018 Sources et demarches methodologiques PDF Retrieved 24 November 2020 Cross Tony 19 March 2010 French language growing especially in Africa Radio France Internationale retrieved 25 May 2013 Agora La francophonie de demain 24 November 2004 Retrieved 13 June 2011 Bulletin de liaison du reseau demographie PDF Archived from the original PDF on 26 April 2012 Retrieved 14 June 2011 in French Le francais a Abidjan Pour une approche syntaxique du non standard by Katja Ploog CNRS Editions Paris 2002 L amenagement linguistique dans le monde CEFAN Chaire pour le developpement de la recherche sur la culture d expression francaise en Amerique du Nord Universite Laval in French Jacques Leclerc Retrieved 19 May 2013 Annonces import export Francophone CECIF com www cecif com France Diplomatie Archived 27 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine Furthermore the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French speakers in French Le francais langue en evolution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones surtout sur le continent africain une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le francais meme s il est souvent la langue officielle du pays Ce qui signifie qu au fur et a mesure que les nouvelles generations vont a l ecole le nombre de francophones augmente on estime qu en 2015 ceux ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu aujourd hui Archived 17 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine in French c Le sabir franco africain Archived 17 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine C est la variete du francais la plus fluctuante Le sabir franco africain est instable et heterogene sous toutes ses formes Il existe des enonces ou les mots sont francais mais leur ordre reste celui de la langue africaine En somme autant les langues africaines sont envahies par les structures et les mots francais autant la langue francaise se metamorphose en Afrique donnant naissance a plusieurs varietes in French Republique centrafricaine Archived 5 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine Il existe une autre variete de francais beaucoup plus repandue et plus permissive le francais local C est un francais tres influence par les langues centrafricaines surtout par le sango Cette variete est parlee par les classes non instruites qui n ont pu terminer leur scolarite Ils utilisent ce qu ils connaissent du francais avec des emprunts massifs aux langues locales Cette variete peut causer des problemes de comprehension avec les francophones des autres pays car les interferences linguistiques d ordre lexical et semantique sont tres importantes One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers What are the largest French speaking cities in the world Tourist Maker Retrieved 6 October 2016 Detailed Mother Tongue 186 Knowledge of Official Languages 5 Age Groups 17A and Sex 3 2006 Census 2 statcan ca 7 December 2010 Retrieved 22 February 2011 Language Use in the United States 2011 American Community Survey Reports Camille Ryan Issued August 2013 PDF Archived from the original PDF on 5 February 2016 Retrieved 18 February 2018 LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT HOME BY ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH FOR THE POPULATION 5 YEARS AND OVER Universe Population 5 years and over 2007 2011 American Community Survey 5 Year Estimates Factfinder2 census gov Archived from the original on 12 February 2020 Retrieved 14 March 2015 Ammon Ulrich International Sociological Association 1989 Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties Walter de Gruyter pp 306 08 ISBN 978 0 89925 356 5 Retrieved 14 November 2011 DeGraff Michel Ruggles Molly 1 August 2014 A Creole Solution for Haiti s Woes The New York Times p A17 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on 6 September 2015 Under the 1987 Constitution adopted after the overthrow of Jean Claude Duvalier s dictatorship Haitian Creole and French have been the two official languages but most of the population speaks only Creole fluently Ministere de l Education nationale Guyana World Travel Guide Saint Pierre and Miquelon CIA World Factbook 18 October 2021 Richardson Michael 16 October 1993 French Declines in Indochina as English Booms International Herald Tribune Retrieved 18 November 2018 says Aly Chiman 1 February 2007 The Role of English in Vietnam s Foreign Language Policy A Brief History www worldwide rs Kirkpatrick Andy and Anthony J Liddicoat The Routledge International Handbook of Language Education Policy in Asia Routledge 2019 p 192 a b English to continue as link language in Puducherry Court The Times of India 14 September 2014 Pondicherry the French outpost in India France 24 Prof Dr Axel Tschentscher LL M Article 11 of the Lebanese Constitution Servat unibe ch Retrieved 17 January 2013 OIF 2014 p 217 OIF 2014 p 218 OIF 2014 p 358 How Qatar Became a Francophone Country Draaisma Muriel 26 November 2016 La Francophonie grants observer status to Ontario CBC News Retrieved 11 July 2017 Greece joins international Francophone body EURACTIV com 29 November 2004 Retrieved 11 July 2017 P9 1 Population de 14 ans et plus selon la connaissance du francais le sexe par commune zone et par province de residence XLS in French Government of France Retrieved 3 October 2009 a b Institut Statistique de Polynesie Francaise ISPF Recensement 2017 Donnees detaillees Langues Retrieved 7 April 2019 a b STSEE Les premiers resultats du recensement de la population 2018 Principaux tableaux population 2018 in French Archived from the original ODS on 8 June 2019 Retrieved 7 April 2019 Institut Statistique de Polynesie Francaise ISPF Recensement 2007 Donnees detaillees Langues Retrieved 7 April 2019 Tableau Pop 06 1 Population selon le sexe la connaissance du francais et l age decennal in French Government of France Archived from the original XLS on 4 June 2011 Retrieved 3 October 2009 Semple Kirk 30 January 2014 A Big Advocate of French in New York s Schools France The New York Times Archived from the original on 1 January 2022 Gobry Pascal Emmanuel Want To Know The Language Of The Future The Data Suggests It Could Be French Forbes Focus EU after Brexit Will the French language make a comeback France 24 17 October 2019 Kai Chan Distinguished Fellow INSEAD Innovation and Policy Initiative These are the most powerful languages in the world World Economic Forum December 2016 Rodney Ball Dawn Marley The French Speaking World A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues Taylor amp Francis 2016 page 6 The French Ministry of Foreign affairs France Diplomatie France Diplomatie Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development Gobry Pascal Emmanuel 21 March 2014 Want To Know The Language of the Future The Data Suggests It Could Be French Forbes Retrieved 18 November 2018 On the Linguistic Design of Multinational Courts The French Capture forthcoming in 14 INT L J CONST L 2016 Mathilde Cohen a b c d The World s 10 most influential languages George Weber 1997 Language Today retrieved on scribd com Burns Judith 22 June 2014 Foreign languages shortfall for business CBI says BBC News Retrieved 18 November 2018 Johnson 9 December 2017 Johnson What is a foreign language worth The Economist Retrieved 9 December 2017 The contribution of morphological awareness to the spelling of morphemes and morphologically complex words in French rdcu be Retrieved 30 July 2017 Brissaud Catherine Chevrot Jean Pierre 2011 The late acquisition of a major difficulty of French inflectional orthography The homophonic E verbal endings PDF Writing Systems Research 3 2 129 44 doi 10 1093 wsr wsr003 S2CID 15072817 in French Fonetik fr writing system proposal in French Ortofasil writing system proposal in French Alfograf writing system proposal in French Ortograf net writing system proposal End of the circumflex Changes in French spelling cause uproar BBC News 5 February 2016 Retrieved 30 July 2017 Caffarel Alice Martin J R Matthiessen Christian M I M Language Typology A Functional Perspective Amsterdam Philadelphia John Benjamins Publishing Company a b Walter amp Walter 1998 metrowebukmetro 1 October 2012 French fight franglais with alternatives for English technology terms Metro News Pei Mario 1949 Story of Language ISBN 978 0 397 00400 3 Brincat Joseph M 2005 Maltese an unusual formula MED Magazine 27 Archived from the original on 5 September 2005 Retrieved 22 February 2008 a b Jean Pierre Martin Description lexicale du francais parle en Vallee d Aoste ed Musumeci Quart 1984 Einhorn E 1974 Old French A Concise Handbook Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 110 ISBN 978 0 521 09838 0 Septante octante huitante nonante langue fr net in French See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language especially the section Counting system and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system Questions de langue Nombres ecriture lecture accord in French Academie francaise Archived from the original on 1 January 2015 Retrieved 15 November 2015 Universal Declaration of Human Rights ohchr org Universal Declaration of Human Rights un org Further readingMarc Fumaroli 2011 When the World Spoke French Translated by Richard Howard ISBN 978 1 59017 375 6 Nadeau Jean Benoit and Julie Barlow 2006 The Story of French First U S ed New York St Martin s Press ISBN 0 312 34183 0 Ursula Reutner 2017 Manuel des francophonies Berlin Boston de Gruyter ISBN 978 3 11 034670 1 La langue francaise dans le monde 2014 PDF in French Nathan 2014 ISBN 978 2 09 882654 0 Archived from the original PDF on 12 April 2015 Retrieved 5 April 2015 External linksFrench language at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Phrasebook from Wikivoyage Resources from Wikiversity French Edition from Wikipedia Data from Wikidata Organisations Fondation Alliance francaise an international organisation for the promotion of French language and culture in French Agence de promotion du FLE Agency for promoting French as a foreign languageCourses and tutorials Francais interactif interactive French program University of Texas at Austin Tex s French Grammar University of Texas at Austin Lingopolo French French lessons in London The Language machineOnline dictionaries Oxford Dictionaries French Dictionary Collins Online English French Dictionary Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales monolingual dictionaries including the Tresor de la langue francaise language corpora etc For other unilingual dictionaries see fr Dictionnaire Grammar Verbs French verb conjugation at VerbixVocabulary Swadesh list in English and FrenchNumbers Smith Paul French Numbers Numberphile Brady Haran Archived from the original on 2 March 2017 Retrieved 7 April 2013 Books in French La langue francaise dans le monde 2010 Full book freely accessible Articles The status of French in the world Ministry of Foreign Affairs France Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title French language amp oldid 1132518034, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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