French (français, French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃sɛ]) is a Romance language extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, globally spoken by about 110 million[14] people as a first language Sometimes the term first language is used for the language that the speaker speaks best (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language A second language is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue (L1). Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language A second language is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue (L1). Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas, with significant numbers of speakers in 57 countries.[3] Most native speakers of the language live in France France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ franss or /ˈfrɑːns/ frahns; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a member state of the European Union located in its western region, with several overseas territories and islands located on other, where the language originated. The rest live essentially in Canada Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area and its common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the longest in the world (particularly Quebec Quebec (English pronunciation: /kəˈbɛk/ or /kwɨˈbɛk/; French: Québec [kebɛk] ) is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level. Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-, and to a lesser extent Ontario Ontario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are larger but are not provinces.) and New Brunswick New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province (French and English) in the federation. The provincial capital is Fredericton. Statistics Canada estimates the provincial population in 2009 to be 748,329; a majority are English-speaking, but there is also a large Francophone minority (32%), Belgium The Kingdom of Belgium /ˈbɛldʒəm/ is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of about 10.7 million, (particularly Wallonia Wallonia (French: Wallonie, German: Wallonie, Dutch: Wallonië (help·info), Walloon: Waloneye), formally the Walloon Region (French: Région wallonne, German: Wallonische Region), is the predominantly French-speaking southern region of Belgium. It makes up about 33% of the population and 55% of the territory of Belgium. Walloon Region is also the and Brussels Brussels (French: Bruxelles, pronounced [bʁyˈsɛl] ; Dutch: Brussel, pronounced [ˈbrʏsəl] (help·info)), officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (help·info)), is the de facto capital city of the European Union (EU) and the largest urban area in), Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to (Cantons: Geneva Geneva (French: Genève, German: Genf Genf , Italian: Ginevra, Romansh: Genevra) is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandie (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). Situated where the Rhône River exits Lake Geneva (in French also known as Lac Léman), it is the capital of the, Vaud Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian (pronounced differently), Waadt in German and Vad in Romansh, Neuchâtel Neuchâtel is the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel, Jura and also spoken in Fribourg Fribourg , (German: Freiburg or Freiburg im Üechtland, often Fribourg) is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French,Valais The Valais (German: Wallis ) is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley. Paradoxically it is also one of most Bern The city of Bern or Berne (German: Bern, pronounced [ˈbɛrn] ; French: Berne [bɛʀn]; Italian: Berna [ˈbɛrna]; Romansh: Berna [ˈbɛrnə]; Bernese German: Bärn [b̥æːrn]) is the Bundesstadt (federal city, de facto capital) of Switzerland, and, with about 130,000 people , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, )French-speaking Africa African French is the generic name of the varieties of French spoken by an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries. This includes those who speak French as a first or second language in these 31 francophone African countries , but it does not include French speakers living in non-francophone African (31 countries, including Cameroon The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic, Gabon Gabon is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with the Gulf of Guinea to the west, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and Cameroon to the north, with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. Its size is almost 270,000 km² with an estimated population of 1,500,000. The capital and largest city is Libreville, Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire , (officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire), is a country in West Africa. Although it is commonly known in English as the Ivory Coast, the Ivorian government officially discourages this usage, preferring the French name Côte d'Ivoire to be used in all languages. Côte d'Ivoire has an area of 322,462 km2, and borders the countries), Luxembourg Luxembourg (pronounced /ˈlʌksəmbɜrɡ/ ), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg, French: Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, German: Großherzogtum Luxemburg), is a small, landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. Luxembourg has a population of under half a million, Monaco Monaco /ˈmɒnəkoʊ/ , officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe on the northern central coast of the Mediterranean Sea, having a land border on three, and certain parts of the U.S. ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language states of Louisiana The State of Louisiana (pronounced /luːˌiːziˈænə/ or /ˌluːziˈænə/ ( listen); French: État de Louisiane, [lwizjan] ( listen); Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided and Maine The State of Maine ( /ˈmeɪn/ ) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is the northernmost portion of New England and is the easternmost. Most second-language speakers of French live in Francophone Africa, arguably exceeding the number of native speakers.[15] The Democratic Republic of the Congo Coordinates: 2°52′48″S 23°39′22″E / 2.88°S 23.656°E The Democratic Republic of the Congo , known until 1997 as Zaire, is a country located in Central Africa, with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest country (by area) in Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is, with the population more than 68 is the Francophone country with the largest population.
French is a descendant of the Latin Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With the Roman conquest, Latin was spread to countries around the Mediterranean, including a large part of Europe. Romance languages, such as Aragonese, Corsican, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish, are descended from Latin, while many others, language of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus, as are national languages such as Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by another 10 million Italian descendants in the world, making it spoken by a total of 70 million native speakers. It is also spoken by an additional 125 million people as a foreign language. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four, Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (namely the Gallaeci, the Lusitanians, the Celtici and the Conii) around 2000 years ago. It spread worldwide in the 15th, Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population, Romanian Romanian (obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə] ) or Daco-Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania, Republic of Moldova, and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia. In the Republic of and Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with, and minority languages ranging from Occitan Occitan , known also as Lenga d'òc in Occitan or Langue d'oc in French (native name: occitan [utsiˈta], lenga d'òc [ˈleŋɡɔˈðɔ(k)]; native nickname: la lenga nòstra i.e. "our [own] language") is a Romance language spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and in the Aran Valley of Spain to Neapolitan Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples, Campania (Neapolitan: Nàpule; Italian: Napoli). On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected and many more. Its closest relatives however are the other langues d'oïl Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, which today make up northern France, part of Belgium, and the Channel Islands. These languages have all been replaced by Standard French (an oïl variety itself) as the official and predominant and French-based creole languages A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koiné French extent in Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies. French-based creole languages are spoken by millions of people worldwide, primarily in the Americas and in the Indian. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul. During the 1st of Roman Gaul Gaul is a historical name used in the context of Ancient Rome in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. In English, the word Gaul may also refer to an and by the (Germanic The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a) Frankish Old Frankish was the language of the Franks and it is classified as a West Germanic language. Once it was spoken in areas covering modern Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and adjacent parts of France and Germany language of the post-Roman Frankish The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the third century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a kingdom on Roman-held soil that was invaders.
It is an official language An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a language a legal status, even if that language is not in 28 countries The following is a list of the 29 countries where French is an official language. Note that in most of these countries, French is not the only language, and therefore the population does not indicate the number of French-speakers, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie La Francophonie, or the Francophonie, is an international organization of polities and governments with French as the mother or customary language, wherein a significant proportion of people are francophones or where there is a notable affiliation with the French language or culture, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations The United Nations Organization or simply United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of agencies and a large number of international organizations List of international organisations which have French as an official, administrative or working language. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 499,673,300) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it either as a second language or as a foreign language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English (2nd rank) and German (1st rank). In addition, prior to the mid 20th century, French served as the pre-eminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe.
As a result of France's extensive colonial ambitions between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to America, Africa, Polynesia, and the Caribbean.
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ue, 02 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GM
Then the . French language. came and my suspicions were confirmed. I don't speak much French, as I've never really had any practice, but I do understand it quite well as I had studied French some years ago. ...
Q. For example what laws, new initiatives or recommendations are there in France which are trying to prevent anglicisms in the French language, and how successful are they?
Asked by Chocothunder - Thu Mar 26 18:04:38 2009 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments
A. I would not know for France, but in Quebec we have 2 main initiatives: 1- The Charter of the French language (Bill 101): makes of French the official language in the province, meaning that everything needs to be translated in French for the customers and that the language of instruction and work is French. 2- The Quebec Office of the French Language: Excellent organism that watch for the apparition of new anglicisms and propose French words to replace them (old or invented) For example, they came up with "courriel" to replace "e-mail" They have a website anyone can consult: Has far as I know, those 2 measures have gone a long way to help out the French from the bad situation it was at the end of the '70s.
Answered by Aikuchi - Thu Mar 26 18:21:59 2009
