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French language |
| French Français |
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|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | /fʁɑ̃sɛ/ | |
| Spoken in: | Listed in the article | |
| Region: | Africa, Europe, Americas, Pacific, regions in Asia | |
| Total speakers: | Native: 72 to 130 million Total: estimates from 160 million to 500 million |
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| Ranking: | 9 (Native), total: 3 to 7 | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Rhaetian Oïl French |
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| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | 30 countries Numerous international organizations |
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| Regulated by: | Académie française (France) Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec, Canada) Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane (Louisiana) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | fr | |
| ISO 639-2: | fre (B) | fra (T) |
| ISO 639-3: | fra | |
 Dark blue: French-speaking; blue: official language/widely used; Light blue: language of culture; green: minority |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
This article is part of the series on: French language |
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French (français, French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃sɛ]) is today spoken around the world by 72 to 130 million people as a native language, and by about 190 to 600 million people as a second or third language,[5] with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. The rest live in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland.
French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Romanian. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.
It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 59 million (12%) speak it natively and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German respectively.
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Per the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992[6] (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.
In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution.
French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population.
In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages—along with Dutch—of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language.[7] French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen of municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers; a mirroring situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, the remaining 60% speak Dutch, the latter of which 59% claim to speak French as a second language.[8] French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language.[9]
Although Monégasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population.
Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population.
French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-Provençal dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition.
French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ;
the other official languages of Luxembourg are
Luxemburgish is the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg ;
Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German, while secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French.
Although Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, are separate entities, both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey.
About 7 million Canadians are native French-speakers, of whom 6 million live in Quebec,[11] and French is one of Canada's two official languages (the other being English). Various provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with Canadians' right to access services in both languages, including the right to a publicly funded education in the minority language of each province, where numbers warrant in a given locality. By law, the federal government must operate and provide services in both English and French, proceedings of the Parliament of Canada must be translated into both these languages, and most products sold in Canada must have labeling in both languages.
Overall, about 13% of Canadians have knowledge of French only, while 18% have knowledge of both English and French. In contrast, over 82% of the population of Quebec speaks French natively, and almost 96% speak it as either their first or second language. It has been the sole official language of Quebec since 1974. The legal status of French was further strengthened with the 1977 adoption of the Charter of the French Language (popularly known as Bill 101), which guarantees that every person has a right to have the civil administration, the health and social services, corporations, and enterprises in Quebec communicate with him in French. While the Charter mandates that certain provincial government services, such as those relating to health and education, be offered to the English minority in its language, where numbers warrant, its primary purpose is to cement the role of French as the primary language used in the public sphere.
The provision of the Charter that has arguably had the most significant impact mandates French-language education unless a child's parents or siblings have received the majority of their own primary education in English within Canada, with minor exceptions. This measure has reversed a historical trend whereby a large number of immigrant children would attend English schools. In so doing, the Charter has greatly contributed to the "visage français" (French face) of Montreal in spite of its growing immigrant population. Other provisions of the Charter have been ruled unconstitutional over the years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Though none of these provisions are still in effect today, some continued to be on the books for a time even after courts had ruled them unconstitutional as a result of the government's decision to invoke the so-called notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to override constitutional requirements. In 1993, the Charter was rewritten to allow signage in other languages so long as French was markedly "predominant." Another section of the Charter guarantees every person the right to work in French, meaning the right to have all communications with one's superiors and coworkers in French, as well as the right not to be required to know another language as a condition of hiring, unless this is warranted by the nature of one's duties, such as by reason of extensive interaction with people located outside the province or similar reasons. This section has not been as effective as had originally been hoped, and has faded somewhat from public consciousness. As of 2006, approximately 65% of the workforce on the island of Montreal predominantly used French in the workplace.
The only other province that recognizes French as an official language is New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual, like the nation as a whole. Outside of Quebec, the highest number of Francophones in Canada, 485,000, excluding those who claim multiple mother tongues, reside in Ontario, whereas New Brunswick, home to the vast majority of Acadians, has the highest percentage of Francophones after Quebec, 33%, or 237,000. In Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba, French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide some French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of Francophones live. Canada's three northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) all recognize French as an official language as well.
All provinces make some effort to accommodate the needs of their Francophone citizens, although the level and quality of French-language service vary significantly from province to province. The Ontario French Language Services Act, adopted in 1986, guarantees French language services in that province in regions where the Francophone population exceeds 10% of the total population, as well as communities with Francophone populations exceeding 5,000, and certain other designated areas; this has the most effect in the north and east of the province, as well as in other larger centres such as Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, London, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Greater Sudbury and Windsor. However, the French Language Services Act does not confer the status of "official bilingualism" on these cities, as that designation carries with it implications which go beyond the provision of services in both languages. In March 2005, Ontario amended the City of Ottawa Act to recognize the bilingual nature of the city and to require bilingualism in the city's provision of services and its administration. The City's language policy (by-law 2001-170) allows employees to work in their official language of choice and be supervised in the language of choice.
Canada has the status of member state in the Francophonie, while the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are recognized as participating governments. Ontario is currently seeking to become a full member on its own.
French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue.
French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.
Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third[13][14] most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to two distinct dialects, Cajun French and Creole French
A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language.[16]
French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire[17] and in Libreville, Gabon.[18] It is impossible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages.[19]
In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met competition with English since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a long time and has recently become an official language of Madagascar.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand due to the expansion of education and it is also there the language has evolved most in recent years.[20][21] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries[22] but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.
French is an official language of many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies:
In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used though not on an official basis in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states:
Various reforms have been implemented in recent decades in Algeria to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education.
While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classescitation needed; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie.
French is also the official language of Mayotte and Réunion, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English.
French was the official language in Lebanon along with Arabic until 1941, the country's declaration of independence from France. French is still seen as an official language by the Lebanese peoplecitation needed as it is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in schools as a primary language along with Arabiccitation needed.
French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia.[23] In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China.
French has official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional language Tamil and some students of Tamil Nadu may opt French as their third or fourth language (usually behind English, Tamil, Hindi).
French is also commonly taught as third language in secondary school in most cities of Maharashtra State including Mumbai as part of the Secondary (X-SSC) and Higher secondary School (XII-HSC) certificate examinations.
French is also a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia.
Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly used special name, but has been termed français neutre (neutral French).citation needed
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:
French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including:
French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders.
The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example:
In some examples there is a common word from Vulgar Latin and a more savant word borrowed directly from Medieval Latin or even Ancient Greek.
The French words which have developed from Latin are usually less recognisable than Italian words of Latin origin because as French evolved from Vulgar Latin, the unstressed final syllable of many words was dropped or elided into the following word.
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. 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 ancient 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 Slavic languages and Baltic languages, 10 for Basque and 144 — about three percent — from other languages.[24]
The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60–99. The French word for eighty, for example, is quatre-vingts, which literally means "four twenties", and soixante-quinze (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).
Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are septante and nonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic.[25] In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used.
French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (œ) and (æ).
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 a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these 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.
On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the Académie française works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme.
The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance.
There are two ligatures, which have various origins.
French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced /o/) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became château pl. châteaux.
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| English | French | IPA pronunciation (Canadian accent) | IPA pronunciation (French accent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | français | /fʀɑ̃sɛ/ | /fʁɑ̃sɛ/ |
| English | anglais | /ɑ̃glɛ/ | /ɑ̃glɛ/ |
| Yes | Oui, except when responding to a negatively posed question, in which case Si is used preferentially over Oui | /wi/ | /wi/ |
| No | Non | /nɔ̃/ | /nɔ̃/ |
| Hello! | Bonjour ! (formal) or Salut ! (informal) | /bɔ̃ʒuːʀ/ | /bɔ̃ʒuːʁ/ |
| Good evening! | Bonsoir ! | /bɔ̃swɑ:ʁ/ | /bɔ̃swa:ʁ/ |
| Good night! | Bonne nuit ! | /bɔnnɥi/ | /bɔnnɥi/ |
| Goodbye! | Au revoir ! | /ɔʁvwɑːʁ/ | /oʁøvwaːʁ/ |
| Have a nice day! | Bonne journée ! | /bɔnʒuʀne/ | /bɔnʒuʁne/ |
| Please | S'il vous plaît (formal) or S'il te plaît (informal) | /sɪlvuplɛ/ | /silvuplɛ/ |
| Thank you | Merci | /mɛʀsi/ | /mɛʁsi/ |
| You're welcome | De rien ("it is nothing") or Je vous en prie (formal) / Je t'en prie (informal) | ||
| I'm sorry | Pardon or Je suis désolé (if male) / Je suis désolée (if female) | /paʀdɔ̃/ / /dezɔle/ | /paʁdɔ̃/ / /dezɔle/ |
| Who? | Qui ? | /ki/ | /ki/ |
| What? | Quoi ? (←informal {Used as "What?" in English) or Comment? (←formal {Used the same as "Pardon Me?" in English) | /kwa/ | /kwa/ |
| When? | Quand ? | /kɑ̃/ | /kɑ̃/ |
| Where? | Où ? | /u/ | /u/ |
| Why? | Pourquoi ? | /puʀkwa/ | /puʁkwa/ |
| What's your name? | Comment vous appelez-vous ? (formal) or Comment t'appelles-tu ? (informal) | ||
| Because | Parce que / "À cause de" — literally "because of" or "due to" | /paʁs(ə)kə/ | /paʁs(ə)kə/ |
| For (when used as "because") | Car | ||
| Therefore | Donc | ||
| How? | Comment ? | /kɔmɑ̃/ | /kɔmɑ̃/ |
| How much? | Combien ? | /kɔ̃bjɛ̃/ | /kɔ̃bjɛ̃/ |
| I do not understand. | Je ne comprends pas. | /ʒə nə kɔ̃pʀɑ̃ pɑ/ | /ʒə nə kɔ̃pʁɑ̃ pɑ/ |
| Yes, I understand. | Oui, je comprends. Except when responding to a negatively posed question, in which case Si is used preferentially over Oui | /wi ʒə kɔ̃pʀɑ̃/ | /wi ʒə kɔ̃pʁɑ̃/ |
| Help! | Au secours !! (à l'aide !) | /o səkuːʀ/ | |
| Can you help me please ? | Pouvez-vous m'aider s'il vous plaît ? / Pourriez-vous m'aider s'il vous plaît ? (formal) or Peux-tu m'aider s'il te plaît ? / Pourrais-tu m'aider s'il te plaît (informal) | ||
| Where are the bathrooms? | Où sont les toilettes ? | /u sɔ̃ le twalɛt/ | /u sɔ̃ le twalɛt/ |
| Do you speak English? | Parlez-vous anglais ? | /paʀlevu ɑ̃glɛ/ | /paʁlevu ɑ̃glɛ/ |
| I do not speak French. | Je ne parle pas français. | /ʒə nə paʀlə pɑ fʀɑ̃sɛ/ | /ʒə nə paʁl(ə) pa fʁɑ̃sɛ/ |
| I don't know. | Je ne sais pas. | ||
| I know. | Je sais. | ||
| I am thirsty. | J'ai soif. | ||
| I am hungry. | J'ai faim. | ||
| How are you? / How are things going? / How's everything? | Comment allez-vous? (formal) or Ça va? / Comment ça va ? (informal) | ||
| I am (very) well / Things are going (very) well // Everything is (very) well | Je vais (très) bien (formal) or Ça va (très) bien. / Tout va (très) bien (informal) | ||
| I am (very) bad / Things are (very) bad / Everything is (very) bad | Je vais (très) mal (formal) or Ça va (très) mal / Tout va (très) mal (informal) | ||
| I am ok/so-so / Everything is ok/so-so | Ça va comme ci, comme ça. | ||
| I am fine. | Ça va. | ||
| January | janvier | ||
| February | février | ||
| March | mars | ||
| April | avril | ||
| May | mai | ||
| June | juin | ||
| July | juillet | ||
| August | août | ||
| September | septembre | ||
| October | octobre | ||
| November | novembre | ||
| December | décembre | ||
| Monday | lundi | ||
| Tuesday | mardi | ||
| Wednesday | mercredi | ||
| Thursday | jeudi | ||
| Friday | vendredi | ||
| Saturday | samedi | ||
| Sunday | dimanche |
