French language

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French (français) is the third-largest of the Romance languages in terms of number of native speakers, after Spanish and Portuguese, being spoken by about 109 million people as a mother tongue [3], and altogether by some 264 million people [4] (including second-language speakers and learners).

It is an official language in 29 countries.

French is also an official or administrative language in several communities and international organizations (such as the European Union, International Olympic Committee, World Trade Organization, FINA, FIA, World Anti-Doping Agency, United Nations, African Union, International Court of Justice, Internation Secretariat for Water, International Association of Political Science, International Bureau of Weights and Measures, European Broadcasting Union, Universal Postal Union, Interpol and so on) and among the six official and the two working languages of the United Nations and of all its agencies.

Geographic distribution

La Francophonie is an international organization of French-speaking countries and governments.

Legal status in France

As p er the Constitution of France, French is the official language of the Republic since 1992 [5].

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. See Toubon Law.

Contrary to a misunderstanding common in the American and British media, France does not prohibit the use of foreign words in websites or any other private publication, which would anyway contradict constitutional guarantees on freedom of speech. The misunderstanding may have arisen from a similar prohibition in the Canadian province of Quebec which made strict application of the Charter of the French Language between 1977 and 1993, although these regulations addressed language used in advertising and the provision of commercial services offered within the province, not the language of private communication.

There exist in addition to French a variety of languages spoken in France by minorities; see Languages of France.

Legal status in Canada

About 12% of the world's francophones are Canadian, and French is one of Canada's two official languages, with English; various provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with the right of Canadians to access services in English and French all across Canada. 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 English and French; and all Canadian products must be labelled in both English and French. Overall about 13% of Canadians have knowledge of French only and 18% have knowledge of both English and French.

French has been the only official language of Quebec since 1974, although it is commonly (and incorrectly) believed that the designation of French as the sole official language occurred in 1977 with the adoption of the Charter of the French Language (which is popularly referred to as Bill 101). By far the provision of Bill 101 with the most significant impact has been that which mandates French-language education, unless a child's parents or siblings have received the major part of their own education in English within Canada. That provision has reversed a historical trend whereby a large number of immigrant children were being sent to English schools by their parents. In so doing, Bill 101 has greatly contributed to the "visage français" (French face) of Quebec. Other provisions of Bill 101, on the other hand, have been ruled unconstitutional over the years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Some of those provisions have remained in effect, for a while, using the constitutional "notwithstanding" clause that permits a non-compliant law to temporarily remain. (No "notwithstanding provision" is currently in effect). In 1993 the Charter was changed to allow signage in other languages so long as French is markedly "predominant". The Charter also provides for a measure of access by Anglophones to health and social services in their own language.

The only other province which has French as an official language is New Brunswick. The highest number of Francophones in North America, outside Quebec, reside in Ontario whereas New Brunswick has the highest percentage of Francophones after Quebec. In Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba, French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide full French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of francophones live. Canada's capital city, Ottawa, Ontario is recognized by the government of Ontario as being officially bilingual. Sudbury and Cornwall are also officially bilingual cities in the north and east of the province, respectively. Throughout Ontario, the French Language Services Act, adopted in 1986, guarantees French language services where the Francophone population represents greater than 5%, especially in the north and east of the province, as well as in the other larger centres, apart from Ottawa, such as Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, London, Kitchener, St. Catharine's-Niagara and Windsor. A similar law came into effect in Nova Scotia in 2005. After having had the status of an Observer at the last meeting of the Francophonie, Ontario is now joining this organization as a full Member along with Canada, Quebec and New Brunswick.

All of the other provinces do make some effort to accommodate the needs of their francophone citizens, although the level and quality of French-language service varies significantly from province to province.

Legal status in other countries

French is an official language in Switzerland. It is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandy. It is an official language in Belgium and is spoken in the part of the country called Wallonie and in the capital, Brussels (Bruxelles). It is one of the official languages in Luxembourg, along with German and Luxembourgish. It is also an official language, along with Italian, in Val d'Aoste, Italy. It is the official language of the principality of Monaco. It is the official or administrative language of many African countries (such as Ivory Coast, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal) and of a few Asian countries (such as Laos).

Regional Varieties

• Acadian French
• African French
• Aostan French
• Belgian French
• Cajun French
• Canadian French
• Cambodian French
• Metropolitan French
• Français-germanique
• Indian French
• Jersey Legal French
• Lao French
• Levantine French
• Maghreb French
• Meridional French
• New Caledonian French
• Newfoundland French
• North American French
• Oceanic French
• Quebec French
• South East Asian French
• Swiss French
• Vietnamese French
• West Indian French

Derived languages

• Antillean Creole
• Haitian Creole
• Lanc-Patuá
• Mauritian Creole
• Michif
• Louisiana Creole French
• Réunionese Creole
• Seychellois Creole
• Tay Boi

Grammar

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

• the loss of Latin's declensions
• only two grammatical genders
• the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives
• new tenses formed from auxiliaries

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.

Examples of French

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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