Ivy Jane R.

Estrella, MAEd,LPT

FRENCH LANGUAGE
French language, French français, probably the most internationally significant Romance language in the world.

At the beginning of the 21st century, French was an official language of more than 25 countries.
In France and Corsica about 60 million individuals use it as their first language, in Canada more than 7.3 million,
in Belgium more than 3.9 million, in Switzerland more than 1.8 million, in Monaco some 80,000, in Italy some
100,000, and in the United States (especially Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont) some 1.3 million. Furthermore,
more than 49 million Africans—in such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African
Republic, Chad, , Equatorial, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, To
go, and Tunisia—use French as a first or second language, and millions of inhabitants of Vietnam, Laos,
and Cambodia use it as their principal international language. Many creole French speakers too use standard French
in formal situations.

History
The first document apparently written in French probably dates from 842. Known as the Strasbourg Oaths, it is a
Romance version of oaths sworn by two of Charlemagne’s grandsons. Some claim that the text of that document is
thinly disguised Latin constructed after the event to look authentic for political propaganda purposes, while others
suppose that its Latinizing tendencies reveal the struggle of the scribe with the problems of spelling French as it was
spoken at the time. If the language of the Strasbourg Oaths is northern French, it is difficult
to ascertain what dialect it represents; some say that of Picard, the dialect of Picardy, others Franco-Provençal, and
so on.

The second existing text in Old French (with Picard and Walloon features) is a rendering of a short sequence by
Prudentius on the life of St. Eulalia, precisely dated 880–882 CE. Two 10th-century texts (the Passion du Christ and
the Vie de St. Léger) seem to mingle northern and southern dialect features, while another (the “Jonas fragment”) is
obviously from the far north. In the 12th century the “gem” of the epic poems known as chansons de geste, La
Chanson de Roland, was written. One of the most beautiful poems of its type in world literature, it evinces certain
dialectal characteristics the origins of which are difficult to establish. In the 12th–13th century the Francien dialect
became dominant, and it gained the status of literary language because of both the central position of the Île-de-
France region and the political and cultural prestige of Paris.

The Francien dialect was basically a north-central dialect with some northern features. Before that, other dialects,
especially Norman (which developed in Britain as Anglo-Norman, widely used until the 14th century) and northern
dialects (such as Picard), had more prestige, especially in the literary sphere (see Anglo-Norman literature).

The legal reform known as the Edict of Villers-Cotterêts (1539), however, established Francien as the only official
language (as opposed to both Latin and other dialects) after it proved to be the most popular written form. From then
on, standard French began to replace local dialects, which were officially discouraged, though the standard language
did not spread to popular usage in all regions until well into the 19th century. Dialectal features, which were still
admired and cherished by 16th-century writers, were ridiculed in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the grammar and
vocabulary of the modern language were standardized and polished to an unprecedented degree.

How Many People in The World Speak French?

The simple answer is “about 300 million” — Ethnologue puts the number at a conservative 267 million — but this
obscures a more complicated profile of the language. Within the 300 million are not only native speakers, but also
partial speakers and speakers of numerous French dialects and creoles. Through colonization and diaspora, French is
the seventh most widely spoken language in the world, following English, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish,
Arabic and Bengali.

It’s an official language in countries across five different continents and is also the second most studied language in
the world, after English: 120 million students are currently learning French. Atop the 80 million native speakers in
the world, there are an estimated 187 million non-native and partial speakers, and these numbers are increasing.
Owing to population growth in Africa, where approximately 50 percent of native French speakers live, the total
number of French speakers could rise to as much as 700 million by 2050, according to demographers.

What About the Rest of The World?

We mentioned that French is spoken across five continents, but we’ve only mentioned three. Although the
overwhelming majority of French speakers are in Europe, Africa and North America, there are also pockets of
speakers in Asia, the Middle East, South America and Oceania.

French Guiana in South America borders northern Brazil and is technically a department of France. It’s home to
over a quarter of a million people, and is also part of the European Union, with the Euro as its currency. There are
291,000 French speakers in French Guiana, though over half aren’t native speakers.

In Oceania, French is the official language of the Pacific island of Vanuatu, where it’s spoken by about 89,000
people. It’s also spoken across French Polynesia (279,000 speakers), and in the French collectivity of New
Caledonia (276,000 speakers), as well as Wallis and Futuna (10,000 speakers).

In Asia and the Middle East, the French language remains a trace of France’s colonial past in countries such as Laos
(190,000 speakers), Vietnam (660,000 speakers) and Cambodia (440,000 speakers), which formerly made up French
Indochina. There is also a sizable Francophone population in nearby Lebanon (2.3 million speakers) and Syria
(10,000 speakers). While its formal use has generally been on the decline in these countries, it remains widely
studied and spoken among the elderly, elites and in many institutions of higher education.

Why Learn French?

The sheer number of Mandarin, English and Spanish speakers is the most common justification for studying these
languages. With the forecast growth of the language over the next 30 years, the same justification can be used for
French. Plus, who wouldn’t want to learn one of the most romantic languages around?