FRENCH

French (le franais [l fs] (

listen) or la langue franaise [la l fsz]) is a Romance

language of the Indo-European family. It descended from theVulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as
did languages such as Italian,Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Catalan and others. French has
evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its
closest relatives are the other langues d'ollanguages historically spoken in northern France and in
southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by
native Celtic languagesof 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 Frenchspeaking person or nation may be referred to as "Francophone" in both English and French.
French is an official language in 29 countries, most of which are members of lafrancophonie, the
community of French-speaking countries. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the
highest number) in France, the Canadian province of Quebec, western Switzerland, the region
of Wallonia in Belgium, Monaco, certain parts of Canada and the United States, and by various
communities elsewhere. As of 2015, 40% of the francophone population (including L2 and partial
speakers) is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in
the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania.[1]
French is the fourth most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.[3] 1/5 of nonFrancophone Europeans speak French.[4] As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the
17th and 18th 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, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast.[5] In 2015, French was estimated to
have 77 to 110 million native speakers,[1][6] and 190 million secondary speakers.[7] Approximately 270
million people are able to speak the language.[8] According to a demographic projection led by
the Universit Lavaland the Rseau Dmographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie, total
French speakers will number approximately 500 million people in 2025 and 650 million people by
2050.[9] The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, 80% of
whom will be in Africa.[1]

French has a long history as an international language of commerce, diplomacy, literature, and
scientific standards and is an official language of many international organisations including
the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, the WTO, the International Olympic Committee, and
the ICRC. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for
business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese.[10]