| Also Known As: French language,Français,French
Description:
French (français, French pronunciation: [fʀɑ̃sɛ]) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco.
French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. 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..... full article at Wikipedia |
Location of French Language Speakers
<googlemap zoom="1" width=400 height=300 lat="12.810452" lon="20.136123" type="map">
11.585719, 42.619048, Djibouti
14.859239, 6.459044, Niger
46.000000, 2.000000, France
14.694322, -15.595298, Senegal
53.000000, 9.000000, Europe
5.129569, 11.438057, Cameroon
1.924800, 10.111600, Equatorial Guinea
-2.024122, 29.669509, Rwanda
-2.090303, 14.212023, Republic of the Congo
-4.630833, 55.461944, Seychelles
-3.283592, 29.829285, Burundi
-12.023643, 43.806900, Comoros
12.120450, -1.784148, Burkina Faso
7.131739, -5.523039, Côte d'Ivoire
-18.371375, 47.542425, Madagascar
5.773519, 19.596855, Central African Republic
10.271579, -11.718811, Guinea
18.291173, 103.606859, Laos
-20.162507, 58.290276, Mauritius
14.812849, -5.503027, Mali
12.431673, 104.529087, Cambodia
50.780208, 4.426909, Belgium
49.756218, 6.096975, Luxembourg
46.863730, 8.102842, Switzerland
18.941144, -72.703391, Haiti
-0.379860, 11.757160, Gabon
53.000000, -71.000000, Québec
8.515002, 2.232501, Benin
-17.750000, 168.300000, Vanuatu
8.335747, 1.049497, Togo
13.621555, 17.908716, Chad</googlemap>
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