33 Facts About French language

French language evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul.

French language is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.

French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

French is a Romance language that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France.

Evolution of Latin in Gaul was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish French language, which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

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Gaulish French language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization.

For example, Old French language made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects.

Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.

When public education was made compulsory, only French was taught and the use of any other language was punished.

The goals of the Public School System were made especially clear to the French language-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany.

Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the ordinance of Villers-Cotterets made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539.

In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth.

Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario, the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are to be available in the language.

Elsewhere, sizable French language-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French language dialect was historically spoken.

Missouri French language was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois, but is nearly extinct today.

French language survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French language Lower Louisiana, such as Mon Louis Island, Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct.

French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina, comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

French was the official language of French India, consisting of geographically separate enclaves now referred to as Puducherry.

An official mention during 2006 in Parliamentary debates of the Rajya Sabha confirmed that French is still among the official languages of Puducherry.

The French language in Lebanon is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people, and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English.

French language is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates, and on official buildings.

One-third of high school students educated in French language go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions.

English is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value.

However, in both countries, French language is not spoken by almost any of the general population or migrant workers, but spoken by a small minority of those who invest in Francophone countries or have other financial or family ties.

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In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal, French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home.

French language's criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers, the number of countries using the language and their respective populations, the economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige).

In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages.

French language pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French language spelling is often based more on history than phonology.

French language is written with the 26 letters of the basic Latin script, with four diacritics appearing on vowels and the cedilla appearing in "c".

French language spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules.

Majority of French language words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots.

French language counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99.