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Francophonie
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The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus[2] in 1880 and became important as part of the conceptual rethinking of cultures and geography in the late 20th century.
When used to refer to the French-speaking world, the Francophonie encompasses the countries and territories where French is official or serves as an administrative or major secondary language, which spans 50 countries and dependencies across all inhabited continents (the third most number of countries after English and Arabic), of which 26 uses it as an official de jure language.[3] The vast majority of these are also member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), a body uniting countries where French is spoken and taught. While it holds official status in more than two dozen countries, it is the majority's first language in only five states and territories[a], as the rest of French-speaking nations use it primarily as a lingua franca among populations whose mother tongues are indigenous or regional languages.[5] In 2017 it was the second most studied language in the world with about 120 million learners.[6]
Denominations
[edit]Francophonie, francophonie and francophone space are syntagmatic. This expression is relevant to countries which speak French as their national language, may it be as a mother language or a secondary language.
These expressions are sometimes misunderstood or misused by English speakers. They can be synonymous but most of the time they are complementary.
- "francophonie", with a small "f", refers to populations and people who speak French for communication or/and in their daily lives.[7]
- "Francophonie", with a capital "F", can be defined as referring to the governments, governmental and non-governmental organisations or governing officials that share the use of French in their work and exchange.[7]
- "Francophone space", "Francophone world", "Francosphere" represents not only a linguistic or geographic reality, but also a cultural entity: for example describing any individual who identifies with one of the francophone cultures, may it be Slavic, Latin, Creole, North American or Oceanian for example.[8][9]
Origins
[edit]
The term francophonie was invented by Onésime Reclus in 1880: "We also put aside four large countries, Senegal, Gabon, Cochinchina and Cambodia, whose future from a "Francophone" point of view is still very doubtful, except perhaps for Senegal" (in French « Nous mettons aussi de côté quatre grands pays, le Sénégal, le Gabon, la Cochinchine, le Cambodge dont l’avenir au point de vue « francophone » est encore très douteux sauf peut-être pour le Sénégal »); and then used by geographers.[10]
During the Third Republic, the French language progressively gained importance.
The Académie française, a French institution created in 1635 in charge of officially determining and unifying the rules and evolutions of the French language, participated in the promotion and the development of the French language.[11]
Countries
[edit]The definition of the Francophone world is distinguished by countries and territories where French is an official language, those where it is the native language of the majority of the population, and those where the language is used as a working language of administration or where the language still has an important cultural impact and prestige without having official status. There are 50 countries and territories which fall into this category, although in some countries the Francosphere is limited to certain regions or states.[12]
Being merely a member state of the OIF does not automatically make a country or territory "francophone" in the sense of the language having a major role in its society, be it as a working language or a strong cultural heritage to the French language. This is in part due to the OIF increasingly admitting new members based on loose criteria such as "significant second language learning" of French or parties interested in furthering the organisation's promotion of human rights, democracy, international cooperation, sustainable development, cultural and linguistic diversity, and education and training.[13] Therefore, member states such as Romania, Egypt, and Armenia which have minimal to no connection with the French language and culture should not be considered as part of the Francophone world.[14]
| Rank | Country/territory | French-speaking population[15][b] |
Land area (km2) | Land area (sq mi) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 66,394,000 | 551,695 | 213,011 | |
| 2 | 48,925,000 | 2,344,858 | 905,354 | |
| 3 | 14,904,000 | 2,381,741 | 919,595 | |
| 4 | 13,457,000 | 446,550 | 172,410 | |
| 5 | 11,491,000 | 475,650 | 183,650 | |
| 6 | 11,061,000 | 9,984,670 | 3,855,100 | |
| 7 | 9,325,000 | 322,462 | 124,503 | |
| 8 | 8,815,000 | 30,528 | 11,787 | |
| 9 | 7,729,000 | 587,041 | 226,658 | |
| 10 | 6,321,000 | 163,610 | 63,170 | |
| 11 | 5,889,000 | 41,291 | 15,943 | |
| 12 | 5,404,000 | 274,200 | 105,900 | |
| 13 | 4,906,000 | 27,750 | 10,710 | |
| 14 | 4,640,000 | 196,712 | 75,951 | |
| 15 | 4,306,000 | 114,763 | 44,310 | |
| 16 | 3,777,000 | 245,857 | 94,926 | |
| 17 | 3,703,000 | 1,240,192 | 478,841 | |
| 18 | 3,554,000 | 56,785 | 21,925 | |
| 19 | 3,518,000 | 342,000 | 132,000 | |
| 20 | 3,363,000 | 1,267,000 | 489,200 | |
| 21 | 2,540,000 | 10,452 | 4,036 | |
| 22 | 2,249,000 | 1,284,000 | 495,800 | |
| 23 | * Louisiana * New England |
2,179,000 | 9,525,067 | 3,677,647 |
| 24 | 1,519,000 | 267,668 | 103,347 | |
| 25 | 1,435,000 | 622,984 | 240,535 | |
| 26 | 1,074,000 | 25,680 | 9,915 | |
| 27 | 926,000 | 2,040 | 788 | |
| 28 | 799,000 | 2,511 | 970 | |
| 29 | 793,000 | 26,338 | 10,169 | |
| 30 | 693,000 | 331,340 | 127,930 | |
| 31 | 656,000 | 1,030,700 | 397,960 | |
| 32 | 642,000 | 2,586 | 998 | |
| 33 | 508,000 | 23,200 | 8,960 | |
| 34 | 463,000 | 181,035 | 69,898 | |
| 35 | 336,000 | 1,628 | 629 | |
| 36 | 303,000 | 1,128 | 436 | |
| 37 | 288,000 | 18,575 | 7,172 | |
| 38 | 278,000 | 4,167 | 1,609 | |
| 39 | 237,000 | 1,861 | 719 | |
| 40 | 204,000 | 236,800 | 91,430 | |
| 41 | 195,000 | 84,000 | 32,433 | |
| 42 | 180,000 | 374 | 144 | |
| 43 | 100,000 | 12,189 | 4,706 | |
| 44 | 53,000 | 457 | 176 | |
| 45 | 39,000 | 2 | 0.7 | |
| 46 | 33,000 | 53 | 20 | |
| 47 | * Puducherry |
10,000 | 483 | 186 |
| 48 | 9,000 | 142 | 55 | |
| 49 | 8,000 | 20 | 8 | |
| 50 | 6,000 | 230 | 89 | |
| Total | 350,281,000 | 28,223,185 | 10,897,033 |
See also
[edit]- List of countries and territories where French is an official language
- Organisation internationale de la Francophonie
- Agence universitaire de la Francophonie
- Francophone literature
- Institut Français
- Alliance française
- French language in Canada, Lebanon, United States, Minnesota, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
- Swiss, Belgian, and African French
- French-based creole languages
- Language geography
- Sprachraum
- Romandy
Notes
[edit]- ^ French is spoken as a mother tongue by the majority of the population (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canada (Quebec), Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland (Romandy) and Monaco.[4]
- ^ Note: Excludes partial speakers and learners.
- ^ Note: Metropolitan France only.
References
[edit]- ^ OIF 2022, pp. 30–35.
- ^ Alexander B. Murphy, "Placing Louisiana in the Francophone World: Opportunities and Challenges" Archived 10 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, page 4, published in Atlantic Studies, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2008; Special Issue: New Orleans in the Atlantic World, II, accessed 7 April 2013
- ^ "The world's languages, in 7 maps and charts". The Washington Post. 18 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ "Census in Brief: English, French and official language minorities in Canada". www12.statcan.gc.ca. 2 August 2017. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
- ^ "The world's languages, in 7 maps and charts". The Washington Post. 18 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ "How many people speak French and where is French spoken". Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
- ^ a b "Qu'est-ce que la Francophonie ? - Organisation internationale de la Francophonie". francophonie.org. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
- ^ "Données et statistiques sur la langue française - Organisation internationale de la Francophonie". francophonie.org. Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
- ^ L'année francophone internationale, Québec, ACCT, 1994
- ^ Pinhas, Luc (2004). "Aux origines du discours francophone". Communication & Langages. 140 (1): 69–82. doi:10.3406/colan.2004.3270.
- ^ "La Francophonie: The History of the French Language Training School". Language Connections. July 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- ^ Vigouroux, Cecile (2013). "Francophonie". Annual Review of Anthropology. 42: 379–397. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145804.
- ^ Christian Rioux, "Franco... quoi?", Le Devoir, Montreal, 4 September 1999.
- ^ Vif, Le (9 October 2018). "La Francophonie au bord de la cacophonie ?". Site-LeVif-FR. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- ^ La langue française dans le monde, 2022, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF),
Francophonie
View on GrokipediaTerminology and Definition
Etymology and Denominations
The term francophonie was coined in 1880 by French geographer Onésime Reclus to describe populations and territories where French was spoken, particularly in the context of French colonial expansion in works such as France, Allemagne et Russie.[7][8] It derives from the French prefix franco-, indicating "French," combined with -phonie, from the Ancient Greek phōnḗ ("voice" or "sound"), connoting the collective sphere of French language use.[9] Though initially limited in adoption, the term gained prominence in the 1960s amid decolonization efforts, notably through advocacy by Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, who envisioned it as a vehicle for cultural and political unity among French-speaking nations.[8][10] Francophonie (lowercase) denotes the global ensemble of French-speaking populations, estimated at over 300 million individuals across five continents as of 2022, encompassing both native speakers and those using French as a second language in diverse contexts from Europe to Africa and the Americas.[7] When capitalized as La Francophonie, it specifically refers to the institutional framework, including the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), established to foster multilingualism, cultural exchange, and economic cooperation among member states.[1] Equivalent denominations include l'espace francophone (Francophone space) or the "French-speaking world," terms that emphasize the linguistic and geographic distribution rather than organizational aspects.[7] These distinctions highlight the term's evolution from a geographic descriptor to a multifaceted concept balancing cultural preservation against the dominance of English in international affairs.[8]Demographic Scope and Global Distribution
The demographic scope of the Francophonie includes an estimated 321 million people worldwide who can hold a conversation in French, according to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), making it the fifth most spoken language globally.[1] This figure, drawn from OIF's 2022 assessment, reflects a 21 million increase since 2018, driven primarily by population growth and educational expansion in Africa.[11] Of these, approximately 80 million are native speakers, with the remainder acquiring proficiency as a second or additional language, often as a lingua franca in multilingual societies.[12] French speakers are distributed across 88 OIF member states and regions, spanning Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.[1] Africa hosts the largest and fastest-growing contingent, accounting for over 50% of global speakers due to high fertility rates and mandatory French education in former colonies; sub-Saharan Africa alone contributes around 144 million.[13] Europe, centered on France (67 million speakers, nearly its entire population), Belgium, and Switzerland, represents about 20-25% of the total.[12] The Americas feature significant communities in Canada (primarily Quebec, with 7.7 million) and Haiti (over 10 million), while North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) adds another substantial bloc through historical colonial ties and ongoing bilingualism.[13]| Country | French Speakers (millions) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| France | 67 | Predominantly native; core of European Francophonie.[12] |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | 49 | Lingua franca in diverse ethnic context; largest African share.[13] |
| Canada | 10 (Quebec focus) | Official bilingualism; 20% of population fluent.[14] |
| Algeria | 15 | Widespread second-language use post-independence.[13] |
| Morocco | 13 | Co-official with Arabic; urban proficiency high.[13] |