Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
French is an administrative language and is commonly but unofficially used in the Maghreb states, Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.As of 2023, an estimated 350 million African people spread across 34 African countries can speak French either as a first or second language, mostly as a secondary language, making Africa the continent with the most French speakers in the world. [2]
A man from Labé, Guinea, speaking Pular and West African French. African French (French: français africain) is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 320 million people in Africa in 2023 or 67% of the French-speaking population of the world [1] [2] [3] spread across 34 countries and territories.
The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, [1] and by some counts at over 3,000. [2] Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SIL Ethnologue ), [ 3 ] one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the world.
Cameroonian French is a variety of French spoken in Cameroon. As a former French colony , the country's history has shaped its language, resulting in a distinct variant of French that reflects the country's diverse cultural, linguistic, and historical background.
The French language became an international language, the second international language alongside Latin, in the Middle Ages, "from the fourteenth century onwards".It was not by virtue of the power of the Kingdom of France: '"... until the end of the fifteenth century, the French of the chancellery spread as a political and literary language because the French court was the model of chivalric ...
Signs in French in Bangui. The official languages of the Central African Republic are French and Sango. In total there are about 72 languages in the country. [1] In the CAR, French is the language of writing and formal situations. In 2022, French is spoken by 28.6% of the population (1.4 million people). [2] [3] Sango has about 350,000 native ...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo currently has the largest population of any country with French as its official language. [8] According to a 2021 survey, French was the most spoken language in the country: a total of 74% of Congolese (79% of men, and 68% of women) reported using French as a language of communication. [9]
Within Old French many dialects emerged but the Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). [42] Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. [42] Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules.