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The regional languages of France are sometimes called patois, but this term (roughly meaning "dialects") is often considered derogatory. Patois is used to refer to essentially oral languages, [ 6 ] even though some have a current and/or historical use, such as Occitan, which was already being written at a time when French was not and its ...
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]
The Third Republic sought to modernise France and established primary education where the only language recognised was French. Regional languages were discouraged, and the use of French was seen as aspirational, accelerating their decline. [12] This was also generally the case in areas where Oïl languages were spoken.
The language belongs to the langues d'oïl subbranch of the Gallo-Romance languages. Some descendants of Poitevin–Saintongeais speakers became the Acadian people of Atlantic Canada as well as the Cajun people of Louisiana. [citation needed] The dialects of this language are peculiar to the historical regions and provinces of Poitou and Saintonge.
A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , " regional or minority languages " means languages that are:
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European convention (ETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe, ratified and implemented by 25 States, but not by France, as of 2014. The charter contains 98 articles of which ...
(On this page a regional language has parentheses next to it that contain a region, province, etc. where the language has regional status.) National language A language that uniquely represents the national identity of a state, nation, and/or country and is so designated by a country's government; some are technically minority languages.
Language policy in France; Occitano-Romance languages; Languedocien dialect; Langues d'oïl; Latin; Ligurian language; Limousin dialect; Linguistic boundary of Brittany; Linguistic boundary of Moselle; Lorrain language; Lorraine Franconian; Luxembourgish