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A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 27 countries, as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. [4]
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 [1] in 1880 and became important as part of the conceptual rethinking of cultures and geography in the late 20th century.
French is also the second most geographically widespread language in the world after English, with about 60 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. [1] The following is a list of sovereign states and territories where French is an official or de facto language.
The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF; sometimes shortened to La Francophonie, French: La Francophonie [la fʁɑ̃kɔfɔni], [4] [note 3] sometimes also called International Organisation of La Francophonie in English [5]) is an international organization representing where there is a notable affiliation with French language and culture.
With the English claim to the throne of France, the influence of the language in use at the French royal court in Paris increased. French cultural influence remained strong in the following centuries, and from the Renaissance onward, most borrowings were from Parisian French, which became the de facto standard language of France.
English had reasserted itself as a language of government and learning after over 200 years as a language of low prestige. In 1349, English became the language of instruction at the University of Oxford, which had taught in French or Latin. In 1476, the use of English became widespread through the introduction of printing to England by William ...
Francophone second-language speakers of English use an interlanguage with varying degrees, ranging from French-accented pronunciation to Quebec Anglophone English pronunciation. High-frequency second-language phenomena by francophones, allophones, and other non-native-speakers occur in the most basic structures of English, both in and outside ...
English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language "as a global means of inter-community communication" [1] [2] [full citation needed] and can be understood as "any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice and often the only option".