Francophonie

 ( French Language ) 

:

]] ) by country in 2022 according to the OIF

]]

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 Alexander B. Murphy, "Placing Louisiana in the Francophone World: Opportunities and Challenges" , page 4, published in Atlantic Studies, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2008; Special Issue: New Orleans in the Atlantic World, II, accessed 7 April 2013 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.Wolff, Alexandre. Qu’est-ce qu’un francophone? (What is a francophone?), Observatoire de la langue française, 2015. (in French) 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.

---

Denominations 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 first 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.
• "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.
• "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 Slavs, Latin, Creole peoples, American French or Oceanian for example.L'année francophone internationale, Québec, ACCT, 1994

---

Origins 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.

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.

---

Countries 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. There are 50 countries and territories which fall into this category, although in some countries the Francosphere is limited to certain regions or states.

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.Christian Rioux, "Franco... quoi?", Le Devoir, Montreal, 4 September 1999. 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.

213,011
905,354
919,595
172,410
183,650
3,855,100
124,503
11,787
226,658
63,170
15,943
105,900
10,710
75,951
44,310
94,926
478,841
21,925
132,000
489,200
4,036
495,800
3,677,647
103,347
240,535
9,915
788
970
10,169
127,930
397,960
998
8,960
69,898
629
436
7,172
1,609
719
91,430
32,433
144
4,706
176
0.7
20
186
55
8
89

---

See also

• List of countries and territories where French is an official language
• italic=no
• Agence universitaire de la Francophonie
• Francophone literature
• Institut Français
• Alliance française
• French language in Canada, Lebanon, United States, Minnesota, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
• Swiss French, Belgian French, and African French
• French-based creole languages
• Language geography
• Sprachraum
• Romandy

---

Notes

Post Comment