French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France. French is estimated as having 110 million native speakers and 190 million more second language speakers.¹ French is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire. It is an official language of 29 countries, most of which form la francophonie. Outside of France, the highest number of French speakers is found in Francophone Africa.¹
French was the most important language of diplomacy and international relations from the 17th century to approximately the middle of the 20th century. Following the Second World War and the US dominance in global power,¹ English has taken over that role. It was said that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French, and this was the “first diplomatic blow” against the French language.¹
Although French has many regional accents,¹ foreign learners normally study only one version of the language. French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling. However, French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. Rules for pronunciation can vary between dialects. French is written with 26 letters of the basic Latin script, with four diacritics appearing on vowels and the cedilla appear in “ç”.¹
French spelling tends to preserve out of date pronunciation rules. This preservation is due to the extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period without a corresponding change in spelling. More conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography.¹
Image source:
1. Wikimedia
Reference:
1. University of Ottawa. History of the French Language. Retrieved May 23, 2014, from http://www.slmc.uottawa.ca/?q=french_history
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