See also: w:French language
French is a Romance language descended from Latin which developed as a result of Celtic and Frankish influences in Gaul (now France). Being a Romance language, it is closely related to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian, as well as many other languages. There are over 87 million native French speakers and an additional 68 million non-native speakers in the world.
History
Further information: w:History of the French language
During the Roman occupation of Gaul, the Latin language was imposed on the natives. This Latin language eventually developed into what is known as Vulgar Latin, which was still very similar to Latin. Over the centuries, due to Celtic and Germanic influences (particularly the Franks), la langue d'oïl was developed. A dialect of la langue d'oïl known as le francien was the language of the court, and thus became the official language of what was to become the Kingdom of France, and later the Nation-State of France.
From medieval times until the 19th century, French was the dominant language of diplomacy, culture, administration, trade and royal courts across Europe. Due to these factors, French was the lingua franca of this time period.
French has influenced many languages world wide, including English. It is through French (or more precisely Norman, a dialect of la langue d'oïl) that English gets about one third of its vocabulary.
Extent of the Language
Main article: w:La Francophonie
Main article: w:French colonial empires
In modern times, French is still a significant diplomatic language: it is an official language of the United Nations, the Olympic Games, and
the European Union. It is also the official language of 29 countries and is spoken in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Tunisia,
French is spoken all around the
Morocco, Senegal, Haiti, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, the Congo,
world.
Algeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Gabon, the Seychelles,
Burundi, Chad, Rwanda, Djibouti, Cameroon, Mauritius, and Canada
(mostly in the province of Québec, where it is the primary language, but it is also used in other parts of the country. All consumer product packages in Canada are required by law to have both English and French labels).
Allons-y! Bonne chance!
Lesson 0.02 - Learning French
Reasons to learn French
As mentioned earlier, French is a major diplomatic language. You are bound to find speakers almost anywhere in the world. In addition to these societal reasons, there are hundreds of famous French novels and nonfiction works in a wide variety of subjects. Because much can be lost in translation, the best way to read these works is in the original language.
Advice on studying French
Main article: How to learn a language
French tends to have a reputation among English speakers as hard to learn. While it is true that it poses certain difficulties to native English-speakers, it may be noted that English is also considered 'difficult' to learn, and yet we learned it without the benefit of already knowing a language. In fact, the French language can be learned in only 10 months
(http://web.archive.org/web/20071211081522/http://en.wikinerds.org/index.php/Learning_French_in_10_months
, if only for the specific purpose of passing a standardized test, such as the Test d'Evaluation de Français.
According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, in order to reach the level of
