A lingua franca is a common language used by many different peoples for communication and trade. This isn't just the mother tongue of people but instead, a second language whose use is so widespread that non-native speakers with different native languages use it to facilitate communication.
If you've already heard of the term lingua franca, it was likely used in the context of English. The English language is widely spoken natively around the world but not as much as languages like Mandarin Chinese or Spanish. However, once you include people who speak English as a second language, you'll see that it's the most widespread language in the world.
This is because English is commonly used as a global lingua franca for people all over the world. If you know your history, you'll also know why English is spoken in so many countries from the USA to Australia.
So why are we speaking about English in an article about French-speaking countries?
Before the British Empire took English around the world and made it a global lingua franca, France also had a massive colonial empire.
The French Empire was centered around Africa, South America, and many, many islands. French was a lingua franca in Europe once it started to replace Latin, but with all these colonies, it arguably became the world's first global lingua franca.
French at a Glance
Before we look to all the places where French is spoken, including France itself, let's have a look at the language.
French is a Romance language, which is a branch of related languages that all derived from Latin, predominantly Vulgar Latin. Despite the name, Vulgar Latin was simply "everyday" Latin spoken by the people in the Roman Empire.
The language was spoken as far across most of Mediterranean Europe, the northern coasts of Africa, throughout France, and even into the British Isles.
Most importantly, it was spoken in the areas that are now France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Romania, which are all countries whose main official languages are part of the Romance language branch.
The funny thing about languages is that they always influence one another and just as Vulgar Latin gave rise to French, the French language has had a lasting effect on the English language, particularly due to the proximity between the United Kingdom and France as well as the Norman conquest of England in 1066, which left the royal court and aristocrats in England speaking Norman French and then Anglo-Norman.
This is why nearly half of English vocabulary is of Latin or French origin, despite the language being a Germanic language. Suffixes like -tion and -sion are from Latin and French, for example.
of English words are of Latin or French origin!
French is a fascinating and beautiful language and though learning genders, endless conjugations, and nasal pronunciations can annoy learners, it's worth it.
Verbs like être, avoir, aller, and venir (be, have, go, and come) will likely be your first foray into the language as they make up most of the exceptions to French's rules on conjugation.
The French language is a gateway to not just French culture, but the cultures of all the countries that speak this wonderful language.
So which countries speak the language?
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French Speaking Countries In Europe
Naturally, French is spoken in France. In every corner of what native speakers call l'hexagone (the hexagon, since France is roughly hexagonal), French is the main official language.
France isn't the only place in Europe where French is spoken, though. Let's see some of the other countries and territories.
Belgium
Belgium became an independent country in 1839 when the Netherlands split, leaving Belgium, Luxembourg, and modern-day Netherlands.
This area of Europe had been under control by various empires, sovereign states, and monarchies throughout its history, with locals speaking Dutch, French, and German.
In the north of Belgium, the region of Flanders is predominantly Dutch-speaking. Around 60% of Belgians speak Dutch (Flemish) as their mother tongue. In the southern region of Wallonia (the Walloon Region), however, French is the predominant language.
Walloon Region
40% of Belgium
Flemish Region
60% of Belgium
While Belgian French is somewhat similar to French in many ways, there are some very notable differences including numbers. While French uses quatre-vingts and quatre-vignt-dix for 80 and 90 respectively, Belgian French prefers the terms octante and nonante.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg is a relatively tiny nation nestled between Germany, France, and Belgium. With a population of around half a million people, it's one of Europe's smallest nations, though slightly bigger than the six microstates of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City.
The official languages of Luxembourg include French, German, and Luxembourgish. The latter is closely related to the German language. Luxembourg, despite its small size, is one of the European Union's three capitals.
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Monaco
Monaco is a Principality and microstate on the Mediterranean coast. With almost 40,000 inhabitants, French and Monegasque are its two official languages.
Andorra, despite being nestled between France and Spain, only recognises Catalan as its official language, despite a decent proportion of French speakers living there.
Vatican City
Vatican City, which is wholly surrounded by the Italian capital of Rome, isn't home to many French speakers. However, French is one of its official languages for diplomacy.
Switzerland
Switzerland recognises French, German, and Italian as its official languages, with Romansh holding official language status in the Canton of the Grisons.
Around 20% of the Swiss population speaks French, with most of the French speakers in the West of the country in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura.
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Guernsey and Jersey
In the English Channel islands of Guernsey and Jersey, French has left its mark.
While both islands are Crown Dependencies of the UK, the regional languages of Jèrriais and Guernésiais are both Romance languages that are closely related to French.
French-speaking African Countries
The French Empire expanded in two main waves. During the first wave, France expanded into the Americas. Many of these colonies were lost during the French Revolution. The second wave started in the early 19th century and made the French Empire one of the largest in the world.
Following wars in Vietnam and Algeria, France's other colonies found their independence relatively peacefully during the 1960s. Many of these now-independent nations were in West Africa.
French-Speaking West African Nations
With the French empire reaching across West Africa and deep into Central Africa, the French language remains a remnant of these countries' respective histories.
These colonies were initially set up as trading posts in what is now Senegal in the 17th century and in the 19th century, the French empire began expanding into surrounding areas. They traded gum, peanuts, and slaves.
The countries where French is still spoken by a significant portion of the population include:
- Benin
- Burkina-Faso
- Cameroon
- Chad
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Gabon
- Guinea
- Ivory Coast
- Nigeria
- Republic of Central Africa
- Republic of Congo
- Senegal
- Togo
French-Speaking East African Nations
While French colonial expansion was mainly focused around West and Northern Africa, they also occupied several nations in East Africa and the Indian Ocean.
These included the following East African nations:
- Burundi
- Djibouti
- Rwanda
The French-speaking islands in the Indian Ocean include Madagascar, Comoros, and the Seychelles.
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French-Speaking North African Nations
In the north of Africa, there are also French-speaking populations in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.
It should be noted, however, that many of these nations across Africa very much have indigenous languages and other official languages that are more widely spoken than French.
French-Speaking American Nations
France lost most of its territories in the Americas towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.
In many of these places, the French language remains evidence of French colonial presence.
Haiti
Haiti is a sovereign nation on the west side of the Caribbean island Hispaniola. The other side of the island is home to the Dominican Republic.
The Spanish Empire originally claimed this island before the French settled on the west side of the island, which is why Spanish is still spoken in the Dominican Republic.
Once the land was ceded to the French in the early 17th century, the French began importing slaves to the island to work on sugar plantations. Haiti was one of the first French colonies to gain its independence and was recognised as a sovereign nation in 1825.
In linguistics, a creole is a language formed through a combination of a European (typically English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese) with a local language (typically the native language of slaves).
The two official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole.
Canada
Certain parts of Canada were once part of the French territory of New France (Nouvelle-France). After the Seven Year's War, these territories were ceded to the British.
The parts that now make up the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are where most of Canada's French speakers can be found today.
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There are also significant French-speaking populations in Ontario and Manitoba.
The United States of America
The Louisiana Territory was sold to the newly independent United States in 1803. While most of these areas are now predominantly English-speaking, there are still areas where French is spoken.
Most notably, Louisiana itself still has areas where Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole are spoken.
Click here to learn 10 fun facts about France.
French-Speaking India
France used to control certain regions in India. While the British Empire ruled most of the subcontinent, places like Pondicherry still have a French-speaking community.
Other areas like Mahé, Yanam, and Karakal were French colonies which have their own dialect of the French language.
Learn To Speak French With Superprof
One of the best ways to learn to speak French is with a face-to-face private tutor or an online French tutor.
Just search for French tutors in Australia or around the world. Your French-speaking tutor could be from any of the countries or territories that we mentioned in this article.
After all, it can help a lot to learn a language from a native speaker and, as you've seen, this doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be from France!
Many of the tutors on the website offer their first lesson for free so be sure to try them out before you choose the right one for you.
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