I am often asked the question: where is French on the scale of world languages? The difficulty is that there is not a single answer to this question. This is also why the problem is interesting.
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Let me explain. When we are interested in this subject, we spontaneously think of the number of people who received this language at birth. In which case, here is what we can say. According to this criterion, Mandarin dominates, with 921 million speakers, ahead of Hindi, Spanish, English and Portuguese. French only ranks 17th, with 71 million native speakers. But, if we add to the people who received an idiom as a mother tongue those who learned it later, the hierarchy changes (1). From then on, it is English that we find at the top with 1.3 billion practitioners, ahead of Mandarin (1.1 billion) and Hindi (637 million). French has moved up to 5th place, with 277 million speakers, far behind Spanish (538 million) and roughly at the same level as Arabic (274 million), Bengali (265 million), Russian (258 million) and Portuguese (252 million).
Often, we tend to stop there, and we are wrong, for at least two reasons. The first is that it is not so easy to determine what a “speaker” of a language is. An individual who masters it like the back of his hand or someone who somehow manages to make himself understood, even if it means getting confused in conjugation and syntax (me in English, for example…)? Depending on the answer to this question, the numbers vary dramatically. Therefore, the statistics that circulate here and there must be taken for what they are: approximations.
The second reason is even more important: the influence of a language depends above all on its different statuses. Is it used in diplomacy, commerce, science, international bodies? The more numerous its functions, the greater its prestige, the more assured its influence and longevity.
The linguists Alain and Louis-Jean Calvet have intelligently developed a “barometer of world languages which includes no less than 13 criteria. International literary prizes, translation into and from a language, use in university teaching, fertility index of countries where this language is in use, presence on the Internet, etc. Better yet: from this base, the researchers suggest that everyone establish their own ranking, by varying the importance given to this or that indicator. This obviously results in very different results.
No angelism, however. Whichever approach is favored, it stands to reason that Spanish and Russian are more powerful than Mingrelian (a Georgian language) or Dogri (an Indian language). As for French, two certainties can be put forward. First, if there were a language event at the Olympics, our national language would finish far behind English. Secondly, he would nevertheless easily qualify for the final and have a serious chance of finishing on the podium, and this, precisely, thanks to functions as varied as they are enviable.
Eh yes ! Because, we sometimes forget, but French is present on five continents, from Belgium to Canada, including Lebanon, Polynesia and the Ivory Coast. It has the status of official or co-official language in around thirty states around the world. It is a diplomatic language at the UN and in European institutions. It is the second most taught language in the world, particularly in French alliances and high schools. It is the fourth language used on the Internet. It is also a great cultural language that shines thanks to its writers, directors and singers. Above all, it benefits from strong demographic dynamics, particularly in Africa, which should help to double the number of its speakers in the coming decades… Enough to allow it to compete with most of its competitors. At the same time, in fact, Mandarin like Hindi lacks relay countries, and Spanish lacks economic dynamism, Arabic suffers from dispersion between its multiple variants, etc. As for German and Russian, they combine all of these handicaps.
Conclusion ? Although largely left behind by English, French is indeed among the five most influential languages in the world. Which is better, much better, than being one of the 3,000 languages threatened with extinction by the end of the century.
FIND VIDEOS DEDICATED TO FRENCH AND THE LANGUAGES OF FRANCE ON my youtube channel
(1) Source: website Ethnologue: languages of the world.
Resorting to an Anglicism to defend the French language: we had to dare, the government did it. The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs has just launched the “pass [sans ‘e’] French language education” and this a few days after the inauguration of the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts. It is supposed to allow French children living abroad and far from the French language to access a digital offer language lessons supervised by a tutor.
These are the results communicated by the Center for National Monuments, one month after the inauguration of the Cité internationale de la langue française. 70% of visitors come from the Hauts-de-France region.
No, answer these linguists in an article published by Mediapart. According to them, this measure provided for in the government’s bill could even prove counterproductive. They emphasize in particular that good integration depends on other factors: employment, housing, social relations, etc. And are surprised: “Nationals of other EU member countries […] can settle freely, and even vote in certain local elections in France, without any linguistic conditions”, they note.
The Burkinabe government has just adopted a bill revising the Constitution and now establishing national languages as official languages in place of French, relegated to the rank of “working language”.
Very interesting interview with Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus in daily life The Marseillaise. According to the linguist, who calls for a simplification of spelling, “the French language was forged by a literary elite. It was made difficult on purpose”.
Coats of arms, flags, mottoes, songs, dates of commemoration… Martine Boudet, associate professor of modern letters, looks with erudition at all the symbols which mark the identity of the different territories of the country, overseas included, from Cathar castles to the ikurrina (the Basque cross), passing by Mount Canigou (the sacred Catalan mountain), the burp a wiss (the Alsatian flag), the Dio vi salvi Regina (the Corsican anthem). A work as original as it is ambitious.
The Emblematic of the regions of France, by Martine Boudet. Ed. du Panthéon, 352 p., €25.
“Badigoinces” (lips); “myrmidon” (insignificant and pretentious little man), “frotte-manche” (courtier and sycophantic individual)… As a lover of words, Daniel Lacotte has brought together some 600 singular and picturesque words, the origin and definition of which he gives.
To the joy of the most colorful words in the French language, by Daniel Lacotte. Ed. Larousse, 272 p., €15.95.
Can you learn French like you cook? Yes, answer Sylvie Brunet and Serge Bernardin, who deliver grammar lessons like recipes. Their conviction: “A sentence to write is like a dish to execute. In both cases, there are universal bases to know. But, as soon as you master them, everyone is free to adapt the rules to their own sauce .” A unique approach if not always convincing.
Grammar to eat, by Sylvie Brunet and Serge Bernardin. Ed. First, 124 p., €19.95.
From head to toe or from head to toe? Sure or safe? Diagnosis or diagnosis? Does she look happy or happy? Proofreader Muriel Gilbert publishes a new work intended to avoid the pitfalls of the French language.
The Best candy on language 2, by Muriel Gilbert. Editions Vuibert
We often criticize the French Academy, whose last complete edition of the dictionary dates back to 1935, but Sweden does not do better. The dictionary of the Swedish Academy, which has just been sent to the printers, began to be written in… 1883. The work has, it is true, 33,111 pages. Problem: Some volumes are now so old that they need to be revised. Word “allergy” (“allergy”), for example, entered the Swedish language in the 1920s and therefore does not appear in the volume of the letter “A”, published in 1893…
Nantes elected officials have approved a new commitment to the “Ya d’ar brezhoneg” charter, issued by the Public Office of the Breton Language. The city committed itself in 2012 to the first level of this document, which has four. The community is now aiming for the second level and is committing to five new actions: bilingual street signs, professional training plan for municipal agents, taking into account Breton language skills in the recruitment of facilitators, experimentation with Introduction to Breton in two nurseries, specialized territorial agents of bilingual nursery schools in French-Breton classes.
The Vaque and the Poumyi : This is the title of the first bilingual Franco-Norman tale published by the Skjaldmö publishing house. Written by Jean-Philippe Joly and Claire Haquet, it is particularly aimed at young children and demonstrates the ongoing revival of this language.
La Vaque and l’poumyi, by Jean-Philippe Joly and Claire Haquet. Ed. Skjaldmö.
I’m not a pro! (“that’s enough!”) is both a magnificent book and a show, respectively written and performed in Occitan and French by Laurent Cavalié, poet and composer (of the group Du Bartàs, in particular), and Marie Coumes, storyteller and singer (The Badly Coiffed). Like a vigil, the two artists take us back to the 1960s and 1970s in the struggles led by the wine growers of Aude, whose testimonies they collected. A success.
I’m not a pro! A tribute to the wine struggles of Languedoc, by Marie Coumes and Laurent Cavalié. Les Editions du bout de la ville, 128 p., €16.
This is the recommendation of the Higher Commission of the French Language. In the same way, she recommends “urban gliding” instead of “skate”, “side spin” instead of “flip” and “jump” rather than “ollie”.
Promoting transmission in families and obtaining more means to act: these are the ambitions of Victor Vogt, new president of the Office for the Language and Cultures of Alsace (Olca), who was recently the guest of France Alsace blue.
The Arte show Karambolage looks back at the long history of this term which designates our country. And recall this truth that we have long had difficulty accepting, especially at the time of the wars with Germany: France obviously takes its name from a Germanic people, the Franks.
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