French
français
Pronunciation[fʁɑ̃sɛ]
Native toFrance, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, Francophone Africa, Canada, and other locations in the Francophonie
SpeakersL1: 74 million (2012–2024)1
L2: 238 million (2012–2022)1
Total: 312 million1
Language familyIndo-European • Italic
• Latino-Faliscan
• Latinic
• Romance
• Italo-Western
• Western Romance
• Gallo - Iberian 2
• Gallo-Romance
• Gallo-Rhaetian? 3
• Arpitan – Oïl
• Oïl
• Francien zone
French
Early formsOld Latin • Vulgar Latin
• Proto-Romance
• Old Gallo-Romance
• Old French
• Middle French
Writing systemLatin script (French alphabet)
French Braille
Signed formsSigned French
(français signé)
Official status
Official language in26 countries • Belgium
• Benin
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Comoros
• Congo
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Djibouti
• Equatorial Guinea
• France
• Gabon
• Guinea
• Haiti
• Ivory Coast
• Luxembourg
• Madagascar
• Monaco
• Rwanda
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• Switzerland
• Togo
• Vanuatu
10 subnational • Aosta Valley (Italy)
• French Polynesia
• Louisiana (United States)
• Maine (United States)
• New Caledonia
• Puducherry (India)
• Saint Barthélemy
• Saint Martin
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
• Wallis and Futuna
Non-official but administrative/cultural • Algeria
• Burkina Faso
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Lebanon
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Morocco
• New Hampshire (United States)
• Niger
• Tunisia
• Vietnam
Organizations including the OIF, UN, IOC, CGPM, ICRC, EU, AU, NATO, WTO and CoE
Regulated by• Académie Française (France)
• Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec)
• Direction de la langue française (Belgium)
Language codes
ISO 639-1fr
ISO 639-2fre (B)
fra (T)
ISO 639-3fra
Glottologstan1290
Linguasphere51-AAA-i
Countries and regions where French is the native language of the majority4 Countries and regions where French is an official or de facto official language, but not a majority native language Countries, regions, and territories where French is an administrative or cultural language but with no official status

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Footnotes

  1. French at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) 2 3

  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (24 May 2022). “Glottolog 4.8 - Shifted Western Romance”. Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 27 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.

  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (24 May 2022). “Glottolog 4.8 - Oil”. Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 11 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.

  4. Dots: cities with native transmission, typically a minority.