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Francophonie

This article is about the concept of speaking French. For the organization sometimes called "la Francophonie", see Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. For the geography of francophones, see Geographical distribution of French speakers.
Not to be confused with Francophobe.

The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus[1] in 1880 and became important as part of the conceptual rethinking of cultures and geography in the late 20th century.

Geographic distribution of the French language:
  Majority native language
  Official but not majority native language
  Administrative or cultural language
Map showing the member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (in blue and green). This map does not exactly represent the francophone space, as it is a political organisation.
Proportion of French-speakers (including L2-speakers) by country in 2022 according to the OIF
  1–9% francophone
  10–19% francophone
  20–29% francophone
  30–39% francophone
  40–49% francophone
  50%+ francophone

When used to refer to the French-speaking world, the Francophonie encompasses the countries and territories where French is official or serves as an administrative or major secondary language, which spans 50 countries and dependencies across all inhabited continents.[2] The vast majority of these are also member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), a body uniting countries where French is spoken and taught.

Denominations

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Francophonie, francophonie and francophone space are syntagmatic. This expression is relevant to countries which speak French as their national language, may it be as a mother language or a secondary language.

These expressions are sometimes misunderstood or misused by English speakers. They can be synonymous but most of the time they are complementary.

  • "francophonie", with a small "f", refers to populations and people who speak French for communication or/and in their daily lives.[3]
  • "Francophonie", with a capital "F", can be defined as referring to the governments, governmental and non-governmental organisations or governing officials that share the use of French in their work and exchange.[3]
  • "Francophone space", "Francophone world", "Francosphere" represents not only a linguistic or geographic reality, but also a cultural entity: for example describing any individual who identifies with one of the francophone cultures, may it be Slavic, Latin, Creole, North American or Oceanian for example.[4][5]

Origins

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The term francophonie was invented by Onésime Reclus in 1880: "We also put aside four large countries, Senegal, Gabon, Cochinchina and Cambodia, whose future from a "Francophone" point of view is still very doubtful, except perhaps for Senegal" (in French « Nous mettons aussi de côté quatre grands pays, le Sénégal, le Gabon, la Cochinchine, le Cambodge dont l’avenir au point de vue « francophone » est encore très douteux sauf peut-être pour le Sénégal »); and then used by geographers.[6]

During the Third Republic, the French language progressively gained importance.

The Académie française, a French institution created in 1635 in charge of officially determining and unifying the rules and evolutions of the French language, participated in the promotion and the development of the French language.[7]

Countries

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Main article: List of countries where French is an official language

The definition of the Francophone world is distinguished by countries and territories where French is an official language, those where it is the native language of the majority of the population, and those where the language is used as a working language of administration or where the language still has an important cultural impact and prestige. There are 50 countries and territories which fall into this category, although in some countries the Francosphere is limited to certain regions or states.[8]

Being merely a member state of the OIF does not automatically make a country or territory "francophone" in the sense of the language having a major role in its society, be it as a working language or a strong cultural heritage to the French language. This is in part due to the OIF increasingly admitting new members based on loose criteria such as "significant second language learning" of French or parties interested in furthering the organisation's promotion of human rights, democracy, international cooperation, sustainable development, cultural and linguistic diversity, and education and training.[9] Therefore, member states such as Romania, Egypt, and Armenia which have minimal to no connection with the French language and culture should not be considered as part of the Francophone world.[10]

Rank Country/territory French-speaking
population[11][a]		 Land area (km2) Land area (sq mi)
1   France[b] 66,394,000 551,695 213,011
2   Democratic Republic of the Congo 48,925,000 2,344,858 905,354
3   Algeria 14,904,000 2,381,741 919,595
4   Morocco 13,457,000 446,550 172,410
5   Cameroon 11,491,000 475,650 183,650
6   Canada 11,061,000 9,984,670 3,855,100
7   Côte d'Ivoire 9,325,000 322,462 124,503
8   Belgium 8,815,000 30,528 11,787
9   Madagascar 7,729,000 587,041 226,658
10   Tunisia 6,321,000 163,610 63,170
11    Switzerland 5,889,000 41,291 15,943
12   Burkina Faso 5,404,000 274,200 105,900
13   Haiti 4,906,000 27,750 10,710
14   Senegal 4,640,000 196,712 75,951
15   Benin 4,306,000 114,763 44,310
16   Guinea 3,777,000 245,857 94,926
17   Mali 3,703,000 1,240,192 478,841
18   Togo 3,554,000 56,785 21,925
19   Congo 3,518,000 342,000 132,000
20   Niger 3,363,000 1,267,000 489,200
21   Lebanon 2,540,000 10,452 4,036
22   Chad 2,249,000 1,284,000 495,800
23   United States
* Louisiana
* New England		 2,179,000 9,525,067 3,677,647
24   Gabon 1,519,000 267,668 103,347
25   Central African Republic 1,435,000 622,984 240,535
26   Burundi 1,074,000 25,680 9,915
27   Mauritius 926,000 2,040 788
28   Réunion 799,000 2,511 970
29   Rwanda 793,000 26,338 10,169
30   Vietnam 693,000 331,340 127,930
31   Mauritania 656,000 1,030,700 397,960
32   Luxembourg 642,000 2,586 998
33   Djibouti 508,000 23,200 8,960
34   Cambodia 463,000 181,035 69,898
35   Guadeloupe 336,000 1,628 629
36   Martinique 303,000 1,128 436
37   New Caledonia 288,000 18,575 7,172
38   French Polynesia 278,000 4,167 1,609
39   Comoros 237,000 1,861 719
40   Laos 204,000 236,800 91,430
41   French Guiana 195,000 84,000 32,433
42   Mayotte 180,000 374 144
43   Vanuatu 100,000 12,189 4,706
44   Seychelles 53,000 457 176
45   Monaco 39,000 2 0.7
46   Saint Martin 33,000 53 20
47   India
* Puducherry
 10,000 483 186
48   Wallis and Futuna 9,000 142 55
49   Saint Barthélemy 8,000 20 8
50   Saint Pierre and Miquelon 6,000 230 89
Total 246,271,000 19,103,017 7,375,547

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Note: Excludes partial speakers and learners.
  2. ^ Note: Metropolitan France only.

References

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  1. ^ Alexander B. Murphy, "Placing Louisiana in the Francophone World: Opportunities and Challenges" Archived 10 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, page 4, published in Atlantic Studies, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2008; Special Issue: New Orleans in the Atlantic World, II, accessed 7 April 2013
  2. ^ Wolff, Alexandre. Qu’est-ce qu’un francophone? (What is a francophone?), Observatoire de la langue française, 2015. (in French)
  3. ^ a b "Qu'est-ce que la Francophonie ? - Organisation internationale de la Francophonie". francophonie.org. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  4. ^ "Données et statistiques sur la langue française - Organisation internationale de la Francophonie". francophonie.org. Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  5. ^ L'année francophone internationale, Québec, ACCT, 1994
  6. ^ Pinhas, Luc (2004). "Aux origines du discours francophone". Communication & Langages. 140 (1): 69–82. doi:10.3406/colan.2004.3270.
  7. ^ "La Francophonie: The History of the French Language Training School". Language Connections. July 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
  8. ^ Vigouroux, Cecile (2013). "Francophonie". Annual Review of Anthropology. 42: 379–397. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145804.
  9. ^ Christian Rioux, "Franco... quoi?", Le Devoir, Montreal, 4 September 1999.
  10. ^ Vif, Le (9 October 2018). "La Francophonie au bord de la cacophonie ?". Site-LeVif-FR. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  11. ^ La langue française dans le monde, 2022, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF),


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