African French

French language varieties in Africa and Haiti

This article is about the French language spoken in Africa. For immigrants to France from Africa and Haiti, see Algerians in France. For Black people in France, see Haitians in France.

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African French

français africain

A private pharmacy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Region| Africa

Native speakers

| 320 million (mostly non-native speakers) (2024)[1][2][3]

Language family

Indo-European

* Italic
* Latino-Faliscan
* Latin
* Romance
* Italo-Western
* Western Romance
* Gallo-Iberian
* Gallo-Romance
* Gallo-Rhaetian?
* Arpitan–Oïl
* Oïl
* French
* African French

Early forms

Old Latin

* Vulgar Latin
* Proto-Romance
* Old French
* Middle French

Dialects|

* West African French
* Maghreb French
* Djiboutian French
* Indian Ocean French
* Eastern African French
* Haitian French

Writing system

| Latin (French alphabet)
French Braille
Official status

Official language in

Countries and territories

* Algeria
* Benin
* Burundi
* Burkina Faso
* Cameroon
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Comoros
* Congo
* Côte d'Ivoire
* Djibouti
* DR Congo
* Equatorial Guinea
* Gabon
* Guinea
* Madagascar
* Mali
* Mauritania
* Mauritius
* Mayotte
* Morocco
* Niger
* Réunion
* Rwanda
* Senegal
* Seychelles
* Togo
* Tunisia

Language codes
ISO 639-3| –
IETF| `fr-002`

Francophone Africa. The countries coloured dark blue had a population of 534 million in 2024.[4] In 2050 their population is forecast to reach between 785 million[5] and 814 million.[6]

Part of a series on the
French language

* Langues d'oïl
* Dialects
* Creoles
* Francophonie

History

* Phonological history
* Oaths of Strasbourg
* Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts
* Anglo-Norman

Grammar

* Adverbs
* Articles and determiners
* Pronouns (personal)
* Verbs

* (conjugation
* morphology

passé composé
* passé simple)

Orthography

* Alphabet
* Reforms
* Circumflex
* Braille

Phonology

* Elision
* Liaison
* Aspirated h
* Help:IPA/French

* v
* t
* e

A man from Labé, Guinea, speaking Pular and West African French

African French (French: français africain) is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken in Africa. Used mainly as a secondary language or a lingua franca, it is spoken by an estimated 320 million people across 34 countries and territories,[Note 1] some of which are not Francophone, but merely members or observers of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Of these, 18 sovereign states recognize it as an official de jure language, though it is not the native tongue of the majority.[1] African French speakers represent 67% of the Francophonie,[2][3] making Africa the continent with the most French speakers in the world. In the Caribbean nation of Haiti, the Haitians primarily speak Haitian Creole, a French-based creole language, rather than a form of "African French." The language in Haiti has a strong French base by white settlers, but it also incorporates elements from West African languages developed by slaves before independence from France in 1804 after the Haitian Revolution had ended following the Battle of Vertières led by Toussaint's successors with the black generals such as Dessalines and Christophe which led Haiti to become the world's first and oldest black republic in the New World.[7][8]

In Africa, French is often spoken as a second language alongside the Indigenous ones, but in a small number of urban areas (in particular in Central Africa and in the ports located on the Gulf of Guinea) it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast,[9] the Democratic Republic of Congo,[10] in the urban areas of Douala, Yaoundé in Cameroon, in Libreville, Gabon, and Antananarivo[11]
In some countries, though not having official de jure status, it is a first language among a small social classes of the population, such as in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania, where French is a first language among the upper classes along with Arabic (many people in the upper classes are simultaneous bilinguals in Arabic/French), but only a second language among the general population. In Haiti, the two official languages are French and Haitian Creole outside the country of Africa.[12]

In each of the Francophone African countries, French is spoken with local variations in pronunciation and vocabulary. The languages of Haitian French and African French varieties are based on French, they are distinct. Haitian French is a creole language, Haitian Creole, influenced by French, African languages, and others, while African French is a term for the various regional dialects of French spoken from the countries of Francophone Africa, which also diverge from Standard French.[citation needed]

## List of countries in Africa by French proficiency

[edit]

French proficiency in African countries according to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).[13][14][15][a]

Countries  | Total population  | French speaking population  | Percentage of the population that speaks French  | Year

|
|
|
|

Algeria | 47,435,000  | 15,589,00  | 32.86%  | 2025
Angola | 38,758,072  | 17,594,00  | 36.88%  | 2025
Benin | 14,814,000  | 4,992,000  | 33.7%  | 2025
Burkina Faso | 24,075,000  | 5,499,000  | 22.84%  | 2025
Burundi | 14,390,000  | 1,250,000  | 8.68%  | 2025
Cabo Verde | 527,00  | 52.000  | 10.83%  | 2025
Cameroon | 29,879,000  | 12,267,000  | 41.06%  | 2025
Central African Republic | 5,513,000  | 1,345,000  | 24.39%  | 2025
Chad | 21,004,000  | 2,693,000  | 12.82%  | 2025
Comoros | 883,000  | 333,000  | 37.73%  | 2025
Congo | 6,484,000  | 3,981,000  | 61.4%  | 2025
Côte d'Ivoire | 32,712,000  | 11,913,000  | 36.42%  | 2025
Djibouti | 1,184,000  | 592,000  | 50%  | 2025
DR Congo | 112,832,000  | 57,196,000  | 50.69%  | 2025
Egypt | 118,366,000  | 3,573,000  | 3.02%  | 2025
Equatorial Guinea | 1,938,000  | 560,000  | 28.91%  | 2025
Gabon | 2,593,000  | 1,719,000  | 66.3%  | 2025
Gambia | 2,822,000  | 564,000  | 20.00%  | 2025
Ghana | 35,064,000  | 645,000  | 1.84%  | 2025
Guinea | 15,100,000  | 4,202,000  | 27.83%  | 2025
Madagascar | 32,741,000  | 8,705,000  | 26.59%  | 2025
Mali | 25,199,000  | 5,028,000  | 19.95%  | 2025
Mauritania | 5,315,000  | 689,000  | 12.96%  | 2025
Mauritius | 1,268,000  | 921,000  | 72.65%  | 2025
Morocco | 38,431,000  | 13,912,000  | 36.2%  | 2025
Niger | 27,918,000  | 3,754,000  | 13.45%  | 2025
Rwanda | 14,569,000  | 748,000  | 5.14%  | 2025
Senegal | 18,932,000  | 5,250,000  | 27.73%  | 2025
Seychelles | 133,000  | 70,000  | 53.00%  | 2025
Togo | 9,722,000  | 3,998,000  | 41.12%  | 2025
Tunisia | 12,349,000  | 6,558,000  | 53.11%  | 2025

## List of Caribbean or Latin American country by French proficiency outside Africa

[edit]

French proficiency in the Caribbean or Latin America according to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).

Country  | Total population  | French speaking population  | Percentage of the population that speaks French  | Year

|
|
|
|

Haiti | 11,906,000  | 5,001,000  | 42%  | 2025

## Varieties

[edit]

Countries of Africa by percentage of French speakers in 2023,[16][17] also including non-official de jure status:

0–10% Francophone

11–20% Francophone

21–30% Francophone

31–40% Francophone

41–50% Francophone

>50% Francophone

There are many different varieties of African French, but they can be broadly grouped into five categories:[18]

1. The French variety spoken in Central Africa and West Africa including Angola with French ancestry or French residents who speak French especially in Cabinda – spoken altogether by about 97 million people in 2018, as either a first or second language.[19]
2. The French variety spoken by Berbers and Maghrebis in North-west Africa (see Maghreb French), which has about 33 million first and second language speakers in 2018.[19]
3. The French variety spoken in the Comoro Islands (the Comoros and Mayotte) and Madagascar, which have 5.6 million first and second language speakers in 2018.[19]
4. The French variety spoken by Creoles in the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Réunion) and Seychelles, which has around 1.75 million first and second language speakers in 2018.[19] The French spoken in this region is not to be confused with the French-based creole languages, which are also spoken in the area. Haitian Creole was also a French-based creole language that developed in Haiti outside Africa was heavily influenced by various African languages, and is now one of Haiti's two official languages alongside French.
5. The French variety spoken in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, which has about 0.5 million first and second language speakers in 2018.[19]

All the African French varieties differ from Standard French, both in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary, but the formal African French used in education, media and legal documents is based on standard French vocabulary.

Alcohol seller in Kara, Togo, with sign in French; she uses the phrase Soyez les bienvenus ("Be welcome"), considered an archaic phrase in Metropolitan France; some terms and words persist in use in Africa after falling out of use in France.

In the colonial period, a vernacular form of creole French known as Petit nègre ("little negro") was also present in West Africa. The term has since, however, become a pejorative term for "poorly spoken" African French.

In Angola, French is spoken in Angola especially Cabinda, particularly in the northern regions. While Portuguese is the official language, French is understood and spoken, especially among the Kongo people in the north and by Angolans with French ancestry. It's also one of the foreign languages taught in schools with 90% speak French from neighboring DR Congo as a legacy of Belgian colonial rule which established as Belgium's private colony of Francophone Africa until its independence on 30 June 1960.

The difficulty linguists have in describing African French comes from variations, such as the "pure" language used by many African intellectuals and writers versus the mixtures between French and African languages. For this, the term "creolization" is used, often in a pejorative way, and especially in the areas where French is on the same level with one or more local languages. Outside Francophone Africa, the Haitian Creole language emerged from contact between French settlers and enslaved Africans in the Caribbean French slave colony of Saint Domingue on the west side of Hispaniola are now known as Haiti which then first established as the world's first and oldest black-led republic in the Americas and the first country to abolish slavery by declaring the former colony's independence from France on 1 January 1804 after defeating Napoleon's French army in the Haitian Revolution by Toussaint Louverture's successors Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe. According to Gabriel Manessy, "The consequences of this concurrency may vary according to the social status of the speakers, to their occupations, to their degree of acculturation and thus to the level of their French knowledge."[20]

Code-switching, or the alternation of languages within a single conversation, takes place in both DR Congo and Senegal, the former having four "national" languages – Ciluba, Kikongo, Lingala, and Swahili – which are in a permanent opposition to French. Code-switching has been studied since colonial times by different institutions of linguistics. One of these, located in Dakar, Senegal, already spoke of the creolization[inconsistent] of French in 1968, naming the result "franlof": a mix of French and Wolof (the language most spoken in Senegal) which spreads by its use in urban areas and through schools, where teachers often speak Wolof in the classroom despite official instructions.[21]

The omnipresence of local languages in Francophone African countries – along with insufficiencies in education – has given birth to a new linguistic concept: le petit français.[20] Le petit français is the result of a superposition of the structure of a local language with a narrowed lexical knowledge of French. The specific structures, though very different, are juxtaposed, marking the beginning of the creolization process.

Some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to remove the use of French; it was removed as an official language in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in 2023, 2024, and 2025 respectively.[22][23][24]

## Haitian Creole

[edit]

In Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole, the island nation of Haiti has two official languages, French and Haitian Creole are used for governments, education, literature, and businesses. Haiti is the only country in the Americas to declare independence from France on 1 January 1804 as the former French colony of Saint Domingue renamed Ayiti (Land of High Mountains) which became the world's first and oldest black-led republic in the New World outside Africa and the second oldest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere after the United States. Haitian Creole was developed through interactions between the French colonists and African slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries before the Haitian Revolution came to effect with Napoleon Bonaparte was humiliated as he suffered a defeat while the French Revolution in Paris still goes on and had decided to sell Louisiana Purchase to Thomas Jefferson led by the young United States during his presidency in 1803 where he refused to recognize the new black nation especially by the U.S. until 1862 with Benjamin F. Whidden as the first American diplomatic representative to Haiti and appointed him to be the first Commissioner/Consul General.

## Français populaire africain

[edit]

In the urban areas of Francophone Africa, another type of French has emerged: Français populaire africain ("Popular African French") or FPA. It is used in the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa, but especially in cities such as Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Cotonou, Benin; Dakar, Senegal; Lomé, Togo; and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. At its emergence, it was marginalized and associated with the ghetto; Angèle Bassolé-Ouedraogo describes the reaction of the scholars:

> Administration and professors do not want to hear that funny-sounding and barbarian language that seems to despise articles and distorts the sense of words. They see in it a harmful influence to the mastery of good French.[25]

However, FPA has begun to emerge as a second language among the upper class. It has also become a symbol of social acceptance.[citation needed]

FPA can be seen as a progressive evolution of Ivorian French. After diffusing out of Ivory Coast, it became Africanized under the influence of young Africans (often students) and cinema, drama, and dance.[citation needed]

FPA has its own grammatical rules and lexicon. For example, "Il ou elle peut me tuer!" or "Il ou elle peut me dja!" can either mean "This person annoys me very much (literally he or she is annoying me to death)" or "I'm dying (out of love) for him/her" depending on the circumstances. "Il ou elle commence à me plaire" signifies a feeling of exasperation (whereupon it actually means "he or she starts to appeal to me"), and friendship can be expressed with "c'est mon môgô sûr" or "c'est mon bramôgo."[25]

FPA is mainly composed of metaphors and images taken from African languages. For example, the upper social class is called "les en-haut d'en-haut" (the above from above) or "les môgôs puissants" (the powerful môgôs).

### Pronunciation

[edit]

Pronunciation in the many varieties of African French can be quite varied. There are nonetheless some trends among African French speakers; for instance, ⟨r⟩ tends to be pronounced as the historic alveolar trill of pre-20th Century French instead of the now standard uvular trill or 'guttural R.' The voiced velar fricative, the sound represented by ⟨غ⟩ in the Arabic word مغرب Maghrib, is another common alternative. Pronunciation of the letters ⟨d⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨l⟩ and ⟨l⟩ may also vary, and intonation may differ from standard French.[citation needed]

## Abidjan French

[edit]

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According to some estimates, French is spoken by 75 to 99 percent of Abidjan's population,[26] either alone or alongside indigenous African languages. There are three sorts of French spoken in Abidjan. A formal French is spoken by the educated classes. Most of the population, however, speaks a colloquial form of French known as français de Treichville (after a working-class district of Abidjan) or français de Moussa (after a character in chronicles published by the magazine Ivoire Dimanche which are written in this colloquial Abidjan French). Finally, an Abidjan French slang called Nouchi has evolved from an ethnically neutral lingua franca among uneducated youth into a creole language with a distinct grammar.[27] New words often appear in Nouchi and then make their way into colloquial Abidjan French after some time.[28] As of 2012, a crowdsourced dictionary of Nouchi was being written using mobile phones.[29]

Here are some examples of words used in the African French variety spoken in Abidjan (the spelling used here conforms to French orthography, except ô which is pronounced [ɔ]):[30]

* une go is a slang word meaning a girl or a girlfriend. It is a loanword either from the Mandinka language or from English ("girl"). It is also French hip-hop slang for a girl.[31]
* un maquis is a colloquial word meaning a street-side eatery, a working-class restaurant serving African food (likely from French “marquise”).
* un bra-môgô is a slang word equivalent to "bloke" or "dude" in English. It is a loanword from the Mandinka language.
* chicotter is a word meaning to whip, to beat, or to chastise (children). It is a loanword from Portuguese where it meant "to whip". It has now entered the formal language of the educated classes.
* le pia is a slang word meaning money. It comes perhaps from the standard French word pièce ("coin") or pierre ("stone"), or perhaps piastre (dollar, buck).

When speaking in a formal context, or when meeting French speakers from outside Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan speakers would replace these local words with the French standard words une fille, un restaurant or une cantine, un copain, battre and l'argent respectively. Note that some local words are used across several African countries. For example, chicotter is attested not only in Côte d'Ivoire but also in Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Central African Republic, Benin, Togo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[28]

As already mentioned, these local words range from slang to formal usage, and their use therefore varies depending on the context. In Abidjan, this is how the sentence "The girl stole my money." is constructed depending on the register:[28]

* formal Abidjan French of the educated people: La fille m'a subtilisé mon argent.
* colloquial Abidjan French (français de Moussa): Fille-là a prend mon l'argent. (in standard French, the grammatically correct sentence should be Cette fille (là) m'a pris de l'argent)
* Abidjan French slang (Nouchi): La go a momo mon pia. (Momo is an Abidjan slang word meaning "to steal")

Another unique, identifiable feature of Ivorian French is the use of the phrase n'avoir qu'à + infinitif which, translated into English, roughly means, to have only to + infinitive.[32] The phrase is often used in linguistic contexts of expressing a wish or creating hypotheticals. This original Ivorian phrase is generally used across the Ivory Coast's population; children, uneducated adults, and educated adults all using the phrase relatively equally. Often in written speech, the phrase is written as Ils non cas essayer de voir rather than Ils n'ont qu'à essayer de voir.[32]

## Angolan French

[edit]

French is used as a language of communication, especially among the literate population in Cabinda, and it's also a language spoken in Angola as a significant French Angolan population, which includes Angolans with French ancestry and French people who live or have lived in Angola, many people, including a large percentage of the literate population, speak French fluently from the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo as a legacy of Belgian colonial rule from Brussels that declared its independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960. Angola has had a historical and cultural connection with France, particularly through its colonial past and subsequent economic and political relationships with other countries including Francophone Africa which had been colonized as former French colonies from Paris.

### Characteristics

[edit]

Many characteristics of Ivorian/Abidjan French differ from "standard" French found in France. Many of the linguistic evolutions are from the influences of native African languages spoken within the Ivory Coast and make Abidjan French a distinct dialect of French.

Some of the major phonetic and phonological variations of Abidjan French, as compared to a more "typical" French, include substituting the nasal low vowel [ɑ̃] for a non-nasal [a], especially when the sound occurs at the beginning of a word, and some difficulty with the full production of the phonemes [ʒ] and [ʃ].[33] There are also, to a certain degree, rhythmic speaking patterns in Ivorian French that are influenced by native languages.[33]

Ivorian French is also unique in its grammatical differences present in spoken speech such as these:[33]

* omission of articles in some contexts (tu veux poisson instead of the French tu veux du poisson)
* omission of prepositions in some contexts (Il parti Yamoussoukro rather than Il est parti à Yamoussoukro)
* interchangeable usage of indirect and direct objects (using lui instead of le and vice versa)
* more flexible grammatical formation

## Algerian French

[edit]

Without being an official language, French is frequently used in government, workplaces, and education. French is the default language for work in several sectors. In a 2007 study set in the city of Mostaganem, it was shown that French and Arabic were the two functional languages of banking. Technical work (accounting, financial analysis, management) is also frequently done in French. Documents, forms, and posters are often in both French and Arabic.

The usage of French among the Algerian population is different depending on social situations. One can find:

* direct borrowings, where the lexical unit is unchanged: surtout (particularly), voiture (car)
* integrated borrowings, where the lexical unit experiences phonetic transformation: gendarme (police force), cinéma (cinema)
* code switching, where another language is spoken in addition to French in a single oration (ex: Berber/French, Arabic/French)

## Beninese French

[edit]

French is the sole official language in Benin. In 2014, over 4 million Beninese citizens spoke French (around 40% of the population). Fongbe is the other widely spoken language of Benin. It is natural to hear both languages blending, either through loan words or code-switching.

Few academic sources exist surrounding the particularisms of Beninese French. Nevertheless, it is evident that Beninese French has adapted the meanings of several French terms over time, such as: seconder (to have relations with a second woman, from the French second - second), doigter (to show the way, from the French doigt \- finger).

## Burkinabe French

[edit]

French is the language of administration, education, and business in Burkina Faso and was the de jure official language until a constitutional change in 2024. While spoken fluently only by about a quarter of the population, French has progressively become a native language among urban populations since the late 20th century, notably in the cities of Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, and Banfora. By 2010, about 10% of Ouagadougou residents spoke French as their first language.[34]

Linguists have observed the development of a local vernacular of French in the country called français populaire burkinabè which is influenced by local languages such as Mooré and is used as a lingua franca in commerce.[35] It is largely used as a spoken language whereas speakers continue to use standard French as the written language.[36]

## Cameronian French

[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Cameroonian French.[edit]

Cameroonian French is a variety of French spoken in Cameroon. As a former French colony, the country's history has shaped its language, resulting in a distinct variant of French that reflects the country's diverse cultural, linguistic, and historical background.

## Kinshasa French

[edit]

Boulevard du 30 Juin in the commercial heart of Kinshasa

With more than 11 million inhabitants, Kinshasa is the largest Francophone city in the world, surpassing Paris in population. It is the capital of the most populous francophone country in the world, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an estimated 43 million people (51% of the total population) can speak French (essentially as a second language).[19][37] Contrary to Abidjan where French is the first language of a large part of the population, in Kinshasa French is only a second language, and its status of lingua franca is shared with Lingala. Kinshasa French also differs from other African French variants, for it has some Belgian French influences, due to colonization. People of different African mother tongues living in Kinshasa usually speak Lingala to communicate with each other in the street, but French is the language of businesses, administrations, schools, newspapers and televisions. French is also the predominant written language.

Due to its widespread presence in Kinshasa, French has become a local language with its own pronunciation and some local words borrowed for the most part from Lingala. Depending on their social status, some people may mix French and Lingala, or code switch between the two depending on the context. Here are examples of words particular to Kinshasa French. As in Abidjan, there exist various registers and the most educated people may frown upon the use of slangish/Lingala terms.

* cadavéré means broken, worn out, exhausted, or dead. It is a neologism on the standard French word cadavre whose meaning in standard French is "corpse". The word cadavéré has now spread to other African countries due to the popularity of Congolese music in Africa.
* makasi means strong, resistant. It is a loanword from Lingala.
* anti-nuit are sunglasses worn by partiers at night. It is a word coined locally and whose literal meaning in standard French is "anti-night". It is one of the many Kinshasa slang words related to nightlife and partying. A reveler is known locally as un ambianceur, from standard French ambiance which means atmosphere.
* casser le bic, literally "to break the Bic", means to stop going to school. Bic is colloquially used to refer to a ballpoint pen in Belgian French and Kinshasa French, but not in standard French.
* merci mingi means "thank you very much". It comes from standard French merci ("thank you") and Lingala mingi ("a lot").
* un zibolateur is a bottle opener. It comes from the Lingala verb kozibola which means "to open something that is blocked up or bottled", to which was added the standard French suffix -ateur.
* un tétanos is a rickety old taxi. In standard French tétanos means "tetanus".
* moyen tê vraiment means "absolutely impossible". It comes from moyen tê ("there's no way"), itself made up of standard French moyen ("way") and Lingala tê ("not", "no"), to which was added standard French vraiment ("really").
* avoir un bureau means to have a mistress. Il a deux bureaux doesn't mean "He has two offices", but "He has two mistresses".
* article 15 means "fend for yourself" or "find what you need by yourself".
* ça ne dérange pas means "thank you" or "you are welcome". When it means "thank you", it can offend some French speakers who are not aware of its special meaning in Kinshasa. For example, if one offers a present to a person, they will often reply ça ne dérange pas. In standard French, it means "I don't mind".
* quatre-vingt-et-un is the way Kinois say 81, quatre-vingt-un in Europe.
* compliquer quelqu'un, literally to make things "complicated" or difficult for someone. It can be anyone: Elle me complique, "She is giving me a tough time".
* une tracasserie is something someone does to make another person's life harder, and often refers to policemen or soldiers. A fine is often called a tracasserie, especially because the policemen in Kinshasa usually ask for an unpayable sum of money that requires extensive bargaining.

### Characteristics

[edit]

There are many linguistic differences that occur in Kinshasa French that make it a distinct dialect of French. Similarly to many other African dialects of French, many of the linguistic aspects are influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the linguistics of the local African languages. It is also essential to note that grammatical differences between local Congolese languages and the French language, such as the lack of gendered nouns in the former, result in linguistic changes when speakers of the former speak French.[38]

Here are some of the phonetic characteristics of Kinshasa French:[39]

* the posteriorization of anterior labial vowels in French, more specifically, the posteriorization of the common French phoneme [ɥ] for [u] (ex: pronunciation of the French word cuisine [kɥizin] as couwisine [kuwizin])
* the delabialization of the phoneme [y] for the phoneme [i] (ex: pronunciation of the French term bureau [byʁo] as biro [biʁo])
* the vocalic opening of the French phoneme [œ] creating, instead, the phoneme [ɛ] (ex: pronunciation of the French word acteur [aktœʁ] as actère [aktɛʁ])
* in some cases, the denasalization of French vowels (ex: pronunciation of the French term bande [bɑ̃d] as ba-nde [band])
* the mid-nasalization of occlusive consonants that follow the nasals [n] and [m] (ex: in relationship to the example above, the French word bande [bɑ̃d] could be pronounced both as ba-nde [band] or as ban-nde with a slightly nasalized [d])
* the palatalization of French apico-dental consonants that are followed by [i] and/or [ɥ] (ex: pronunciation of the French word dix [dis] is pronounced as dzix [dzis] and, similarly, the term parti may be pronounced as partsi)

As briefly mentioned above, many Congolese languages are ungendered languages and so there is often some mixing of the French masculine and feminine articles in speakers of Kinshasa French, such as the phrase Je veux du banane rather than the "correct" French Je veux de la banane.[38]

## See also

[edit]

* Africa portal

* Haitian French
* Francophone Africa
* French colonial empire
* Haitian Creole
* Belgian colonial empire
* Geographical distribution of French speakers
* Camfranglais
* List of colonies and possessions of France
* Belgian Congo
* Maghreb French
* Françafrique
* Francophonie
* French-based creole languages
* French language in Minnesota
* French language in Vietnam
* French language in Cambodia
* French language in Laos
* French Polynesia
* Languages of Africa

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ 29 full members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF): Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, DR Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, and Tunisia.
One associate member of the OIF: Ghana.
One observer of the OIF: Mozambique.
One country not member or observer of the OIF: Algeria.
Two French territories in Africa: Réunion and Mayotte.

1. ^ Countries in italics indicate non-Francophone countries.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "327 millions de francophones dans le monde en 2023" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
2. ^ a b "En 2023, 327 millions de personnes parlent français dans le monde, dont près de la moitié en Afrique". Archived from the original on 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
3. ^ a b "Accueil-Francoscope". Archived from the original on 2023-03-23. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
4. ^ Population Reference Bureau. "2013 World Population Data Sheet" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-09-12.
5. ^ United Nations. "World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision" (XLS). Retrieved 2013-09-12.
6. ^ Population Reference Bureau. "2013 World Population Data Sheet" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-09-12.
7. ^ Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). "La langue française dans le monde" (PDF) (2019 ed.). p. 38\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-12-03. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
8. ^ Chutel, Lynsey (18 October 2018). "French is now the fifth most spoken world language and growing—thanks to Africans". Quartz Africa. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
9. ^ (in French) Le français à Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard Archived 2016-01-20 at the Wayback Machine by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002
10. ^ "Evidence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo" (PDF). IDRC CRDI. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
11. ^ Øyvind, Dahl. "Linguistic policy challenges in Madagascar" (PDF).
12. ^ Benrabah, Mohamed (2007). "Language Maintenance and Spread: French in Algeria". International Journal of Francophone Studies. 10: 193–215\. doi:10.1386/ijfs.10.1and2.193_1. Archived from the original on 2024-05-25. Retrieved 2024-03-18 - via ResearchGate.
13. ^ [1]
14. ^ [2]
15. ^ "Qui parle français dans le monde – Organisation internationale de la Francophonie – Langue française et diversité linguistique". Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
16. ^ Population Reference Bureau. "2023 World Population Data Sheet" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-02-20. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
17. ^ "[default] Population Division Data Portal".
18. ^ "Is there a difference between French and African French?". African Language Solutions. 2015-09-11. Archived from the original on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
19. ^ a b c d e f Observatoire de la langue française de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. "Estimation du nombre de francophones (2018)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-01-02. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
20. ^ a b Manessy, Gabriel (1978). "Le français d'Afrique noire, français créole ou créole français ?" [The French of black Africa: French creole or creole French?]. Langue française (in French). 37 (1): 91–105\. doi:10.3406/lfr.1978.4853. JSTOR 41557837.
21. ^ Calvet, Maurice jean; Dumont, Pierre (1969). "Le français au Sénégal : interférences du wolof dans le français des élèves sénégalais" [The French of Senegal: Wolof interference in the French of Senegalese students]. Collection IDERIC (in French). 7 (1): 71–90\. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
22. ^ "Mali drops French as official language". Africanews. 26 July 2023. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
23. ^ "Burkina abandons French as an official language". Africanews. 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
24. ^ "Niger Republic drops French for Hausa as official language". Pulse Nigeria. 2025-04-09. Retrieved 2025-04-13.
25. ^ a b Bassolé-Ouedraogo, A (2007). "Le français et le français populaire africain: partenariat, cohabitation ou défiance? FPA, appartenance sociale, diversité linguistique" (PDF) (in French). Institut d'Études des Femmes, Université d'Ottawa. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-27.
26. ^ Marita Jabet, Lund University. "La situation multilinguistique d'Abidjan" (PDF) (in French). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
27. ^ Sande, Hannah (2015). "Nouchi as a Distinct Language: The Morphological Evidence" (PDF). In Kramer, Ruth; Zsiga, Elizabeth C.; Tlale Boyer, One (eds.). Selected Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Somerville, Massachusetts: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. pp. 243–253\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-03-22. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
28. ^ a b c Bertin Mel Gnamba and Jérémie Kouadio N'Guessan. "Variétés lexicales du français en Côte d'Ivoire" (PDF) (in French). p. 65\. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
29. ^ "Languages: Crowd-Sourced Online Nouchi Dictionary". Rising Voices. 2012-07-30. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
30. ^ Suzanne Lafage (2002). "Le lexique français de Côte d'Ivoire" (in French). Archived from the original on 4 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
31. ^ "Le Dictionnaire de la Zone © Cobra le Cynique". Archived from the original on 2024-05-25. Retrieved 2015-08-10.
32. ^ a b Johnson, Manda Djoa (2011). "La locution verbale n'avoir qu'à + infinitif dans le français ivoirien/La locución verbal francesa n'avoir qu'à + infinitivo en el francés marfileño" [The verbal phrase to have only with + infinitive in Ivorian French]. Thélème (in French). 26: 79–88\. Gale A383852945 ProQuest 1017876369. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
33. ^ a b c Baghana, Jerome; Glebova, Yana A.; Voloshina, Tatiana G.; Blazhevich, Yuliya S.; Birova, Jana (14 June 2022). "Analyzing the effect of interference on the utilization of French in ivory coast: social and linguistic aspects". Revista de Investigaciones Universidad del Quindío. 34 (S2): 13–19\. doi:10.33975/riuq.vol34nS2.873. S2CID 249701668.
34. ^ La langue française dans le monde 2010 Archived 2024-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 2010, p. 51 (in French)
35. ^ Coulibaly, Bakary. Interférences et français populaire du Burkina Archived 2024-03-18 at the Wayback Machine, University of Ouagadougou, 1994. (in French)
36. ^ "Vécu Langagier africanophone et francophone de jeunes lycéens du Burkina Faso". Archived from the original on 2024-03-18. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
37. ^ Observatoire démographique et statistique de l'espace francophone (ODSEF). "Estimation des populations francophones dans le monde en 2018 - Sources et démarches méthodologiques" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-11-29. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
38. ^ a b Baghana, Jerome; Voloshina, Tatiana G.; Slobodova Novakova, Katarina (2019). "Morphological and syntactic interference in the context of Franco-Congolese bilingualism". XLinguae. 12 (3): 240–248\. doi:10.18355/XL.2019.12.03.18. S2CID 199175583.
39. ^ Gombé-Apondza, Guy-Roger Cyriac (2015). "Particularités phonétiques du français dans la presse audio-visuelle de Kinshasa" [The French Phonetic particularities in the broadcast media in Kinshasa] (PDF). Synergies Afrique des Grands Lacs. 4: 101–116\. ProQuest 2060963904. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-05-25. Retrieved 2023-02-21.

## External links

[edit]

* LE FRANÇAIS EN AFRIQUE - Revue du Réseau des Observatoires du Français Contemporain en Afrique(in French)
* Links for Afrique francophone
* Dictionaries of various French-speaking countries
* Le Français et le Français populaire Africain: partenariat, cohabitation ou défiance? FPA, appartenance sociale, diversité linguistique (in French)
* La mondialisation, une chance pour la francophonie (in French)
* RFI - L’avenir du français passe par l’Afrique (in French)

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