Francophonie

French-speaking world

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.

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

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.

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, of which 26 uses it as an official de jure language.[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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

See also: List of countries and territories 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

[edit]

* List of countries and territories where French is an official language
* Organisation internationale de la Francophonie
* Agence universitaire de la Francophonie
* Francophone literature
* Institut Français
* Alliance française
* French language in Canada, Lebanon, United States, Minnesota, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
* Swiss, Belgian, and African French
* French-based creole languages
* Language geography
* Sprachraum
* Romandy

## 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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