The French Language and the English Invasion
Posted by: Pascal Durand in Education, tags: EducationIn France, people are often complaining that their language is at risk because of the influence of new English words that are adopted all the time. If it is true that French is always changing, it is not going to disappear anytime soon. Actually its use is growing worldwide.
French is with English the only language that is spoken on all continents. There are about 200 million French speakers in the world. 72 million of them are classified as partial speakers. It ranks 9th in all spoken languages in terms of usage. French is spoken as a first or second language in 51 countries.
Just like any other language, French is always evolving, adopting new words and abandoning old ones. This task is left to the French Academy, a group of respected writers, philosophers and cultural icons. Their role is to make sure French stays a dynamic language without losing its uniqueness.
In France, even the government has stepped in to officially replace or encourage French people to use newly created French words to replace new English words that do not have an equivalent in French. Examples are ecourrier for e-mail, pourriel for spam.
Leave it to the French to make it mandatory to use French in billing statements and instruction booklets. It is forbidden to use any other language in ads or general broadcasting. Even the constitution of France was amended in the early 90’s to make French the official language.
Did you know that there are more French speakers in Africa than in Europe or any other place in the world? Actually 75% of French speakers reside in Africa. Even Canada with its more than 9 million French speakers is far behind and the USA only count 700,000 French speakers. In Europe, German is the most spoken language. French and Italian come in second and English is third.
On the internet, French is somewhat underrepresented with only 5% of all web pages in French. One could say it is better than none which is the case for 90% of all languages. German does a little better with 7% of all pages and English takes the crown with no less than 45% of all web pages. English is the most studied language in the world but French is in second place.
The French language has always been important in politics and diplomacy. It used to be the language of the Tsars of Russia, and the kings of Spain. Most treaties used to be written in French. Today it is the official language of the Olympic Games, one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations and one its 2 working languages. It is also one of the official languages of the African Union.
The French can be reassured, their language is not dying. Actually its usage is growing and it is estimated that it will keep growing. The simple reason is that French is mainly spoken in countries with very high birth rates (3 out of 4 French speakers leave in such a country). With them the future of the French language is assured.
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