CGDK
154-741: The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races ( FULRO ; French : Front unifié de lutte des races opprimées , Vietnamese : Mặt trận Thống nhất Đấu tranh của các Sắc tộc bị Áp bức ) was an organization whose objective was autonomy for various indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities in South Vietnam, including the Montagnards in the Central Highlands , the Chams in Central Vietnam , and
308-485: A kru khmae (shaman/healer), whom they believe can diagnose which of the many spirits has caused the illness and recommend a course of action to propitiate the offended spirit, thereby curing the illness. The kru khmae is also learned in herb lore and is often sought to prepare various "medicines" and potions or for a magical tattoo , all believed to endow one with special prowess and ward off evil spirits or general bad luck. Khmer beliefs also rely heavily on astrology ,
462-604: A Buddha Raja being substituted for the former Shiva Raja or Vishnu Raja. The rise of the Tai kingdoms of Sukhothai (1238) and Ayutthaya (1350) resulted in almost ceaseless wars with the Khmers and led to the destruction of Angkor in 1431. They are said to have carried off 90,000 prisoners, many of whom were likely dancers and musicians. The period following 1432, with the Khmer people bereft of their treasures, documents, and human culture bearers,
616-720: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process
770-598: A century, the French exploited Cambodia commercially, and demanded power over politics, economics, and social life. During the second half of the twentieth century, the political situation in Cambodia became chaotic. King Norodom Sihanouk (later, Prince, then again King), proclaimed Cambodia's independence in 1949 (granted in full in 1953) and ruled the country until March 18, 1970, when he was overthrown by General Lon Nol , who established
924-689: A combination of these and other factors. The Khmer are considered a part of the Indian cultural sphere , owing to them adopting Indian culture, traditions and religious identities. The first powerful trading kingdom in Southeast Asia, the Kingdom of Funan , was established in southeastern Cambodia and the Mekong Delta in the first century, although extensive archaeological work in Angkor Borei District near
1078-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,
1232-605: A dowry, the father of princess Soma drank the waters around the island, which was revealed to be the top of a mountain, and the land below that was uncovered became Cambodia. Kaundinya and Soma and their descendants became known as the Khmers and are said to have been the rulers of Funan , Chenla and the Khmer Empire . This myth further explains why the oldest Khmer wats , or temples, were always built on mountaintops, and why today mountains themselves are still revered as holy places. The Khmers, an Austroasiatic people , are one of
1386-651: A few hundred. In 1980, a unit of over 200 fighters was forced to split off and take refuge in Khmer Rouge territory on the Thai-Cambodian border. In 1985, 212 of these soldiers, under the command of Y Ghok Nie Krieng and Pierre K'Briuh, moved across Cambodia to the Thai border where Lieutenant General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh , then Commander of the 2nd Royal Thai Army, advised them that the Americans were no longer interested in fighting
1540-543: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
1694-536: A million Khmer native to Northeast Thailand ; and Khmer Krom spoken by the millions of Khmer native to the Mekong Delta regions of Vietnam adjacent to Cambodia and their descendants abroad. A little-studied dialect known as Western Khmer , or Cardamom Khmer, is spoken by a small, isolated population in the Cardamom Mountain range extending from Cambodia into eastern Central Thailand. Although little studied, it
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#17328547179411848-550: A minor genetic influence from Indian people . Cambodians trace about 16% of their ancestry to a Eurasian population that is equally related to both Europeans and East Asians , while the remaining 84% of their ancestry is related to other Southeast Asians, particularly to a source similar to the Dai people . Another study suggests that Cambodians trace about 19% of their ancestry to a similar Eurasian population related to modern-day Central Asians , South Asians , and East Asians , while
2002-522: A number of Khmer Krom provinces from Cambodia to its colony in Vietnam in 1949. The South Vietnamese government that succeeded the French required Khmer Krom people to change their names to Vietnamese sounding names in order to go to school or apply for a job, then forced students to speak only in Vietnamese, and instituted a land reform policy that settled Vietnamese on Khmer Krom land. These measures led to
2156-639: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
2310-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
2464-647: A remnant of Hinduism. A fortune teller, called hao-ra (astrologists) or kru teay in Khmer, is often consulted before major events, like choosing a spouse, beginning an important journey or business venture, setting the date for a wedding and determining the proper location for building new structures. Throughout the year, the Cambodian celebrate many holidays, most of a religious or spiritual nature, some of which are also observed as public holidays . The two most important are Chol Chhnam ( Cambodian New Year ) and Pchum Ben ("Ancestor Day"). The Cambodian Buddhist calendar
2618-650: A result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,
2772-565: A revived new Champa state and for Khmers to retake Cochinchina. It was based in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces in Cambodia, and the Central Highlands in Vietnam. The Viet Cong approached FULRO after its founding. No agreements were reached and hostilities between FULRO and the NLF continued. The US later sought to capitalize on these communities' animosity towards Vietnamese to use FULRO against
2926-800: A rich supernatural world. Several types of supernatural entities are believed to exist; they make themselves known by means of inexplicable sounds or happenings. Among these phenomena are kmaoch ខ្មោច (ghosts), pret ប្រែត (comes in many forms depending on their punishments) and beisach បិសាច(monsters) [these are usually the spirits of people who have died a violently, untimely, or unnatural deaths]; arak អារក្ស (evil spirits, devils), ahp krasue , neak ta អ្នកតា (tutelary spirit or entity residing in inanimate objects; land, water, trees etc.), chomneang/mneang phteah ជំនាងផ្ទះ/ម្នាងផ្ទះ(house guardians), meba មេបា (ancestral spirits), and mrenh kongveal ម្រេញគង្វាល (little mischief spirit guardians dressed in red). All spirits must be shown proper respect, and, with
3080-410: A sharp military response and Freund, who had stayed with them, persuaded them to officially surrender to Prime Minister General Nguyễn Khánh. An official surrender ceremony took place in the mostly deserted Buon Sar Pa base; however this resulted in a loss of face for those dissident Montagnards who had agreed to stand down and await the promises made by General Co during negotiations with their leaders on
3234-536: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in
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#17328547179413388-453: A working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As
3542-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French
3696-467: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English
3850-484: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given
4004-637: Is based on the dialect spoken throughout the Central Plain , a region encompassed by the northwest and central provinces. The varieties of Khmer spoken in this region are representative of the speech of the majority of the population. A unique and immediately recognizable dialect has developed in Phnom Penh that, due to the city's status as the national capital, has been modestly affected by recent French and Vietnamese influence. Other dialects are Northern Khmer dialect , called Khmer Surin by Khmers, spoken by over
4158-421: Is divided into 12 months with the traditional new year beginning on the first day of khae chaet , which coincides with the first new moon of April in the western calendar. The modern celebration has been standardized to coincide with April 13. Dance occupies a central place for the Khmer people, one of its earliest records dates back to the 7th century, where performances were used as a funeral rite for kings. In
4312-628: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in
4466-549: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
4620-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from
4774-462: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in
United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races - Misplaced Pages Continue
4928-775: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for
5082-618: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
5236-538: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure
5390-479: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in
5544-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially
5698-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism
5852-448: Is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer. The modern Khmer strongly identify their ethnic identity with their religious beliefs and practices, which combine the tenets of Theravada Buddhism with elements of indigenous ancestor-spirit worship, animism and shamanism. Most Cambodians, whether or not they profess to be Buddhists or other faiths, believe in
6006-607: The Nam tiến (March to the South) and then colonizing it militarily under the đồn điền (plantation) system. The last Champa kingdom was annexed by Imperial Vietnam in 1832. The French colonial regime for its part also contributed to separatist movements among the Cham and Khmer by supporting the Islamization of Cham communities as a counterweight to the largely Buddhist Vietnamese and transferring
6160-447: The 1963 South Vietnamese coup to overthrow Ngô Đình Diệm , all the leaders of BAJARAKA were released. In an effort to integrate Montagnard ambitions, several of them were given government posts: Paul Nur, vice-president of BAJARAKA, was appointed deputy provincial chief for the province of Kon Tum, while Y Bham Enuol , the movement's president, was appointed deputy provincial governor of Đắk Lắk Province . By March 1964, with US backing,
6314-738: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of
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6468-609: The Cambodian Civil War and Cambodian Genocide , there is a large Khmer diaspora residing in the United States, Canada, Australia and France. According to one Khmer legend attributed by George Coedes to a tenth century inscription, the Khmers arose from the union of the Brahmana Kambu Swayambhuva and the apsara ("celestial nymph") Mera. Their marriage is said to have given rise to the name Khmer and founded
6622-600: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
6776-509: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only a second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and
6930-530: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
7084-547: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
7238-820: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
7392-519: The Jarai (Gia Rai). These hostilities intensified when Montagnard-inhabited Central Highlands became open to Vietnamese settlement under French rule. The South Vietnamese government under Ngô Đình Diệm applied similar policies in the 1950s, abolishing the autonomous Montagnard area in 1955, then resettling Northern Vietnamese refugees on Montagnard land to colonize indigenous lands as part of state-sponsored land reform programs (Cải cách điền địa). Because
7546-649: The Khmer Krom in Southern Vietnam . Initially a political movement, after 1969 it evolved into a fragmented guerrilla group that carried on simultaneous insurgencies against the governments of South Vietnam under President Nguyen Van Thieu and North Vietnam of Ho Chi Minh . Opposed to all forms of Vietnamese rule, FULRO fought against both sides in the Vietnam War against the Soviet-aligned North (including
7700-522: The Khmer language , which is part of the larger Austroasiatic language family alongside Mon and Vietnamese . The majority of Khmer people follow Theravada Buddhism . Significant populations of Khmers reside in adjacent areas of Thailand ( Northern Khmer ) and the Mekong Delta region of neighboring Vietnam ( Khmer Krom ), while there are over one million Khmers in the Khmer diaspora living mainly in France ,
7854-420: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
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#17328547179418008-471: The United Nations and the Member States of the Committee of Decolonization that they would be fighting against both South Vietnam and the US to achieve independence. Initial media and sources from Saigon dismissively downplayed the FULRO threats, suggesting that the uprising was held by a small group of "illiterate" highlanders. When the Khánh regime collapsed in June 1965, the administration under new Prime Minister of South Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ terminated
8162-405: The United States , and Australia . The majority of the world's Khmers live in Cambodia, the population of which is over 95% Khmer. There are also significant Khmer populations native to Thailand and Vietnam . In Thailand, there are over one million Khmers (known as the Khmer Surin ), mainly in Surin ( Sorin ), Buriram ( Borei Rom ) and Sisaket ( Srei Saket ) provinces. Estimates for
8316-526: The Varman dynasty of ancient Cambodia. A more popular legend, reenacted to this day in the traditional Khmer wedding ceremony and taught in elementary school, holds that Cambodia was created when a merchant named Kaundinya I (commonly referred to as Preah Thong ) married Princess Soma , a Nāga ( Neang Neak ) princess. Kaundinya sailed to Southeast Asia following an arrow he saw in a dream. Upon arrival he found an island called Kok Thlok and, after conquering Soma's Naga army, he fell in love with her. As
8470-716: The Vietcong ) and the American-aligned South at the same time. FULRO's primary supporter during the 1960s and early 1970s conflict in Southeast Asia was Cambodia (under former monarch and then head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk ), with some aid sent by the People's Republic of China during the period of the Third Indochina War . Fractured by nature, FULRO was a symbolic alliance of various indigenous and ethnic groups in South Vietnam formed as an armed reaction against US-backed South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and following right-wing military junta in Saigon's policies of systemic ethnic discriminations and land deprivations. Its nominal leader, an ethnic Rhade Y Bham Enuol ,
8624-604: The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1979, which afterwards the FULRO strength diminished unrecoverably; by 1987, their movement died out inside refuge camps along the Thai-Cambodian border. The movement dissolved almost three decades later in 1992, when the last group of 407 FULRO fighters and their families handed in their weapons to the United Nations peacekeepers in Cambodia. FULRO built its strength mainly by recruiting Montagnard CIDGs (mostly Rhade , Jarai , and Koho ). Due to high-profile proximity and involvement of United States Special Forces (Green Berets) personnel with
8778-428: The Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by
8932-436: The World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
9086-497: The provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to
9240-427: The ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in
9394-455: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
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#17328547179419548-429: The 20th century, the use of dancers is also attested in funerary processions, such as that for King Sisowath Monivong . During the Angkor period, dance was ritually performed at temples. The temple dancers came to be considered as apsaras, who served as entertainers and messengers to divinities. Ancient stone inscriptions describe thousands of apsara dancers assigned to temples and performing divine rites as well as for
9702-474: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
9856-510: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
10010-614: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
10164-419: The Central Highlands. These disparate armed groups looked forward to the collapse of the Saigon regime and had some local cooperation with the Viet Cong, who offered unofficial support such as caring for their wounded. After overthrowing pro-China Sihanouk, Cambodian leader Lon Nol , despite being anti-Communist and ostensibly in the "pro-American" camp, backed FULRO against both anti-communist South Vietnam and
10318-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of
10472-435: The FLKK, was also suspected of working for the Cambodian secret service. These contacts were to lead to the establishment of the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO), based on the above groups and the FLHP. The flag of FULRO was designed with three stripes: one blue (representing the sea), one red (representing the struggle of the Montagnards) and one green (representing the mountains). Three white stars on
10626-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained
10780-410: The Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as
10934-411: The Indochinese People's conference in Phnom Penh March 1963 with Y Bham Enuol. Y Dhon Adrong's faction of the FLHP made contact with two other groups: Kosem, the most senior Cham officer in the Cambodian army, had been involved in Cham activism since the late 1950s, and is suspected to have been working as a double agent for both the Cambodian secret service and the French. Chau Dara, the founder of
11088-564: The Khmer Republic. On April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge , who under the leadership of Pol Pot combined Khmer nationalism and extreme Communism , came to power and virtually destroyed the Cambodian people, their health, morality, education, physical environment, and culture in the Cambodian genocide . On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese forces ousted the Khmer Rouge . After more than ten years of painfully slow rebuilding, with only meager outside help,
11242-570: The Khmer Rouge – then in a political alliance with Sihanouk, the GRUNK – took Phnom Penh. Y Bham, Y Bun Sur, and some 150 members of the militant FULRO faction were, at the time, under house arrest in the compound of Colonel Um Savuth of the Khmer Army located near Pochentong Airport . They left the compound and sought refuge in the French Embassy. The Khmer Rouge forced the senior French diplomat to hand
11396-410: The Khmer Rouge, which was by this point fighting its own guerrilla war in western Cambodia. However, by 1986, this aid had ceased, a Khmer Rouge spokesman stating that while the tribesmen were "very, very brave", they had "no support from any leadership" and "no political vision". Following the cessation of supplies, the bitter guerrilla warfare would however in time reduce FULRO's forces to no more than
11550-728: The Liberation of the Kampuchea-Krom, or the FLKK, absorbed the Kaingsaing Sar . The Les Kosem -led "Champa Liberation Front" was founded in Phnom Penh in 1960. The Vietnamese had also been hostile for years to the Montagnards, the native inhabitants of the Central Highlands (Vietnam) , referring to them as "savage" ( mọi ), based on their distinct religion, culture, language, and the Malayo-Polynesian ethnicity of some Montagnard groups such as
11704-551: The Mon kingdom of Dvaravati . Consequently, he ruled over the greater part of present-day Thailand and Laos, as well as the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. This period, during which Angkor Wat was constructed, is considered the apex of Khmer civilization. The Khmer kingdom became the Khmer Empire and the great temples of Angkor, considered an archeological treasure replete with detailed stone bas-reliefs showing many aspects of
11858-806: The Montagnard CIDGs and FULRO, South Vietnamese and later Socialist Republic of Vietnam governments deemed the FULRO to be a subversive movement used by the CIA to interfere with Vietnamese sovereignty. Official American policy was however opposition to FULRO and not to jeopardize its allied relation with the South Vietnamese government, and in 1965 MACV General Westmoreland issued an instruction to order that US soldiers "should avoid all contacts with FULRO." For centuries, Vietnamese rulers had expanded their domains southward, conquering Khmer and Cham territory as part of
12012-508: The Montagnards and conquered their lands as well as how FULRO had fought against the Vietnamese, Simpkins expressed support for the desire of the Montagnards to preserve their culture and language. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from
12166-633: The NLF. On September 20, 1964, there was an outbreak of violence by American-trained CIDG troops in the Special Forces bases of Buon Sar Pa and Bu Prang in Quảng Đức Province (now Đắk Nông Province ) and in Buon Mi Ga, Ban Don and Buon Brieng in Đắk Lắk Province. Several Vietnamese soldiers were killed and the Americans disarmed, and FULRO activists from the Buon Sar Pa base seized the radio station on Route 14 on
12320-600: The National Leadership Committee and Major General Nguyễn Cao Kỳ , President of the Central Executive Committee. The South Vietnamese government sent a diplomatic contingent to Buôn Mê Thuột in August 1968 to negotiate with FULRO representatives, including Y Bham, after a promise of safe conduct was given to him by Prime Minister Trần Văn Hương . FULRO's grievances against South Vietnam were no longer
12474-448: The OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
12628-635: The Saigon regime and applauded Cambodia for its support. Adjacent to Vietnam, the Cambodian forests were a base by FULRO fighters battling the Democratic Republic of Vietnam . Lack of progress in gaining concessions led to another FULRO uprising by its more militant faction in December 1965, in which 35 Vietnamese (including civilians) were killed. This event was rapidly suppressed, and four captured FULRO commanders (Nay Re, Ksor Bleo, R'Com Re and Ksor Boh) were publicly executed. An FULRO declaration in 1965 announced to
12782-528: The United Nations intervened resulting in the Paris Peace Accord on October 23, 1992, and created conditions for general elections in May 1993, leading to the formation of the current government and the restoration of Prince Sihanouk to power as King in 1993. The culture of the ethnic Khmers is fairly homogeneous throughout their geographic range. Regional dialects exist, but are mutually intelligible. The standard
12936-510: The United States. Even at this late stage, they only decided to give up armed struggle when they finally heard that Y Bham Enuol had been executed in April 1975. Luke Simpkins , an MP in the Australian House of Representatives , condemned the Vietnamese persecution of the Montagnards in 2011. Noting that both the South Vietnamese government and the regime of unified Communist Vietnam had attacked
13090-865: The Vietnamese Central Highlands . The organization was given the name BAJARAKA, which stood for four main ethnic groups: the Bahnar (Ba Na), the Jarai, the Rhade, and the Koho (Cơ Ho). On July 25, BAJARAKA issued a notice to the embassies of France and the United States and to the United Nations, denouncing acts of racial discrimination, and requesting government intervention to secure independence. BAJARAKA held several demonstrations in Kon Tum , Pleiku , and Buôn Ma Thuột in August and September 1958. These were quickly suppressed and
13244-521: The Vietnamese. General Chavalit advised them to seek refugee status through UNHCR. Once this was granted, they were moved to North Carolina in the U.S. In August 1992, journalist Nate Thayer traveled to Mondulkiri and visited the last FULRO base. Thayer informed the group that their leader, Y Bham, had been executed by the Khmer Rouge seventeen years previously. The FULRO troops surrendered their weapons in October 1992; many of this group were given asylum in
13398-706: The border against the Vietnamese. There was high mobility among ethnic minorities such as the Hmong, Yao, Nung, and Tai across the border between China and Vietnam. As a result, there was a peak in this second phase of the FULRO insurgency during the 1980s. FULRO attacked the PAVN forces and police stations in the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Kon Tum, and Gia Lai. Some estimates gave the total number of FULRO troops in this period at 7,000, mostly based in Mondulkiri, and supplied with Chinese armaments via
13552-494: The border with Cambodia and set up at the old French base, Camp le Rolland , in Mondulkiri Province within 15 km of the Vietnamese border, where they continued to recruit FLHP fighters. In the meantime, the regional ambitions of Prince Norodom Sihanouk had led to an effort to coordinate the operations of various separatist groups operating within South Vietnam and in the Cambodian border areas. Prince Sihanouk launched
13706-421: The central red stripe represented the three fronts of FULRO. A later form of the flag replaced the blue stripe with black. While FULRO claimed to speak for the Cham, Khmer and Montagnard communities, its common bond and ideology was anti-Vietnamese sentiment, with questionable allegiance to anything else. In 1965, FULRO released maps showing that their ultimate goal was for Montagnard and Cham independence within
13860-408: The coastal regions into the highlands, with 50,000 Vietnamese settlers moving in the highlands by 1960 and 200,000 by 1963. The Highlander Liberation Front ( Mặt trận Giải phóng Dân tộc Thượng , Front de Libération des Montagnards) was founded in 1955 during a meeting of indigenous Montagnards who had originally rallied to Y Thih Eban against the South Vietnamese government cadres. Montagnard hostility
14014-457: The commander of Military Region II, who had flown down to Buôn Ma Thuột from his headquarters in Pleiku, met with several rebel leaders from Buon Enao, during which he assured them of his partial support of some of their demands in representations to Prime Minister General Nguyễn Khánh and the Saigon government. Following progress in their negotiations, General Co requested that the rebel leaders brief
14168-435: The communist Viet Cong. Lon Nol planned a slaughter of all Vietnamese in Cambodia and a restoration of South Vietnam to a revived Champa state. The Khmer Rouge later imitated Lon Nol's actions. Lon Nol backed FULRO hill tribes, fighting a proxy war against the NLF via Khmer Krom detachments in South Vietnam and Cambodia's frontier region, as he desired to emulate Van Pao. On April 17, 1975, the Cambodian Civil War ended when
14322-482: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Khmer people The Khmer people ( Khmer : ជនជាតិខ្មែរ , UNGEGN : Chônchéatĕ Khmêr , ALA-LC : Janajāti Khmaer [cɔn.ciət kʰmae] ) are an Austroasiatic ethnic group native to Cambodia . They comprise over 95% of Cambodia's population of 17 million. They speak
14476-525: The creation of several separatist groups, including the republican "Free Khmer", or Khmer Serei , movement founded by Dr. Son Ngoc Thanh in 1958, and the Kaingsaing Sar , or Khmer White Scarves movement, a semi-mystic, semi-military group, founded in 1959 by a monk, Samouk Seng. Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia supported the White Scarves movement as a counterbalance to the Khmer Serei. The Front for
14630-467: The culture, including some musical instruments, remain as monuments to the culture of the Cambodia. After the death of Suryavarman II (1113–1150), Cambodia lapsed into chaos until Jayavarman VII (1181–1218) ordered the construction of a new city. He was a Buddhist, and for a time, Buddhism became the dominant religion in Cambodia. As a state religion, however, it was adapted to suit the Deva Raja cult, with
14784-518: The deal with the Vietnamese. On December 30, 1968, Kosem, at the head of several battalions of the Royal Cambodian Army, and accompanied by a group from the militant FULRO wing responsible for the 1965 fighting, surrounded and took Camp le Rolland . Enuol was placed under effective house arrest in Phnom Penh at the residence of Colonel Um Savuth of the Cambodian army, where he was to remain for
14938-508: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
15092-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French
15246-535: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
15400-501: The exception of the mneang phteah and mrenh kongveal , they can cause trouble ranging from mischief to serious life-threatening illnesses. The majority of the Cambodians live in rural villages either as rice farmers or fishermen. Their life revolves around the Wat (temple) and the various Buddhist ceremonies throughout the year. However, if Cambodians become ill, they will frequently see
15554-457: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
15708-858: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,
15862-818: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being
16016-602: The government of Prince Sihanouk. Y Bun Sur was also an agent in France's secret intelligence service at that time, the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE). This indicates possible involvement of the French in the revolt. The Americans were unsure who was ultimately responsible for the CIDG rebellion and initially blamed the Viet Cong and French. However, the 'neutralist' Cambodian regime of Sihanouk had probably
16170-549: The greatest hand in events: the 20 September 1964 'Declaration' by the Haut Comité of FULRO contained anti- SEATO rhetoric that bore a strong resemblance to that issued by Sihanouk's regime in the same period. Meanwhile, Sihanouk hosted a conference, the "Indochinese People's Conference", in Phnom Penh in early 1965, at which Enuol headed a FULRO delegation. Y Bham brought FULRO to the fore in 1965 when FULRO published anti-South Vietnamese propaganda against CIDG troops that attacked
16324-463: The group, men, women and children, over to them. They were then marched to the Lambert Stadium , then on the northern edge of Phnom Penh, where they were executed, along with many officials of the Cambodian regime, by the Khmer Rouge. The remaining FULRO guerrillas in Vietnam, however, were to remain unaware of Y Bham's death. After Saigon fell and the South Vietnamese government collapsed under
16478-435: The hands of North Vietnam in 1975, FULRO continued the fight against the newly founded Socialist Republic of Vietnam . It was suggested that the United States continue to support FULRO in its struggle against the Vietnamese government. Several thousand FULRO troops under Brigadier General Y Ghok Nie Krieng carried on fighting the Vietnamese forces, but the promised American aid did not materialize. FULRO continued operations in
16632-450: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
16786-474: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon
16940-602: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,
17094-475: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what
17248-574: The later Thai and Lao alphabets . The Khmers are considered by archaeologists and ethnologists to be indigenous to the contiguous regions of Isan , southern Laos , Cambodia and South Vietnam . That is to say the Cambodians have historically been a lowland people who lived close to one of the tributaries of the Mekong River . The reason they migrated into Southeast Asia is not well understood, but scholars believe that Austroasiatic speakers were pushed south by invading Tibeto-Burman speakers from
17402-598: The leaders of BAJARAKA, along with representatives of other ethnic groups and of the Upper Cham people , established the Central Highlands Liberation Front ( French : Front de Liberation des Hauts Plateaux , FLHP). The Front rapidly split into two factions. One faction, advocating peaceful means, was led by Y Bham Enuol. A second, led by Y Dhon Adrong, a former Rhade teacher, advocated violent resistance. From March to May 1964, Adrong's faction infiltrated
17556-572: The modern Vietnamese border has unearthed brickworks, canals, cemeteries and graves dating to the fifth century BCE. During the Funan period (1st–6th centuries CE) the Khmer also acquired Buddhism, the concept of the Shaiva imperial cult of the devaraja and the great temple as a symbolic world mountain . The rival Khmer Chenla Kingdom emerged in the fifth century and later conquered the Kingdom of Funan. Chenla
17710-685: The most prominent leaders of the movement arrested; they would remain in jail for the next few years. One of BAJARAKA's leaders, Y Bih Aleo, later joined the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam , more commonly known as the Viet Cong. The early 1960s were to see increasing military activity in the Central Highlands; from 1961, American military advisers had assisted in setting up armed village defence militias (the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups , CIDG). In 1963, after
17864-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by
18018-456: The next six years. On February 1, 1969, a final treaty was signed between Paul Nur, representing South Vietnam, and Y Dhon Adrong. These events signified the end of FULRO as a 'political' movement, especially as its previous backer, the Sangkum regime of Sihanouk, was to fall to the Cambodian coup of 1970 . However, some elements of FULRO, dissatisfied with the treaty, continued armed resistance in
18172-638: The night of September 21, 1964. During the weeks that followed, the Buon Sar Pa CIDG deserters in their base in Mondulkiri Province were reinforced by a large number of deserters from the other CIDG Special Forces bases. Y Bham was named head of FULRO, given the rank of General and named President of the High Plateau of Champa, a sign of the influence on the dissidents by the Cham advisers, Lieutenant Colonel Les Kosem and Chau Dara. A Cham goddess's name
18326-579: The north as evident by Austroasiatic vocabulary in Chinese, because of agricultural purposes as evident by their migration routes along major rivers, or a combination of these and other factors. The reason they migrated into Southeast Asia is not well understood, but scholars believe that Austroasiatic speakers were pushed south by invading Tibeto-Burman speakers from the north as evident by Austroasiatic vocabulary in Chinese, because of agricultural purposes as evident by their migration routes along major rivers, or
18480-533: The number of the Khmers in Vietnam (known as the Khmer Krom ) vary from the 1.3 million given by government data to 7 million advocated by the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation . The Khmer population native to Laos is less significant than in Thailand and Vietnam, those communities reside in the southwestern tip of Laos, at the borders of Thailand and Cambodia. Due to migration as a result of
18634-582: The oldest ethnic groups in the area, having filtered into Southeast Asia from southern China , possibly Yunnan , or from Northeast India around the same time as the Mon , who settled further west on the Indochinese Peninsula and to whom the Khmer are ancestrally related. Most archaeologists and linguists, and other specialists like Sinologists and crop experts, believe that they arrived no later than 2000 BCE (over four thousand years ago) bringing with them
18788-472: The other dissident elements and ask them to peacefully return to their bases and await the outcome of the negotiations. The leaders who had met with General Cơ the previous night were prevented from briefing the Buon Sar Pa group which, still disgruntled, returned to their Buon Sar Pa Special Forces base, accompanied by Colonel John F. Freund , the US Army advisor to General Cơ. Colonel Freund's decision to accompany
18942-475: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
19096-413: The practice of agriculture and in particular the cultivation of rice . This region is also one of the first places in the world to use bronze . They were the builders of the later Khmer Empire , which dominated Southeast Asia for six centuries beginning in 802, and now form the mainstream of political, cultural, and economic Cambodia. The Khmers developed the Khmer alphabet , which in turn gave birth to
19250-462: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
19404-602: The program abolished indigenous status and recognition of indigenous land ownership, it led to a Montagnard revolt against the Vietnamese administration in the Central Highlands in 1958, led by Y Bham Enuol , a Rhade intellectual and civil activist. The South Vietnamese government persisted with its "Social and Economic Council for the Southern Highlands" without making any provision for local autonomy, claiming that these communities needed to be "developed" as they were "poor" and "ignorant". Ethnic Vietnamese were settled from
19558-723: The public. The Khmer classical dance was placed in 2003 on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Cambodian culture has influenced Thai and Lao cultures and vice versa. Many Khmer loanwords are found in Thai and Lao , while many Lao and Thai loanwords are found in Khmer. The Thai and Lao alphabets are also derived from the Khmer script . The Khmer people are genetically closely related to other Southeast Asian populations. They show strong genetic relation to other Austroasiatic people in Southeast Asia and East Asia and have
19712-666: The ranks of US-trained local CIDGs in September 1964 and December 1965, both were violently repressed by the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). After the Vietnam War ended, aided by the Pentagon and CIA Postwar Psyop, the anticommunist wing of the FULRO under former US Special Forces interpreter Y Tlur Eban renewed the movement, this time against the newly-unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam . Their guerilla bases moved to Cambodia after
19866-510: The remaining 81% of their ancestry is related specifically to modern-day Dai and Han people . The genetic testing website 23andMe groups Khmer people under the "Indonesian, Khmer, Thai & Myanmar" reference population. This reference population contains people who have had recent ancestors from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. Hideo Matsumoto, professor emeritus at Osaka Medical College tested Gm types, genetic markers of immunoglobulin G , of Khmer people for
20020-411: The remote highlands throughout the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, but it was increasingly weakened by internal divisions, and trapped in an ongoing conflict between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam . China gave FULRO aid and assistance via Thailand to fight the Vietnamese throughout the 1970s and 1980s (and during the Sino-Vietnamese War ), while also backing ethnic minorities in northern Vietnam along
20174-407: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
20328-401: The south-west outskirts of Buôn Ma Thuột, from which they broadcast calls for independence. Outsiders advising and assisting the dissident Montagnards were Y Dhon Adrong, two officers of the Royal Khmer Army, Lieutenant Colonel Y Bun Sur, a member of the M'Nong tribe and Province Chief of Cambodia's Mondulkiri Province, Les Kosem, and Chau Dara. During the morning of September 21, Y Bham Enuol
20482-436: The state's discriminatory development programs to appease the tensions with the indigenous peoples. On June 2, 1967, Y Bham Enuol sent a delegation to Buôn Ma Thuột to petition the South Vietnamese government. On June 25 and 26, 1967, a congress of ethnic minorities throughout South Vietnam was convened to finalise a joint petition, and on August 29, 1967, a meeting was held under the direction of Nguyễn Văn Thiệu , President of
20636-404: The still dissident Buon Sar Pa group was not authorised by General Cơ. The Buon Sar Pa group continued to defy the Vietnamese authorities and most of the CIDG force deserted their Buon Sar Pa base and moved, with their weapons and equipment, across the international border and into Cambodia's Mondulkiri Province. Those CIDG troops remaining in the Buon Sar Pa base were threatened by General Cơ with
20790-438: The top priority for Cambodia at this point, however, because the Khmer Rouge was starting to distract Sihanouk in 1968. By December 11, 1968, negotiations between FULRO and the Vietnamese authorities had resulted in an agreement to recognise minority rights, establish a Ministry to support these rights, and to allow Y Bham Enuol to remain permanently in Vietnam. However, some elements of FULRO, notably FLC head Les Kosem, opposed
20944-414: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
21098-619: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
21252-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by
21406-425: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
21560-481: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
21714-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as
21868-446: The world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in
22022-489: Was an upland state whose economy was reliant on agriculture whereas Funan was a lowland state with an economy dependent on maritime trade. These two states, even after conquest by Chenla in the sixth century, were constantly at war with each other and smaller principalities. During the Chenla period (5th–8th centuries), Khmers left the world's earliest known zero in one of their temple inscriptions. Only when King Jayavarman II declared an independent and united Cambodia in 802
22176-531: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
22330-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul
22484-469: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
22638-414: Was not limited, however, to the South Vietnamese government, but extended as well to North Vietnam, based on the ill-treatment their communities had received at the hands of the Vietnamese before the division of Vietnam. On May 1, 1958, a group of intellectuals, headed by a French-educated Rhade (Ê Đê) civil servant, Y Bham Enuol , established an organization seeking greater autonomy for the minorities of
22792-408: Was one of precipitous decline. In 1434, King Ponhea Yat made Phnom Penh his capital, and Angkor was abandoned to the jungle. Due to continued Siamese and Vietnamese aggression, Cambodia appealed to France for protection in 1863 and became a French protectorate in 1864. During the 1880s, along with southern Vietnam and Laos, Cambodia was drawn into the French-controlled Indochinese Union. For nearly
22946-417: Was put into prison by Ngo Dinh Diem in September 1958. After 1963, Y Bham Enuol then remained exiled in Cambodia for the rest of the war, while former co-founder of the parent BAJARAKA, left-leaned Y Bih Aleo , became the Vice President of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) and leader of the Viet Cong's Montagnard Autonomy Movement in 1961. The FULRO organized two Montagnard uprisings among
23100-410: Was quickly abducted from his residence in Buôn Ma Thuột by elements from the Buon Sar Pa group and communiques were issued in his name. Several weeks later, Y Bham's family were quietly taken from his village, Buon Ea Bong, three kilometres northwest of Buôn Ma Thuột, and escorted into the FULRO base in Cambodia's Mondulkiri Province. On the evening of September 21, 1964, Brigadier General Nguyễn Hữu Cơ,
23254-411: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
23408-437: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
23562-419: Was there relative peace between the two lands, upper and lowland Cambodia. Jayavarman II (802–830) revived Khmer power and built the foundation for the Khmer Empire, founding three capitals— Indrapura , Hariharalaya , and Mahendraparvata —the archeological remains of which reveal much about his times. After winning a long civil war, Suryavarman I (reigned 1002–1050) turned his forces eastward and subjugated
23716-405: Was used as a call sign by Les Kosem. Cambodia was suspected of support for the rebellion. At the time of the revolt, Y Bun Sur and Les Kosem were senior officers serving in the Royal Khmer Army and both were also agents of Cambodia's 12th Bureau, the country's secret intelligence service. As well, Y Bun Sur was still the Province Chief of Mondulkiri Province. This indicates the likely involvement of
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