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92-402: Cazaux Air Base ( French : Base aérienne 120 Cazaux ) ( ICAO : LFBC ) is a French Air and Space Force ( French : Armée de l'air et de l'espace ) base. The base is located in the village of Cazaux, part of the town of La Teste-de-Buch , and is approximately 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Bordeaux . The air base was created at the behest of Commandant Marzac. The site did not take

184-720: 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

276-431: 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,

368-554: A fighter squadron, capable of being included in combined Allied operations during World War I , on 28 May 1918. The new escadrille scored its first victory on 27 September 1918. In its short operational career, the squadron claimed twelve wins and was credited with seven verified aerial victories. In turn, it suffered two pilots KIA and one pilot WIA . Its success coincided with the September 1918 Belgian Army advance. To support this advance, 11ème Escadrille moved to Moerkerke near

460-543: 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

552-735: A full course in aerial gunnery, either at Cazaux or the American school at St. Jean-de-Monts. After the French defeat in World War II Cazaux was used by Luftwaffe units from the summer of 1940 onwards. Several training and fighter units used the base, including the 1st group of the Night Fighter Wing NJG.2 and the 2nd and 3rd Fighter Squadrons of Fighter Group JG26 . Of the Destroyer Squadron 1. Between spring 1943 and summer 1944, it

644-639: 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

736-494: 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

828-573: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as 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

920-513: 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 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

1012-897: 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 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

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1104-536: 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

1196-568: Is 1/67th Pyrenees Squadron, a combat search and rescue helicopter unit equipped with EC-725 Caracal. This is a joint unit, so its pilots come from different armed services, but is assigned namely to the French Air Force. Cazaux Air Base is home to 150 Squadron RSAF and its personnel. The RSAF has conducted flying training in France since 1998, and both air forces also interact regularly through various professional exchanges and courses. 150 Squadron currently operates M-346 aircraft that replaced

1288-437: 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

1380-745: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from 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

1472-467: 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

1564-484: 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

1656-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As 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

1748-456: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in 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

1840-628: 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

1932-495: 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

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2024-404: 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

2116-462: 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

2208-775: 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

2300-562: 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 ,

2392-538: 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

2484-479: 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

2576-492: 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

2668-424: 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

2760-483: The 18 days campaign . On the morning of 10 May, 11 Squadron rejoined its diversion airfield at Hannut, few hours before Bierset was bombarded by Dornier 17 's of the Luftwaffe . 11 Squadron was one of three squadrons that continued to fight until the surrender on 28 May 1940. Both "Sioux" squadrons (9 and 11) combined executed 54 combat missions, for a loss of three pilots and 11 aircraft. After World War II, 11 Squadron

2852-502: The 36th Aero Squadron , two balloon companies (36th and 45th) and artillery observers. A former French, then Russian, camp located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the airfield was Camp Hunt, where infantry and artillery troops were trained before joining the Front. Near Camp Hunt, a cemetery was established for American casualties; some of the pilots killed when serving at Cazaux were buried in this cemetery. American Air Service pilot training

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2944-738: 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

3036-459: 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 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

3128-539: 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

3220-485: 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

3312-547: 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,

3404-820: 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

3496-609: 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

3588-951: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , 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

3680-564: The "Sioux" was surrounded by a red circle. The squadron motto was "Tenacity". Just before the outbreak of World War II , 11 Squadron was assigned to 6th Group under command of Commander Dumonceau, while 9 Squadron remained in the 5th Group. To improve mobility and the possibility of deployed operations, each group comprised a maintenance squadron, a field train of about 25 vehicles, and an anti-aircraft unit of 40mm Bofors guns. Commanded by Captain Henri de la Lindi, 11 Squadron took an active part in

3772-502: 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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3864-798: 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

3956-501: The A-4SU in fighter pilot training. The Landes forest , the target centre of Captieux and the aerial zones of Golfe de Gascogne offer all the necessary space for RSAF pilot training requirements which the RSAF cannot find in the limited size of Singapore. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

4048-682: 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

4140-886: 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,

4232-446: The Dutch border on 30 October 1918 After the armistice , 11 Squadron participated in the occupation of Germany. It operated from Bochum until 5 July 1919, when it was recalled to Sint-Agatha-Berchem , in the outskirts of Brussels, where it is disbanded in August 1919. In March 1920, 11 Squadron was recreated at Sint-Agatha-Berchem , with the same squadron number, insignia and aircraft, augmented by Fokker D-VII aircraft, yielded by

4324-408: 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

4416-416: 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

4508-414: The Germans as compensation for damages during World War I. Lieutenant Albert Massaux took command of the squadron. In the following months, the squadron moved up and down to Wilrijk , before returning to Bochum on 9 July 1920. During their stay there, 11 Squadron transformed to Airco DH.4 . On 5 January 1922, 11 Squadron moved to Bierset for the first time, only to move to Schaffen at the start of 1923. It

4600-404: The aircraft had begun as from 2004. The Belgian, updated, Alpha-Jets are operated alongside the French, non-updated, aircraft to provide the first taste of operational flying to Belgian and French students alike. Students and instructors fly out of a unit, combining the insignia and traditions of the Belgian 11 Squadron and the French SPA73 and SPA78 to form the Escadron de Chasse 2/8 "Nice". After

4692-441: The base has hosted the No. 150 Squadron of the Republic of Singapore Air Force , equipped with ST Aerospace A-4SU Super Skyhawks , and since 15 November 2012, with Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Masters to train pilots before assigning Singaporeans to operational F-16C/D Fighting Falcons and F-15SG Strike Eagle units. As of March 2010, 120 pilots had been trained at the base. Approximately 2,600 military and civilian personnel work on

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4784-445: The base. The airfield was created in 1914 during World War I in order to train French and Allied military pilots (fighters and bombers) and still exists as Base Aérienne 120 "Commandant Marzac". Most of the American volunteer pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille came to the Cazaux camp to achieve their training as war pilots. When the U.S. entered the war, the American Expeditionary Forces had several units based here, including

4876-433: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French 11 Squadron (Belgium) The school closed on 11 October 2018. The 11ème Escadrille de Chasse was created on 1 March 1918 at Les Moëres aerodrome near Veurne. As the third dedicated fighter squadron of the Aviation Militaire Belge , next to 9ème Escadrille and 10ème Escadrille , it

4968-404: 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

5060-448: 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

5152-489: 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

5244-406: 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

5336-439: 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 ,

5428-715: 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

5520-401: 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

5612-424: 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

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5704-501: 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 ,

5796-428: 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

5888-431: The local gunnery center and henceforth operated two flying groups. From 1982 on, units based in Cazaux were equipped with Alpha Jets as the Ecole de Transition Opérationnelle (E.T.O.) since 1995. Currently, there are two training squadrons in Cazaux, 1/8 and 2/8. In June 2004 the Belgian 11 Squadron , equipped with Alpha jets, was relocated to Cazaux, forming the French-Belgian Alpha Jet School (AJetS). Also based at Cazaux

5980-407: The move of the complete fleet, the AFT mission was fulfilled, also in the scope of AJeTS, by the Ecole de l'Aviation de Chasse at Base Aèrienne 705 at Tours . The school closed on 11 October 2018. On the 11 Oct 2018 the SQN Control of the Control and Reporting Centre ( Efflux) took over the name, Flag and traditions of the 11 SQN and since then officially bares the name 11 SQN Air Defence. On

6072-425: The move to Beauvechain . On 19 November 1996 all training units were moved to Beauvechain, a former air defense base, to become 1st Wing . A few years later, in 2000, the Alpha-Jet received an extensive avionics update. The Inertial Reference System updated by GPS , combined with a Head-up display provided the possibility to simulate tactics used on the F-16 . On 30 August 2001 a further re-organisation of

6164-414: The name of BA 120 until 1962, becoming the largest air base in France one hundred years after it was founded. The base is used mainly for training and integration of French fighter pilots and gunnery training over the Bay of Biscay . The Franco-Belgian Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet aerial fighter school is based at Cazaux. It is responsible for training future fighter pilots of the two nations. Since 1998,

6256-420: 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

6348-460: 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 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;

6440-475: 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

6532-401: 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

6624-464: 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

6716-462: 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

6808-800: The training squadrons lead to an expansion of 11 Squadron's mission. It took over the Advanced Flying Training (AFT) from 7 Squadron. During the AFT, students having finished on the SF260 took their first steps on a jet aircraft, and graduated as pilots after succeeding. Afterwards, they stayed in 11 Squadron to complete the IOT. In the scope of a European training programme, the Advanced Jet Training School (AJeTS), 11 Squadron moved to Base Aérienne 120 at Cazaux in France on 14 September 2005. Transfer of

6900-738: 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

6992-508: 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

7084-479: 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

7176-531: 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

7268-402: 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

7360-630: Was a target of Allied air raids. After German withdrawal the French Air Force repaired the base, naming it Airfield R.51, and Cazaux was the home of the French bomber group GB 1/31 "Aunis" equipped with Junkers Ju 88 combat aircraft in the spring of 1945. In 1962/1963 the Bomber group 2/91 "Guyenne", previously deployed in the Algerian War , was stationed briefly. This group was replaced in 1964 by No 293, Escadron de Chasse 2/8 "Nice" equipped with Dassault Mystère IV fighter-bomber aircraft which merged with

7452-417: Was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by 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

7544-476: Was disbanded a second time on 19 February 1923. In 1935, the squadrons at Bierset were re-organised into 9 and 11 Squadrons of the 5th Group of the 1st Aeronautical Regiment. Initially still equipped with Bréguet XIX , they soon received the Belgian Renard R 31 monoplane . Their mission changed from bombardment to observation. As from 1938, the “Sioux” symbol appeared on the aircraft. On 11 Squadron aircraft

7636-478: Was disbanded again at Beauvechain on 3 November 1960. In 1971, a thorough revision of the Air Force training system called for the creation of new training squadrons. Re-created on 14 May, 11 Squadron became part of the “Perfectioning Center” at Brustem (Sint Truiden), together with 7 and 9 Squadrons. Its initial mission was to provide Instrument Flight Training to the student pilots on Lockheed T-33 . This aircraft

7728-791: 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

7820-447: 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

7912-684: 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

8004-564: Was part of Belgium's first fighter wing, the Groupe de Chasse . The new unit used an insignia that was adopted from Willy Coppens 's personal insignia with his consent. The Cocotte is a two dimensional representation of an origami Chicken, and was painted in white on the airplanes. The squadron was equipped with castoff Sopwith Camels from 1ère Escadrille de Chasse as well as a few Hanriot HD.1s , and under command of Commander Paul Hiernaux. 11ème Escadrille de Chasse became operational as

8096-597: Was reinforced by the finishing course in aerial gunnery which permitted the American Air Service to give, under French supervision and direction, at the French aerial gunnery school at Cazaux. This work, which commenced in December 1917, in a large measure neutralized the delay in getting an American aerial gunnery school into operation, and overcame the early difficulties caused by American lack of machine guns and ammunition. This meant that after graduation pilots were given

8188-568: Was resurrected as a night fighter squadron of 1st Fighter Wing at Beauvechain Air Base on 25 April 1951. It was equipped with de Havilland Mosquito NFXXXs, and the squadron insignia was a grey bat on a yellow triangle. As from the summer of 1952, it entered the jet age by slowly transforming to Gloster Meteor NFXI. The squadron only gained operational status on that type on 10 September 1956. On 17 December 1957, 11 Squadron received as first non-Canadian squadron, its initial batch of CF-100 Canuck . It

8280-575: 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

8372-554: 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 ,

8464-465: Was to be retired from service on 23 August 1979. The first delivery of its successor, the Dassault Alpha-Jet took place on 7 December 1978, and as of 1979 the students started training on this aircraft. The mission of 11 Squadron was now to provide Initial Operational Training (IOT), combining simulated air-to-air combat and air-to-ground tactics. 11 Squadron continued to be based at Brustem until

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