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103-601: The Goûter Hut ( French : Refuge du Goûter ), is a mountain refuge in the French department of Haute-Savoie . It is located at a height of 3,835 metres (12,582 ft) on the Arete du Goûter in the municipality of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains . It overlooks the Glacier de Bionnassay, and is the highest wardened mountain hut in France. It is an important staging post for many mountaineers on

206-720: 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

309-611: A capacity of 120 places. To fight against overcrowding the préfet (State representative in a French Department) and the Mayor of the municipality Saint-Gervais-les-Bains initially set the maximum capacity of the new shelter at 140. For financial reasons, the FFCAM (Fédération française des clubs alpins et de montagne), who built this new hut as part of an administrative lease, decided to reduce the number to 120. The building boasts advanced technology in terms of architecture and energy autonomy, making it

412-431: 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,

515-543: 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

618-614: A member of the council of the commune . He led an unsuccessful attempt to introduce Merino sheep into the Chamonix valley. Balmat died age 72 by falling off a cliff while prospecting for gold in the Sixt valley in 1834. C. Douglas Milner wrote "The ascent itself was magnificent; an amazing feat of endurance and sustained courage, carried through by these two men only, unroped and without ice axes, heavily burdened with scientific equipment and with long iron-pointed batons. The fortunate weather and

721-500: A moon alone ensured their return alive." Milner described Balmat's story as "cloudily romantic and largely fictional" and quoted four analysts of mountaineering history who discovered errors in Balmat's version of events. In 1966, Eric Shipton wrote "Theirs was an astounding achievement of courage and determination, one of the greatest in the annals of mountaineering. It was accomplished by men who were not only on unexplored ground but on

824-681: A new warning was repeated in French and English with capital letters: "Couloir du Goûter" is very dangerous. Be careful. Falling rocks. Three webcams have been installed on the refuge, to allow climbers to observe in real time the weather conditions at high altitude, before climbing the Mont Blanc: one with view to the South and the Col de Bionnassay , the other towards the exit of the Couloir de Goûter and Tête Rousse , to

927-472: A number of times over the last 150 years as its popularity as a mountaineering base has increased. There have been numerous deaths and injuries sustained by climbers on its access route. The refuge, with its own helicopter landing platform for logistics and mountain rescue operations, is located in the south-east of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and the department of Haute-Savoie. It

1030-542: 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

1133-657: A project of high environmental standards and intent to be "a marvel of self-sustainability" . Its construction cost 7.5 million euros, funded 51% by the French Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs (FFCAM) and 49% by public authorities and patrons. Its form is ovoid, optimal against the wind and the thrust exerted by the snow, with a height of thirteen meters. The building has a stainless steel exterior with 55 sealed windows in triple glazed argon and krypton gas blades for thermal insulation. In order to free up sufficient space at

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1236-494: 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

1339-477: A route that all the guides believed to be impossible." Shipton also described Balmat as "boastful and conceited" and that "in character, he was both vain and mean. Success went to his head, and he soon began to amplify his part in the exploit." In 1975, Gaston Rébuffat praised Balmat's climbing abilities, describing him as "This man, robust, resolute, this crystal hunter who, as it turns out, possesses an extraordinary mountaineering sense, an unerring instinct for

1442-573: 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

1545-513: 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

1648-897: 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

1751-536: 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

1854-527: A warden and hotel service in summer, and was locked in winter. In 1989, the refuge of 1906 was dismantled and work had begun to construct an extension or annex on the site of the old 1906 hut, bringing the total capacity up to 120 climbers. In its place, in 1990, an annex of forty places was built to increase the capacity. However, because of the overcrowding of the shelter and the attractiveness of Mont Blanc, safety and hygiene standards became once again outdated very soon. The annex opened in 1991. For many years

1957-458: Is 60 kilometers to the west and Lyon nearly 180 kilometers. The border with Italy runs about 1.7 kilometers to the south, around the Dôme du Goûter (4,304 m), while the summit of Mont Blanc is less than 4 kilometers to the south-east. The foundations of the refuge rest on a base of gneiss , present between three and four meters deep. Around the refuge, the winds can blow at 300 kilometers per hour and

2060-437: 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

2163-745: 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

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2266-467: 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

2369-484: 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

2472-430: 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

2575-456: 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

2678-467: Is best accomplished in an upright position". Another source described it as "...a pock-marked metal shed sitting on shifting ice." By 2004 it was realised that further renovation of the old 1960s building and its 1990s annex was unfeasible, so the decision was made to construct an entirely new refuge a little higher up along the Aiguille du Goûter, and for it to be as eco-friendly as possible. Thus, in 2004,

2781-628: 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

2884-495: Is filtered and sterilized. Electricity is produced by 95 sqm of photovoltaic solar collectors placed on the roof and on the façade. The Goûter hut can in summer time be reached in about five hours by a hike and a scramble from the station of the Nid d'Aigle , terminus of the Tramway du Mont Blanc (TMB) at 2372m altitude. From there a path trodden by the multitude of aspiring climbers leads to

2987-495: 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

3090-404: 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

3193-659: Is located on the territory of the municipality of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and dominates the Bionnassay glacier, on the eastern slope of Val Montjoie in the Mont Blanc massif. It stands at an altitude of 3,835 meters on the snowy ridge of the Aiguille du Goûter (3,863 m), which separates the Val Montjoie from the main basin of the Arve Valley , with the towns of Les Houches and the alpinism and ski resort of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc . Annecy

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3296-462: 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

3399-775: 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

3502-562: 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 ,

3605-538: 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

3708-479: 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

3811-492: 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

3914-424: 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

4017-738: 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

4120-459: 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

4223-539: 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

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4326-548: The Dôme du Goûter and the Bosses Ridge, then another five hours to descend all the way back again to the Nid d'Aigle station. Booking the refuge (online) and confirming 3 days before arrival is mandatory for all climbers. The wardened main part of the hut is only opened in the summer season, normally from the last week of May to the end of September or the beginning of October. In 2017 from 20 May and in 2018 from 25 May, as declared by

4429-485: 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

4532-547: 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,

4635-638: The French Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs (FFCAM, formerly CAF) proposed a new type of structure. Two years later, the architects Christophe de Laage, Paul Parizet and Michelle Avanzini sketched a first series of plans; implementation remained, however, at a standstill for budgetary and technical reasons. New designers led by the Swiss Thomas Büchi, for the frame, and Hervé Dessimoz, for architecture and engineering (both also known for their design of The Globe of Science and Innovation ), reinforced

4738-820: 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

4841-609: 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

4944-951: 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

5047-465: The "voie royale" or "royal way", distinguishing from the former old normal route via the Grands Mulets Hut . The presence of a shelter at this location dates back to 1854, but the first refuge itself was built four or five years later. It was rebuilt in 1936 and expanded in 1960. At the same time, a second building was built next door in 1906 and rebuilt in 1990 as an annex. Finally, a new shelter with 120 places in its dormitories, at 200 m distance from

5150-455: 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;

5253-474: 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

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5356-405: The Arve Valley (then part of the independent Duchy of Savoy ) started exploring the possibilities. Already before the actual first successful ascent by Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard via the Glacier des Bossons in 1786, also an approach over the Aiguille du Goûter was considered for a possible gateway to the summit. As early as 1784, two years before the first ascent of Mont Blanc,

5459-510: 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

5562-614: 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,

5665-408: 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

5768-440: The Fédération Française des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne (FFCAM). Because of the meteorological conditions (higher temperatures), in 2015 the hut remained open until 15 October after the season in which it was closed twice "administratively", i.e. ordered by the authorities. As at 2019 the hut guardian is Mr. Antoine Rattin. During the season of 2018 the hut registered a record number of 11,258 booked overnightings. The website of

5871-416: 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

5974-414: The Goûter Hut's increasing popularity as the easiest staging post for an ascent of Mont Blanc led to it gaining "widespread notoriety" for being overcrowded, oppressive, outdated, extremely cold at night, unhygienic and only having two external toilets. Like many alpine refuges, human waste voided directly down the mountainside. It was also booked up many days in advance, and one source even stated that "sleep

6077-526: The North, and the last one towards the Aiguille de Bionnassay , towards the West. The website Mountain Forecast provides specific climber directed weather reports for several summits in the vicinity of the hut: Aiguille de Bionnassay , Dôme du Goûter and Mont-Blanc. 45°51′04″N 6°49′51″E  /  45.85122°N 6.83073°E  / 45.85122; 6.83073 French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

6180-406: The advent of the helicopter , the next stage of the Goûter Hut's development would be assisted by air power. As part of a five-year plan launched in 1957 for the reconstruction of the French refuges of the Mont-Blanc massif, it was decided to enlarge the refuge of 1936. This work was financed by the local municipalities, the department of Haute-Savoie, the French government and the CAF. This shelter

6283-481: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Jacques Balmat Jacques Balmat was born in 1762 in the Chamonix valley in Savoy , at this time part of the Kingdom of Sardinia . He was a hunter and collector of crystals . On 8 August 1786 Balmat completed the first ascent of Mont Blanc with physician Michel-Gabriel Paccard . For this feat, King Victor Amadeus III gave him

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6386-404: 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

6489-448: 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

6592-406: The edge of the Tête Rousse Glacier with its namesake refuge (3,167 m). From there the dangerous Grand Couloir has to be crossed, where the scramble on the ridge alongside the couloir begins. The refuge is mainly used by alpinist parties to climb Mont Blanc by its modern normal route on the French side . In good weather conditions it takes about five hours between the refuge and the summit, via

6695-489: 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

6798-406: 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

6901-439: 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 ,

7004-715: 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

7107-420: The honorary title du Mont Blanc . After the successful ascent, Balmat collected the reward offered 25 years before by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure to the first man who could climb Mont Blanc. Barely one year later on 3 August 1787 he assisted de Saussure himself to reach the summit with a party of about 17 people. During the Napoleonic Wars , Savoy fell under French control, and citizen Jacques Balmat became

7210-414: The hunters Jean-Marie Couttet and François Guidet suggested this location to build some kind of cabin to facilitate climbers, but it was not until 1854 that Dr. Charles Loiseau had a crude stone shed ( abri ) built for him to spend the night on 30 July 1854, prior to an ascent attempt. He was unsuccessful in this, having been thwarted by bad weather. The first proper mountain refuge on the Aiguille du Goûter

7313-472: The hut contains this warning text: Please note that going to the refuge is a real alpinism course. You must have the skills and technical equipment. To beware the rocks falling in the couloir du Goûter, it is recommended to reach it very early. In 2014, the municipality of Saint Gervais-les-Bains placed a sign alongside the approach route, with a warning text in French, German and English advising climbers to cancel or postpone their ascent of Mont Blanc. In 2015

7416-508: 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

7519-474: 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

7622-602: 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 ,

7725-475: 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

7828-529: The most popular means of climbing to the summit of Mont Blanc, known as the Goûter Route . It is the least difficult technically and therefore the one that concentrates at least an estimated 75% of the climbs. Each year, thousands of climbers attempt to summit on this route, sleeping overnight at the refuge and departing in the early morning for the final push. The building in its present state can accommodate up to 120 visitors. The hut has been rebuilt and expanded

7931-420: 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

8034-630: 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;

8137-511: The old hut, is conceived from 2010 and opens in June 2013. It benefits from many architectural and environmental innovations. Its somewhat futuristic shape is ovoid (threedimensional oval), is distinguished by its stainless steel coating, and has four levels. A reservation is required to stay at night. Since 1864 local guides, from the Compagnie des guides de Saint-Gervais-Les Contamines lead clients to

8240-528: 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

8343-481: The plans of architect Jaillet, of a new refuge. Amoudruz from Chamonix completed the project in September 1906. This new building remained very small, with 4.20 meters by 3.20 meters on the ground and a height of 1.80 meters, and could only accommodate seven people but, better built, it was less uncomfortable. In 1936, at the site of the 1858 hut, Georges Orset built a private shelter with a capacity of thirty places. This

8446-462: 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

8549-423: The project of the Swiss firm Groupe H in collaboration with the French firm Deca-Laage to find solutions that would meet the constraints of the site. The construction of the new refuge began on 5 July 2010. The opening took place on 28 June 2013, with a capacity of 120 places voluntarily reduced, instead of the 140 initially planned, to control the frequency of the normal way of Mont Blanc and for financial reasons. It

8652-422: The rear of the building to place a snow melter with eight 3000-liter tanks, one-third of its foundations are suspended overhanging above 700 meters of void and anchored by 69 metal piles. It is supplemented by 50 sqm of solar thermal collectors located in the slope below the shelter, whose energy can be stored in the form of hot brine in a 2000-liter buffer tank for the production of domestic hot water. Wastewater

8755-464: 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

8858-521: The summit of Mont Blanc via this itinerary, that also came known as the Goûter route . Since 1912 it is possible for climbers to make a substantial part of the approach march by rail, when the Tramway du Mont Blanc was extended to its present terminus Nid d'Aigle. After the Genevan scientist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in 1760 offered a reward to the first man to reach the summit of Mont Blanc, inhabitants from

8961-477: The temperature rarely exceeds 0 °C. It is accessible in about five hours on foot from the station of the Nid d'Aigle in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and from there allows mountaineers the second part of the ascent of Mont Blanc, depending on the conditions in five to seven additional hours by what in the 20th century became known as the modern normal route on the French side , or as the French call it

9064-462: 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

9167-673: 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

9270-508: 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

9373-479: 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

9476-531: 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

9579-402: 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

9682-417: 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

9785-577: Was bought in 1942 by the French Alpine Club (CAF) which refurbishes and improves it. However it turns out to be too small for the yearly increasing number of aspiring alpinists. at a height of 3,817 metres (12,523 ft) on the Aiguille du Goûter, close to the previous 1906 structure. It could now offer 30 beds to climbers, and in 1942 was purchased by the French Alpine Club (FFCAM). Up to this point, all materials to construct these high altitude mountain huts had been manually portered in. However, with

9888-505: Was built in 1858, capable of accommodating three or four people. This small hut was renovated in 1882, and was subsequently replaced by a completely new shelter in 1906. This hut opened on 4 September of that year and was capable of accommodating 10 people. It was managed by the St. Gervais Section of the French Alpine Club. The increasing use of the hut led to the construction, next to it, on

9991-502: Was designed by architect Lederlin and prefabricated. In 1960, work started to enlarge the Goûter Hut, increasing its capacity to 76 people. It would be a prefabricated structure, lined with wood. Construction work lasted three seasons, and the new refuge was finally opened in September 1962 by Maurice Herzog , High Commissioner for Youth and Sports. From 1962 to 1990, the Goûter Hut could still only officially accommodate 76 climbers. It had

10094-791: 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

10197-400: 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

10300-477: Was inaugurated on 6 September 2014 by the Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Ségolène Royal . The annex of the former hut, originally intended to be demolished or to become a scientific observatory. was finally preserved, with a capacity reduced to twenty places; it is converted into a winter and emergency fire shelter. The new Goûter refuge is built on four levels, with a floor area of 720 sqm and

10403-684: 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

10506-575: 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

10609-554: 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 ,

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