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93-567: The cathedral is the seat of the Diocese of Nice . The construction of the main part of the current cathedral's body started in 1650 and finished in 1685. Further construction continued after its consecration in 1699, with new structures and decorative elements added to the cathedral until 1949. The cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint Reparata . It has been classified as

186-499: A civitas near Nice, but in the province of Alpes Maritimae and indeed its largest town, is claimed to have had an episcopal see around 260, which may be the case, even though the early history of Christianity in Cimiez is probably fictitious. At any rate, the see was occupied in the mid-fifth century by St. Valerian, who was present at Church councils between 439 and 451. A rescript of Pope Leo I (440–461), issued after AD 450, joined

279-498: A national monument since 9 August 1906. The original cathedral on the site, called St Mary of the Castle, was consecrated in 1049. In 1060, relics belonging to Saint Reparata (for whom the current cathedral is named) arrived in Nice. By 1075, a chapel dedicated to St Reparata was constructed at the foot of the castle. During the latter half of the 12th century, the chapel became a priory of

372-720: 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

465-603: A bishop. It should be noted, however, that this united see (Nice and Cimiez) was a suffragan of that of Embrun up to the French Revolution . During his rise to power, Charlemagne had visited Rome in 754, and had been made Patrician of the Romans by Pope Adrian I . It is claimed that when Charlemagne happened to visit Cimiez (which had been devastated by the Lombards in 574), he caused one Bishop Syagrius of Nice to build on

558-431: 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,

651-543: 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

744-617: A native of Nice, to Bishop Raymond I and his successors. In 1388 Nice fell under the political control of the Counts of Savoy, and Nice became the seat of a Seneschal. The Count (then Duke, then King of Sardinia ) had the right to nominate a new bishop. On 29 March 1137 Innocent II issued a bull, Officii nostri , confirming the privileges of the Church of Nice, including the castrum quod vocatur Drapum , for Bishop Petrus. On 19 January 1183, Pope Lucius III wrote to Bishop Petrus, complaining about

837-688: 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

930-494: 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

1023-573: 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

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1116-513: 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

1209-897: 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

1302-536: 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

1395-437: 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

1488-745: 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

1581-467: 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

1674-484: 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

1767-430: 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

1860-456: 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

1953-628: 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

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2046-495: 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

2139-404: 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

2232-462: 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

2325-775: 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

2418-562: 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 ,

2511-538: 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

2604-479: 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

2697-492: 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

2790-424: 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

2883-738: 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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2976-459: 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

3069-539: 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

3162-485: 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

3255-547: 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,

3348-820: 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

3441-609: 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

3534-951: 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

3627-504: The bishop . Louis Duchesne, however, pointed out that Nice was not a city ( civitas ) and did not have its own municipal administration. It was governed from the city of Marseille by a civic functionary called an episcopus ('overseer'). In 314, this situation still obtained, and the delegates sent to the Council of Nicaea are described as coming from the portus of Nice, not the civitas . It might be presumed, therefore, that they represented

3720-727: The choir . The interior, also Baroque, includes ten chapels. The chapels are dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows , the Crucifixion , Saint Rose of Lima , Saints Alexander and Bartholomew, the Holy Sacrament , Saint Rosalia and the Virgin, Saint Joseph , Saint Reparata, the Four Crowned Martyrs , and Saint John the Baptist . Until the end of the 17th century, each of the chapels

3813-513: The ruins the monastery of Saint Pontius of Cimiez . This claim presents major difficulties. There is only one source that mentions Syagrius, the Life written in the early seventeenth century by the hagiographer Vincenzo Barrali Salerna (fl. 1577-1613), a monk of Lerins , who states that Syagrius was Charlemagne's own nepos (paternal nephew), the Count of Brie; he found a place where the body of Saint Pons

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3906-502: 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;

3999-798: 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

4092-408: The Abbey of Saint-Pons. 1246 marked the official establishment of the priory as a parish church. The first church on the site was built in the early 13th century on land belonging to the Abbey of St Pons and became a parish church in 1246. Population growth led to extensions being built onto the church between 1455 and 1468. During the first half of the 16th century, a series of acts gradually effected

4185-407: The Abbot of Boscaud, to convince the bishop to purge himself of his offense, and then restore him to office. In 1691 Nice was seized by Louis XIV , though it was restored to Savoy in 1696. It was seized again by the Duke of Berwick in 1705, and restored to Savoy by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It was attacked by the French again in 1744, and in 1792; it was united to France in 1793 and became

4278-510: 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

4371-614: 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,

4464-408: 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

4557-400: The Genoese style, over the crossing . The building is in the Baroque architectural tradition. A number of alterations have taken place since the initial construction. A campanile , which partially obscures the cupola, was built between 1731 and 1757. Between 1825 and 1830, a Baroque revival facade replaced the original west front. Between 1900 and 1903, an apse was added on either side of

4650-416: 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

4743-421: The architect Jean-André Guibert to produce a structure more in keeping with the importance of the city. The construction of a new cathedral (the current main building) took place between 1650 and 1865. In 1699, the new cathedral was officially consecrated while additional construction continued. The prominent bell tower was built next to it between 1731 and 1757. The year 1900 marked the most recent addition to

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4836-545: The brother of Charlemagne, Carloman, who was born in 751, making it most unlikely that his son Syagrius was made a bishop only twenty-six years later. Charlemagne's presence in Nice was motivated (Barrali Salerna says) by a desire to convert pagans in the area, during which he defeated the King of Chimaera (Chimeriensis). However, in reality there were no kings in the area, and most of the local people were Christians, as they had been for centuries. The claim that Charlemagne named Syagrius and his monastery Count of Cimiez, contradicts

4929-404: The capital of the new Department of Alpes Maritimes . The diocese was re-established by the Concordat of 1801 as a suffragan of Aix-en-Provence . While the Countship of Nice from 1818 to 1860 was politically part of the Sardinian States , the see became a suffragan of Genoa . When Nice was annexed to France in 1860, certain outlying districts which remained Italian were separated from

5022-404: The cathedral, with the construction of new side chapels that replaced the former heavy baroque ornamentation. The cathedral was declared a minor basilica on 27 May 1949. Originally rectangular and oriented to the North, the cathedral was rebuilt on the model of Santa Susanna in Rome , i.e. on a Latin cross ground plan oriented to the east, with a cupola , clad in coloured tiles varnished in

5115-403: The chief civic administrator, the episcopus from Marseille. Hence in Duchesne's view, there was not yet an ecclesiastical superior in Nice called an episcopus . The first Bishop of Nice known by name is Amantius, who attended in person the Council of Aquileia in 381 , as did also the bishop of Marseilles. Duchesne considers Amantius the first known bishop, rather than Bassus. Cimiez ,

5208-403: The dead by Christ himself). St. Bassus , a martyr under Emperor Decius (249–251), is believed by some to have been the first Bishop of Nice. There is some evidence of an organized see of Nice existing in the year 314 A.D. in Roman Gallia Narbonensis , since the deacon Innocent and the exorcist Agapitus, clerics from Nice, attended the Council of Arles that year, possibly as delegates of

5301-412: The degraded state of spiritual life in the monastery of S. Pons in Nice, and authorizing the bishop to take measures to repair the situation. Despite an agreement between the bishop and the monks in 1184, the latter remained unrepentant, and were excommunicated. They complained to Pope Lucius, who sent another letter on 31 March 1185, rebuking them and supporting the bishop. In 1207 another scandal struck

5394-404: 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

5487-562: The diocese and added to the Diocese of Ventimiglia . In 1862 the diocese again became a suffragan of Aix-en-Provence . The arrondissement of Grasse was separated from the Diocese of Fréjus in 1886, and given to Nice, which thereafter united the three former dioceses of Nice, Grasse and Vence . 43°42′53″N 7°15′26″E  /  43.71472°N 7.25722°E  / 43.71472; 7.25722 French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

5580-466: The diocese of Nice. Bishop Joannes was embroiled in another conflict with some religious of the diocese, and had concluded that certain documents presented by the religious were forged. They complained to Pope Innocent III , who issued a mandate to the Bishop of Glandèves and the Bishop of Sénez, to investigate the documents in question and the truth of the contents, so that the Pope would know how to proceed. Before that could happen, Bishop Joannes inspected

5673-419: The documents again and concluded that he had been wrong in the first place; he immediately approached Pietro di Castronovo, the Apostolic legate, and explained why he had made his mistake. But it was still a false charge of forgery. Canon law on falsifications, however, was clear and precise, and the bishop went directly to the Pope, who suspended him from office and appointed commissioners, Bishop Hugh of Riez and

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5766-448: 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

5859-489: 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

5952-453: The fact that neither counts nor counties existed at that period. Nor was there ever a city of Chimaera, and the invention of its name seems to have been an erudite witticism, playing on mythological stories of fire-breathing monsters . It is highly unlikely that a Syagrius was bishop of Nice. The Bishops of Nice bore the title of Counts of Drap , since the donation of property situated at Drap made in 1073 by Pierre, Bishop of Vaison ,

6045-406: 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

6138-439: 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 ,

6231-715: 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

6324-401: 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

6417-424: 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

6510-501: 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 ,

6603-428: 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

6696-478: 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

6789-574: 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;

6882-528: 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

6975-462: 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

7068-464: 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

7161-462: 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

7254-711: The transept, and the third is in the choir rehearsal room. Diocese of Nice The Diocese of Nice ( Latin : Dioecesis Nicensis ; French : Diocèse de Nice ) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the Department of Alpes-Maritimes . The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Marseille . According to local tradition, Nice was evangelized by St. Barnabas , who had been sent by St. Paul , or else by St. Mary Magdalen , St. Martha , and St. Lazarus (who had been raised from

7347-438: The transfer of the seat of the bishops of Nice from Cimiez Cathedral , which sits on the hill of the castle overlooking the city, to the church of St Reparata in 1590. After an official ceremony presided over by the bishop Luigi Pallavicini, and in the presence of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy , the church was recognized as a chiesa-cattedrale . In 1649, judging the building to be too small, Bishop Didier Palletis commissioned

7440-644: The two dioceses of Nice and Cimiez into one. This union was later reversed by Pope Hilarius , but in 465 he reunited them at the demand of Bishop Ingenuus of Embrun, the Metropolitan of the Alpes Maritimae, who was quarreling with Bishop Auxanius. in this later document Pope Hilarius' letter terms Cimiez a civitas and Nice a castellum and this episode has been interpreted as an attempt by Bishop Auxanius, who would have been Bishop of Marseille, to assert his see's control over Nice, for which he had consecrated

7533-673: 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

7626-508: 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

7719-479: 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

7812-531: 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

7905-402: 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

7998-417: 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

8091-437: Was being venerated, and got Charlemagne to build a monastery thanks to his repeated requests. Pope Adrian, in 777, his fifth year as pope, is said to have called Syagrius from his monastery and made him the first Bishop of Nice, an office he is said to have held for the last ten years of his life. By this account, Syagrius died on 23 May 787 and was buried in the abbey where he had been the first abbot. The problems begin with

8184-447: Was connected to a different guild, each of which bore the responsibility and expense of maintaining them. The high altar is surmounted by a picture of the Glory of Saint Reparata , the virgin martyr to whom the cathedral is dedicated and whose relics have been enshrined here since 1690. The cathedral contains three organs: one is on a tribune above the narthex , another is in the north arm of

8277-791: 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

8370-447: 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

8463-684: 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

8556-575: 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

8649-554: 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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