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108-552: The Ottawa River ( French : Rivière des Outaouais , Algonquin : Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec . It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border between these two provinces. It is a major tributary of the St. Lawrence River and

216-562: A de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and

324-720: 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

432-511: A capacity of 96 MW; and Hydro-Québec operates generators 6, 7, 8, and 9 with a capacity of 89 MW. Numerous non-contiguous areas of the Ottawa River and its shores are protected in a variety of provincial parks, conservation areas, and municipal parks. In Quebec, there are 3 national parks directly along the Ottawa River ( Oka National Park , Plaisance National Park , and Opémican National Park ), as well as one major nature reserve through which

540-431: 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,

648-563: A different wetland type, peat bog. Examples include Mer Bleue and Alfred Bog. Major tributaries include: Communities along the Ottawa River include (in down-stream order): The Ottawa River lies in the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben , which is a Mesozoic rift valley that formed 175 million years ago. Much of the river flows through the Canadian Shield, although lower areas flow through limestone plains and glacial deposits. As

756-543: 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

864-476: A material commonly known as Leda clay also formed. These deposits become highly unstable after heavy rains. Numerous landslides have occurred as a result. The former site of the town of Lemieux, Ontario collapsed into the South Nation River in 1993. The town's residents had previously been relocated because of the suspected instability of the earth in that location. As the land gradually rose again

972-639: 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

1080-427: A permanent deficit of hemlock in most forests. Associated with the logging and early settlement were vast wild fires which not only removed the forests, but led to soil erosion. Consequently, nearly all the forests show varying degrees of human disturbance. Tracts of older forest are uncommon, and hence they are considered of considerable importance for conservation. The Ottawa River has large areas of wetlands. Some of

1188-494: 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

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1296-650: A result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,

1404-571: A thoroughfare for exploration and trade. These depressions now contain the Ottawa River and its tributary the Mattawa, which rises at Trout Lake near Lake Nipissing. The latter is the source of the French River , which drains into Lake Huron . This water route, with few portages , connected Lake Huron and the Saint Lawrence River by a much shorter route than through the lower Great Lakes. It

1512-536: 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

1620-453: A working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As

1728-437: 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

1836-467: 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

1944-484: 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

2052-628: 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

2160-549: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English

2268-656: Is in the Township of Whitewater Region , Ontario, protecting a series of pristine islands and a small undeveloped section of shoreline along the Ontario side of the Ottawa River. This section of the Ottawa River is known for its whitewater , and is used by a number of commercial rafting companies and many recreational kayakers and canoeists. The park is a non-operating park, meaning that there are no services and facilities for visitors. The park can be used for backcountry camping, whitewater canoeing, swimming, hunting, and fishing. Some of

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2376-404: 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

2484-462: 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

2592-775: 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

2700-464: Is swamp, mostly silver maple. There are four herbaceous vegetation types, named for the dominant plant species in them: Scirpus , Eleocharis , Sparganium and Typha . Which type occurs in a particular location depends upon factors such as substrate type, water depth, ice-scour and fertility. Inland, and mostly south of the river, older river channels, which date back to the end of the ice age, and no longer have flowing water, have sometimes filled with

2808-618: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,

2916-538: 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

3024-479: 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

3132-492: 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

3240-424: 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

3348-681: Is unknown but they are either early Cambrian and late Precambrian . This volcanism was probably coeval with the emplacement of the Grenville dike swarm . Minor but significant igneous activity occurred during the Mesozoic era, including kimberlite emplacement during the Jurassic period, and the development of alkalic intrusions along the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben and elsewhere in Ontario. This second episode of alkalic volcanism occurred along

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3456-738: 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

3564-587: The Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to

3672-794: The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Trans-Canada Highway . After the arrival of European settlers in North America, the Mattawa River was an important transportation corridor for native peoples of the region and formed part of the water route leading west to Lake Superior in the days of the fur trade . Canoes travelling north up the Ottawa turned left to enter the Mattawa, reaching Lake Nipissing by way of "La Vase Portage", an 11 km (7 mi) stretch of water and portages . In

3780-600: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of

3888-509: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only a second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and

3996-530: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains

4104-547: 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,

4212-578: The French River which later became a link in the historic canoe route to the West. As it does to this day, the river played a vital role in life of the Algonquin people , who lived throughout its watershed at contact. The river is called Kichisìpi , meaning "Great River" in Anicinàbemowin , the Algonquin language. The Algonquin define themselves in terms of their position on the river, referring to themselves as

4320-399: The French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as

4428-820: 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

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4536-708: The Lake of Two Mountains and the St. Lawrence River at Montreal . The river is 1,271 km (790 mi) long; it drains an area of 146,300 km (56,500 sq mi), 65 per cent in Quebec and the rest in Ontario, with a mean discharge of 1,950 m/s (69,000 cu ft/s). It has a maximum depth of 90 m (300 ft) at the Carillon Reservoir and is 7,400 m (24,300 ft) wide at its widest part. The average annual mean waterflow measured at Carillon dam , near

4644-747: The Montreal River valley. This latter branch is the Timiskaming Graben . At the rifts' western termini, the main faults split into divergent smaller faults. The graben has been interpreted as a Late Proterozoic to Early Paleozoic failed arm of the Iapetus Ocean , the precursor to the Atlantic Ocean. The main Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben is associated with collapse of the regional carbonate platform and formation of deep water shale basins by ~452  mya (million years ago); similar events formed

4752-609: 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

4860-575: The Rapide de la Veillée , the Trou , the Rapide des Deux Rivières , and the Rapide de la Roche Capitaine . (These rapids are now submerged under the reservoir of Holden Lake.) In 1800, explorer Daniel Harmon reported 14 crosses marking the deaths of voyageurs who had drowned in the dangerous waters along this section of the Ottawa. The main trading posts along the river were: Lachine , Fort Coulonge , Lac des Allumettes , Mattawa House , where west-bound canoes left

4968-519: The Saint Lawrence River valley and links the Ottawa and Saguenay Graben . The 200 km (124 mi) segment of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben west of Ottawa was the first to be recognized as a graben . Since then, it has been traced west to Lake Nipissing, and northwestwards from the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers up the valley of the latter stream to Lake Timiskaming and

5076-735: 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

5184-436: The glacial ice sheet began to retreat at the end of the last ice age , the Ottawa River valley, which, along with the St. Lawrence River valley and Lake Champlain , had been depressed to below sea level by the glacier's weight, filled with sea water. The resulting arm of the ocean is known as the Champlain Sea . Fossil remains of marine life dating 12 to 10 thousand years ago have been found in marine clay throughout

5292-455: 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;

5400-474: 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

5508-510: 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

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5616-614: 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,

5724-436: The Eardley Escarpment, makes this part of the graben an attractive location for rock climbers and hikers , offering a beautiful view of the relatively flat fields below, which extend to the Ottawa River. On or near a branch of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben lies the Brent impact crater . It is 3.8 km (2.4 mi) in diameter and the age is estimated about 400 million years (Early Devonian ). The impact crater , which

5832-408: 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

5940-416: 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

6048-410: The Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as

6156-606: The Kinouncherpirini or Keinouch, ever inhabited the Ottawa Valley . In 1615, Samuel de Champlain and Étienne Brûlé , assisted by Algonquin guides, were the first Europeans to travel up the Ottawa River and follow the water route west along the Mattawa and French Rivers to the Great Lakes. See Canadian Canoe Routes (early) . For the following two centuries, this route was used by French fur traders , voyageurs and coureurs des bois to Canada's interior. The river posed serious hazards to these travellers. The section near Deux Rivières used to have spectacular and wild rapids, namely

6264-451: The Lake of Two Mountains, is 1,939 m/s (68,500 cu ft/s), with average annual extremes of 749 to 5,351 m/s (26,500 to 189,000 cu ft/s). Record historic levels since 1964 are a low of 467 m/s (16,500 cu ft/s) in 2010 and a high of 9,094 m/s (321,200 cu ft/s) in 2017. The river flows through large areas of deciduous and coniferous forest formed over thousands of years as trees recolonized

6372-441: The Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to

6480-402: The OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and

6588-416: The Omàmiwinini, 'down-river people'. Although a majority of the Algonquin First Nation lives in Quebec, the entire Ottawa Valley is Algonquin traditional territory. Present settlement is a result of adaptations made as a result of settler pressures. Some early European explorers, possibly considering the Ottawa River to be more significant than the Upper St. Lawrence River, applied the name River Canada to

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6696-432: The Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence River below the confluence at Montreal. As the extent of the Great Lakes became clear and the river began to be regarded as a tributary, it was variously known as the Grand River , "Great River" or Grand River of the Algonquins before the present name was settled upon. This name change resulted from the Ottawa peoples ' control of the river circa 1685. However, only one band of Ottawa,

6804-697: The Ottawa Valley after the ice age. Generally, the coniferous forests and blueberry bogs occur on old sand plains left by retreating glaciers, or in wetter areas with clay substrate. The deciduous forests, dominated by birch, maple, beech, oak and ash occur in more mesic areas with better soil, generally around the boundary with the La Varendrye Park. These primeval forests were occasionally affected by natural fire, mostly started by lightning, which led to increased reproduction by pine and oak, as well as fire barrens and their associated species. The vast areas of pine were exploited by early loggers. Later generations of logging removed hemlock for use in tanning leather, leaving

6912-408: The Temiskaming Graben ~449–451 mya. These grabens were reactivated during the breakup of supercontinent Pangaea some 150 mya. Since the Late Proterozoic to Early Paleozoic, erosion has removed the volcanic peaks, exposing a number of relic volcanic pipes , such as Callander Bay and the Manitou Islands in Lake Nipissing. These features are subterranean geological structures formed by

7020-447: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben The Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben measures about 700 km (435 mi), running from the Montreal area on the east to near Sudbury and Lake Nipissing on the west. On the east, it joins the Saint Lawrence rift system , a half-graben which extends more than 1000 km along

7128-404: 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

7236-422: The eastern part of the graben in the early Cretaceous . The products of this event are the Monteregian Hills in Montérégie , Quebec. These are thought to have formed as a result of the North American plate sliding westward over a long-lived center of upwelling magma called the New England hotspot , and is the eroded remnants of intrusive stocks. These intrusive stocks have been variously interpreted as

7344-448: 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

7452-489: 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

7560-441: The feeder intrusions of long extinct volcanoes , which would have been active about 125 million years ago, or as intrusives that never breached the surface in volcanic activity. Of all these features, Mont Saint-Hilaire is the best known as a source of rare specimens. Along the northern side of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben lies a dramatic escarpment that forms the southern edge of the Gatineau Hills . This escarpment, called

7668-406: 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

7776-858: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,

7884-818: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being

7992-400: The islands included in the park are Big, Butternut, Cedar, Hazelton, and Lorne Islands, in addition to many unnamed islands. They consists of marble bedrock or low-lying alluvial sands and silts. A total of sixteen regionally significant plant species, such as little bluestem ( Andropogon scoparius ), cordgrass ( Spartina pectinata ) and Indiangrass ( Sorghastrum nutans ) have been found in

8100-508: 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

8208-474: 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

8316-602: 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 ,

8424-475: 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

8532-565: The longest river in Quebec. The river rises at Lac des Outaouais, north of the Laurentian Mountains of central Quebec, and flows west to Lake Timiskaming . From there its route has been used to define the interprovincial border with Ontario. From Lake Timiskaming, the river flows southeast to Ottawa and Gatineau , where it tumbles over Chaudière Falls and further takes in the Rideau and Gatineau rivers. The Ottawa River drains into

8640-463: The many associated rare plants. Shirleys Bay has a biologically diverse shoreline alvar, as well as one of the largest silver maple swamps along the river. Like all wetlands, these depend upon the seasonal fluctuations in the water level. High water levels help create and maintain silver maple swamps, while low water periods allow many rare wetland plants to grow on the emerged sand and clay flats. There are five principal wetland vegetation types. One

8748-525: The more biologically important wetland areas include (going downstream from Pembroke), the Westmeath sand dune/wetland complex, Mississippi Snye, Breckenridge Nature Reserve, Shirleys Bay, Ottawa Beach/Andrew Haydon Park, Petrie Island, the Duck Islands and Greens Creek. The Westmeath sand dune/wetland complex is significant for its relatively pristine sand dunes, few of which remain along the Ottawa River, and

8856-420: 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

8964-528: 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

9072-576: The park, as well as the nationally significant lake cress ( Rorippa aquatica ). French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance ,

9180-462: 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

9288-442: The region. Sand deposits from this era have produced vast plains, often dominated by pine forests, as well as localized areas of sand dunes, such as Westmeath and Constance Bay. Clay deposits from this period have resulted in areas of poor drainage, large swamps, and peat bogs in some ancient channels of this river. Hence, the distribution of forests and wetlands is very much a product of these past glacial events. Large deposits of

9396-464: 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

9504-466: The river and Fort Témiscamingue . From Lake Timiskaming a portage led north to the Abitibi River and James Bay. In the early 19th century, the Ottawa River and its tributaries were used to gain access to large virgin forests of white pine . A booming trade in timber developed, and large rafts of logs were floated down the river. A scattering of small subsistence farming communities developed along

9612-535: The river runs ( La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve ). Several ZECs ( zone d'exploitation contrôlée ) also line the Ottawa River. Ontario has 7 provincial parks along the banks of the Ottawa River: Voyageur Provincial Park , Fitzroy Provincial Park , Ottawa River Provincial Park, Westmeath Provincial Park , Petawawa Terrace Provincial Park , Driftwood Provincial Park , and Alexander Lake Forest Provincial Park ). The Ottawa River Provincial Park

9720-442: The river. In 1950, the dam at Rapides-des-Joachims was built, forming Holden Lake behind it and thereby submerging the rapids and portages at Deux Rivières. These hydro dams have had negative effects upon shoreline and wetland ecosystems, and are thought to also be responsible for the near extermination of American eels , which were once an abundant species in the river, but which are now uncommon. As an economic route, its importance

9828-527: The sea coast retreated and the fresh water courses of today took shape. Following the demise of the Champlain Sea the Ottawa River Valley continued to drain the waters of the emerging Upper Great Lakes basin through Lake Nipissing and the Mattawa River . Owing to the ongoing uplift of the land, the eastward flow became blocked around 4000 years ago. Thereafter Lake Nipissing drained westward, through

9936-717: The shores of the river to provide manpower for the lumber camps in winter. In 1832, following the War of 1812 , the Ottawa River gained strategic importance when the Carillon Canal was completed. Together with the Rideau Canal , the Carillon Canal was constructed to provide an alternate military supply route to Kingston and Lake Ontario , bypassing the route along the Saint Lawrence River . A pulp and paper mill (at Témiscaming ) and several hydroelectric dams have been constructed on

10044-520: The similar Pingualuit crater , the Brent crater is attributed to the high speed impact of a giant meteorite . It is calculated that the impact released energy equaling 250 megatons of TNT and occurred when this area was probably covered by a shallow sea. The depressions formed by the graben across the rugged Canadian Shield were a spillway for the Great Lakes after the last ice age . Later they became

10152-462: 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

10260-673: 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

10368-508: 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

10476-479: 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

10584-684: The violent, supersonic eruption of deep-origin volcanoes . Batholiths and dikes were also exposed by erosion, such as the Timber Lake, Mulock, West Arm, Powassan and Bonfield batholiths. The expressions of a thick pile of dominantly mafic , bimodal volcanics and the Tibbit Hill volcanics in the Humber Zone of the Quebec Appalachians are believed to be related to the formation of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben. The precise age of these volcanics

10692-531: 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

10800-402: 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

10908-791: 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

11016-628: Was eclipsed by railroad and highways in the 20th century. It is no longer used for log driving, however, it is still extensively used for recreational boating. Some 20,000 pleasure boaters visit the Carillon Canal annually. Today, Outaouais Herald Emeritus at the Canadian Heraldic Authority is named after the river. Hydroelectric installations on the Upper Ottawa (in downstream order): Lower Ottawa (in downstream order): * Ontario Power Generation operates generators 2, 3, 4, and 5 with

11124-484: Was first recognized in 1951 from aerial photographs, formed in Precambrian gneisses . Geophysical and diamond drilling investigations show that the crater has a present depth of about 425 m (1,390 ft) but is partly filled with sedimentary rocks with a thickness of about 274 m (899 ft). The rocks beneath the crater floor are thoroughly fragmented over a depth of about 610 m (2,000 ft). Like

11232-400: 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

11340-684: 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

11448-575: 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

11556-554: 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 ,

11664-521: Was the mainline of the French-Canadian voyageurs engaged in the fur trade ; they took canoes on the waterways along this route from Montreal to the upper Great Lakes and the pays d'en haut —the "upper country" in the old Northwest. The valley of the Ottawa and Montreal Rivers and Lake Timiskaming was also part of a branch route to James Bay in the days of the fur brigades. The valleys are now used by more modern forms of transportation, including

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