112-465: Saint-Gilles Prison ( French : Prison de Saint-Gilles ; Dutch : Gevangenis van Sint-Gillis ) is a prison in Brussels , Belgium, that opened in 1884. It is located on the borders of the municipalities of Saint-Gilles , Ixelles and Forest , next to Forest Prison [ fr ; nl ] and Berkendael Prison [ fr ; nl ] . Representative of the cellular system established during
224-720: 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
336-431: 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,
448-529: A detachment of General Georg von der Marwitz . Tired of waiting for the start of the British offensive, Foch dispatched the cavalry corps of commander Conneau to Lille. On the stroke of noon on 12 October, Lille heard the gunfire coming closer. The corps of Conneau engaged in a famous battle, but did not persist, believing that Lille had succumbed. Surrounding the city, the Germans had between 50,000 and 80,000 men, facing
560-543: 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
672-530: A large number of opponents of the German Nazi regime were imprisoned at Saint-Gilles Prison, either at the disposal of the German police , or to serve a sentence, or prior to their deportation to Germany , most often to Buchenwald . An infirmary was set up in the prison during the war, allowing prisoners from Fort Breendonk to be treated there. As Brussels was being liberated in early September 1944, an attempt by
784-527: A motley band of 2,795 men composed of chasseurs, goumiers and especially territorials, armed with a battery of artillery, with three 75mm guns and little ammunition. Louise and Germaine lived together at 166 rue d'Isly. From 4 to 13 October 1914, by turning the only cannon that the Lille troops had, the defenders succeeded in deceiving the enemy and holding them for several days under an intense battle that destroyed more than 2,200 buildings and houses, particularly in
896-688: 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
1008-470: A petticoat. Once at her destination, she ironed the petticoat to make the messages visible and cut them apart for delivery. Impressed by her cleverness and her language skills, officers of both the French and English intelligence agencies tried to recruit her. She decided to work for the British, who gave her the pseudonym Alice Dubois and helped her set up an intelligence network of some one hundred people. The Alice Network provided important information to
1120-494: 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
1232-537: A remand centre in 2016, there have been 896 male inmates for 579 places, representing an average prison overcrowding rate of 48%. This situation persists and is the cause of numerous staff strikes, the main effect of which is to further deteriorate detention conditions. Since 2020 and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium , the situation has become even more tense. The application of measures such as social distancing
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#17328561926801344-573: 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
1456-513: 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
1568-897: 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
1680-558: A secondary education in Valenciennes with the Sisters of the Sacred Heart . According to her cousin, André Mabille de Poncheville [ fr ] , She was six years older than me. I saw her most often at Valenciennes, at the house of our common grandmother, [...] Louise was blonde, frail in appearance, with a mobile face and piercing eyes that seemed to dart in all directions ... It
1792-487: A secret visit to the front at Lille. During the approach to Lille, two British aircraft bombed the train and emerged, but missed their target. The German command did not understand the unique situation of these forty kilometers of "cursed" front (held by the British) out of nearly seven hundred miles of front. One of her last messages announced the preparation of a massive German attack on Verdun in early 1916. The information
1904-536: 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
2016-437: 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
2128-745: 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
2240-467: 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
2352-484: 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
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#17328561926802464-430: 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
2576-456: 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
2688-628: 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
2800-495: 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
2912-399: Is impossible in an overcrowded prison: 903 inmates for 850 places on 24 November 2021, bearing in mind that this increase in capacity has only been achieved by putting cells designed for a single inmate into "duos" or "trios". This has led to the emergence of multiple " clusters " of infection, prompting the mayor of Saint-Gilles, Charles Picqué , to issue an order prohibiting new entries. On
3024-512: Is in breach of Belgium's international and European commitments on prison conditions. At the end of the proceedings, the court ordered the Belgian State to reduce the number of inmates at Saint-Gilles Prison to the facility's official capacity. If it fails to do so, the Belgian State is also liable to the payment of penalties, the amount of which increases in the event of non-compliance by the State with
3136-404: 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
3248-462: 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
3360-775: 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
3472-524: Is supposed to have met Rupprecht of Bavaria during her trip in 1915. It was there that she was offered the position of tutor of the children of Ferdinand Joseph, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. She declined the offer and returned to France. Back in Lille in early 1914, where she was operated on for appendicitis , she went to her brother's home in Bully-les-Mines . At the outbreak of
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3584-562: 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 ,
3696-538: 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
3808-479: 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
3920-492: 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
4032-424: 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
4144-598: Is true that the days when I saw her, when she was about twelve, were her holidays. She was a boarder with her sister, Germaine, at the Convent of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts, where the good nuns fed that lively child opinions that were similar to those of her grandmother. However, she worked so as to give them satisfaction. According to Laure Marie Mabille de Poncheville, ... I still have vivid memories of my cousin from
4256-738: 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
4368-459: 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
4480-539: 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
4592-485: 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
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4704-547: 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,
4816-820: 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
4928-530: The Musée royal de Mariemont . In 1818, Maximilen Joseph de Bettignies, advocate to the council of Tournai, General Counsel and magistrate, opened a depot at rue du Wacq in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, which he gave to his son Maximilian. On 31 July 1818 M.J. de Bettignies filed a patent No. 521 on the paste with which to make large vases of bone china (Brev. d'inv., volume XVI, p. 276). Tariffs were high, and
5040-609: 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
5152-951: 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
5264-682: The Ursulines at Upton , Essex , and then with the Ursulines at Wimbledon and Oxford . After the death of her father in 1903, she returned to Lille, where she graduated in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lille in 1906. After her studies, she had a perfect mastery of English and a good knowledge of German and Italian. She worked as a tutor in Pierrefonds, Oise , and went to Milan , Italy , to
5376-400: The bus stop Prison / Gevangenis (on line 54). In terms of detention conditions, Saint-Gilles Prison is marked by chronic overcrowding. Despite slight improvements, reports from the European Committee point to an overcrowding rate that still hovers around 50%. In 2017, the annual report of the General Directorate of Penitentiaries reported that, since the prison took over its function as
5488-417: The judicial arrondissement of Brussels. After it proved insufficient to fulfil this dual function, the new Forest Prison [ fr ; nl ] located next door took on the role of remand prison in 1909. During World War I , with the exception of the territory behind the Yser river, Belgium was under German occupation . The Germans incarcerated at Saint-Gilles Prison those awaiting trial before
5600-499: The occupation , was detained there from 1948 to 1951. The following is a list of notable persons incarcerated at Saint-Gilles Prison during the Second World War: In the 1980s, Jean Bultot [ nl ] , who was named in the Nijvel Gang case, was deputy director of Saint-Gilles Prison. In the decades that followed, many tensions arose at the prison, including due to overcrowding and staff shortages, leading to prisoner uprisings (such as in 1987 and 2009) and staff strikes. Since
5712-455: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
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#17328561926805824-405: The 1990s, the prison has been overcrowded, with about eight hundred inmates (mainly pre-trial detainees). On 3 May 1993, the gangsters Murat, Lacroix and Bajrami escaped from the prison. They took then-inspector-general Harry Van Oers hostage, forced him onto the bonnet of their getaway car and drove out of the prison gate. As of 2023, Saint-Gilles Prison is scheduled to close. Three cell wings in
5936-449: The 19th century, Saint-Gilles Prison was for a long time emblematic of overcrowding in Belgian prisons. Its infrastructure being in very poor condition, it is scheduled to close at the end of 2024, when it will be replaced by Haren Prison . During the period of the establishment of the Kingdom of Belgium in 1830, the country's prisons were made up a motley collection of buildings that were not destined to become places of confinement. This
6048-474: 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
6160-414: The Belgian judicial front, the main conviction stems from a judgment of the Brussels Tribunal of First Instance on 9 January 2019. The case was brought by the French- and German-speaking Bar Associations. The latter accused the Belgian State of serious failings regarding detention conditions at Saint-Gilles Prison. The judgement highlighted the problem of increasing prison overcrowding at the facility, which
6272-400: The Belgian-French engineer and sculptor Francois-Jacques Derre [ nl ] between 1878 and 1884. It is representative of the cellular system established during the 19th century. Originally a remand and sentencing prison, it housed people (men and women separately) placed under arrest warrant as preventive detention , as well as those sentenced to police or correctional sentences for
6384-595: The British by way of occupied Belgium and the Netherlands. It is estimated that the network saved the lives of more than a thousand British soldiers during its 9 months of full operation from January to September 1915. The network, which operated within forty kilometers of the front to the west and east of Lille, was so effective that she was nicknamed by her English superiors "the queen of spies." Starting in spring 1915, de Bettignies worked closely with Marie Léonie Vanhoutte , alias Charlotte Lameron. De Bettignies smuggled men to England, provided valuable information to
6496-510: 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
6608-614: 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,
6720-419: The Citadel. This initiative provoked the wrath of Charles Delesalle , the mayor, and of advocates of non-defense. Faced with this, Pervin retreated. Behind the back of the prefect, the supporters of non-defense created new initiatives to disarm the city. On August 24, the Staff evacuated Lille. During this turbulent period, the government yielded to fear. The prefect Felix Trepont was ordered to retreat with
6832-409: The Council, the position of governor of Lille. He had exceeded his rights, as the decommissioning should have been enacted by law. Lille was then declared an " open city " (its fortifications were decommissioned in 1910) and the staff was evacuated on 24 August. On 22 August, after German patrols were seen in the vicinity of Lille, General Percin installed a 75 mm gun in front of each drawbridge of
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#17328561926806944-408: 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
7056-524: The German Council of War in Brussels. Individuals who were "part of clandestine networks, others who had publicly protested against the abuses of the occupying forces, or those who had attempted to cross the Dutch border" were systematically sentenced to imprisonment. Some were transferred to Germany to serve their sentences. Several testimonies report violent treatment in the Brussels prison environment during this period, including cases of physical brutality, death threats and other acts of intimidation. Among
7168-416: 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
7280-415: The Germans entered the city, then departed after extorting ransom. They returned several times. On 4 October, a detachment of Wahnschaffe stumbled on a battalion of Chasseurs on foot, resting in the city. Taken aback, they retreated, burning some houses in the suburb of Fives. Lille was invaded by a crowd of refugees. Until October 9, there was confusion in both prefecture and in the city. On October 9,
7392-509: The Germans to deport 1,600 political prisoners and Allied prisoners of war from Saint-Gilles Prison to concentration camps in Germany via the Nazi ghost train was thwarted by Belgian railway workers and the Belgian Resistance. After the war, the leaders of the collaborators and of certain political and military organisations, as well as propagandists and spies were locked up at the prison. Notably, General Alexander von Falkenhausen , military governor of Belgium and northern France during
7504-408: The Intelligence Service, and prepared for her superiors in London a grid map of the region around Lille. When the German army installed a new battery of artillery, the intelligence she provided allowed this camouflaged position to be bombed by the Royal Flying Corps within eight days. Another opportunity allowed her to report the date and time of passage of the imperial train carrying the Kaiser on
7616-408: The administrative and postal services to Dunkirk . Then a few days later, he was given a counter-order. Upon his return, the prefect found the offices of military buildings open to all the winds and the equipment abandoned. On 27 August Trepont asked John Vandenbosch, an industrialist, to move all military equipment to Dunkirk. Transport lasted for 21 days, and 278 trains were needed. On 2 September,
7728-491: The area of the station. Louise, moving through the ruins of Lille, ensured the supply of ammunition and food to the soldiers who were still firing on the attackers. In makeshift hospitals, she wrote letters in German dictated by dying Germans to their families. After the German army invaded Lille in October 1914, de Bettignies began carrying messages from people who were trapped there to and from their relatives in unoccupied France. She did this by writing them in lemon juice on
7840-403: The commander Felix de Pardieu and his territorials were ordered to retreat in the region of Neuve-Chapelle , leaving Lille without defender. General Ferdinand Foch , who arrived on the night of 4 to 5 October, warned by the prefect, sent commander Pardieu back towards Lille under the protection of the 20th Regiment of mounted chasseurs. Delayed by the crowd, the ammunition convoy was attacked by
7952-407: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Louise de Bettignies Louise Marie Jeanne Henriette de Bettignies ( French pronunciation: [lwiz maʁi ʒan ɑ̃ʁjɛt də betiɲi] ; 15 July 1880 - 27 September 1918) was a French secret agent who spied on the Germans for the British during World War I using
8064-508: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
8176-472: The deposit became a factory after it had taken over the supply of material for the porcelain maker Fauquez, which he improved. First installed in rue Marion, the factory in 1837 was established at a place called Le Moulin des Loups, on the road to Valenciennes. In 1831, Maximilian Joseph obtained the French nationality. In 1833, he married, in Orchies, Adeline Armande Bocquet, who bore him four children, one of whom
8288-448: 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
8400-585: 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
8512-506: 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
8624-858: 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 ,
8736-818: 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
8848-696: The home of Giuseppe Visconti de Modrone . In 1906, when she was with the Viscontis, she travelled extensively throughout Italy. In 1911, she went to Count Mikiewsky, near Lemberg ( Lviv ), in Galicia . From 1911 to 1912, she was with Prince Carl Schwarzenberg, at the Orlík Castle . She then moved to the Princess Elvira of Bavaria, at the Holeschau Castle, Austria-Hungary (now Moravia , Czech Republic ). She
8960-450: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
9072-474: 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
9184-602: 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 ,
9296-475: 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
9408-580: The most modern standards. In 1848, the cellular system of imprisonment was adopted, when a decree established the principle of individual imprisonment into penal law. This led to a programme of prison building in the country from 1850 onwards. Saint-Gilles Prison was first planned in 1883 to replace the Petits Carmes Prison located in central Brussels. The prison was designed by the Belgian architect Joseph Jonas Dumont [ fr ] and built by
9520-645: The most notable women incarcerated at the prison were the English nurse Edith Cavell , the French secret agent Louise de Bettignies , and the Belgian spy Gabrielle Petit . Petit's prison cell was preserved for posterity. The following is a list of notable persons incarcerated in Saint-Gilles Prison and executed at the Tir national shooting range during the First World War: During World War II ,
9632-420: 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
9744-518: The obligation imposed on it. At international and European level, proceedings have also been initiated against Belgium. Indeed, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned the Belgian State for violating the European Convention on Human Rights through the detention conditions at Saint-Gilles Prison. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )
9856-630: 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;
9968-528: 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
10080-462: 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
10192-633: The prison will remain in use until the end of 2024, when it will be replaced by Haren Prison . Saint-Gilles Prison is located at 106, avenue Ducpétiaux / Ducpétiauxlaan in Saint-Gilles , on the borders with Ixelles and Forest . The rear of the surrounding wall borders the Avenue de la Jonction / Verbindingslaan , opposite Forest Prison [ fr ; nl ] . The two prisons are connected by an underground passage used to serve to transfer prisoners. This close proximity causes frequent confusion between
10304-845: The pseudonym of Alice Dubois. She was arrested in October 1915 and imprisoned, dying shortly before the end of the war in captivity. She was posthumously awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour , the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with palm, and the British Military Medal , and she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire . Traces of the Bettignies family date back to 1228. The Lordship of Bettignies
10416-464: 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
10528-546: The time we spent at our grandmother's house on rue Capron Street, in Valenciennes ... Louise was then twelve. We were both students of the Dames de la Sainte-Union , she as a boarder and me as a day pupil. She already showed a strong character, playful ... Yes, Louise was very nice, very intelligent and showed a lot of personality. " Her parents moved in Lille in 1895, but she left in 1898 for England to continue her higher studies with
10640-462: 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
10752-673: 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
10864-467: The two prisons in the media. The Brussels-Capital Region has, in total, three prisons in the area: Saint-Gilles Prison, Forest Prison, as well as its women's quarter (known as Berkendael Prison [ fr ; nl ] ), whose separate entrance opens onto the Rue de Berkendael / Berkendaalstraat . This site is served by the premetro (underground tram) station Albert (on lines 3 and 4 ), as well as
10976-508: 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
11088-479: 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
11200-405: The war, Louise lived in a villa at Wissant that was rented by her brother Albert. Before August was over, Louise left Wissant and returned to Saint-Omer . From there, she took the pretext of joining her sister Germaine, whose husband, Maurice Houzet was mobilized, to go to Lille. On 1 August 1914, Adolphe Messimy , Minister of War, suppressed, with the approval of René Viviani , President of
11312-531: 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
11424-402: 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
11536-529: Was Henri, Louise de Bettignies's father. In 1866, Henri de Bettignies married Julienne Mabille de Poncheville, from an old family of lawyers in the northern France. The Mabille family had its origins in the Pas-de-Calais and for several generations had notaries in Valenciennes . On 30 June 1880, Henry and Maximilian de Bettignies ceded their business to Gustave Dubois and Léandre Bouquiaux. Despite her father's financial difficulties, de Bettignies obtained
11648-417: 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
11760-791: 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
11872-400: 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
11984-633: 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
12096-614: Was located near the city of Mons in what is now Belgium . There are further traces of the family in 1507. Peterinck de La Gohelle, de Bettignies’ great-grandfather, originated in Lille . He settled in Tournai in 1752, where he founded a factory of porcelain art on the quai des Salines. The factory was called the imperial and royal factory. In 1787, the Duke of Orleans ordered a magnificent service in blue decor from Tournai of which some pieces are held in
12208-614: Was particularly true of the many religious houses that had been confiscated as national property after the second French invasion of 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars . In 1830, Édouard Ducpétiaux was appointed inspector-general of prisons for the Provisional Government , only a few months after the Belgian Revolution , and was assigned the task of organising the national prison system in accordance with
12320-529: Was relayed to the French commander, but unfortunately, he refused to believe it. Arrested by the Germans on 20 October 1915 near Tournai , she was sentenced to death on 16 March 1916 in Brussels. Her sentence was later commuted to forced labor for life. After being held for three years, she died on 27 September 1918 as a result of pleural abscesses poorly operated upon at St. Mary's Hospital in Cologne. Her body
12432-575: 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
12544-554: 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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