French language

French
français
Pronunciation	[fʁɑ̃sɛ]
Native to	France
Region	Francophonie (French-speaking world) (geographical distribution below)
Ethnicity	French
Native speakers	300 million speakers (2019)[1] An estimated 300 million French speakers (L1 plus L2; 2019)[1][2]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Romance Gallo-Romance Oïl French
Early forms	Old French Middle French
Dialects	Tourangeau
Writing system	Latin (French alphabet) French Braille
Signed forms	Signed French (français signé)
Official status
Official language in	34 countries Botswana Belgium Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Equatorial Guinea France Gabon Guinea Haiti Ivory Coast Laos Luxembourg Madagascar Mali Mauritius Monaco Niger Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Switzerland Togo Vanuatu Vietnam Administrative/cultural Algeria Lebanon Mauritania Morocco New Hampshire (United States) Tunisia 15 dependent entities Aosta Valley (Italy) French Guiana French Polynesia Guadeloupe Jersey Louisiana (United States) Maine (United States) Martinique Mayotte New Caledonia Quebec (Canada) Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Wallis and Futuna Numerous international organisations
Regulated by	Académie française (French Academy) (France) Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Board of the French Language) (Quebec)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	fr
ISO 639-2	fre (B) fra (T)
ISO 639-3	fra
Glottolog	stan1290
Linguasphere	51-AAA-i
Regions where French is the main language   Regions where it is an official language   Regions where it is a second language   Regions where it is a minority language
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French (French: français, pronounced "Fronce-eh") is a Romance language that was first spoken in France. It is also spoken in Belgium (Wallonia), Luxembourg, Canada (Quebec), Switzerland (Romandy) and with many different countries in Africa (Francophone Africa). About 220 million people speak French as a native or a second language.^[3] It has also been one of the roots of other languages such as the Haitian Creole language. Like the other Romance languages, its nouns have genders that are divided into masculine (masculin) and feminine (féminin) words.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "Ethnologue: French". Retrieved 23 September 2017.
2. ↑ "French language is on the up, report reveals". 6 November 2014.
3. ↑ (in French) "Les francophones dans le monde" (Francophones in the world")— Gives details from a report. Archived 2012-05-12 at the Wayback Machine