Brief introduction to the French language (with reference to the French of francophone countries)/Brève introduction à la langue française (avec référence au français des pays francophones)

Summary

French is the official language of twenty-nine independent states and is spoken, to a greater or lesser extent, in fifty-one or fifty-two countries. Most recent calculations suggest that over 200 million use it as a first or second language. Although not as diffuse as English, but certainly more so than Spanish, since it enjoys currency on five continents and Spanish only on three (the Americas, Europe and restricted parts of West Africa), it provides a form of expression not only for France and peripheral countries, principalities or areas such as Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Andorra and Saarland, but also for numerous countries in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa (most frequently called the Maghreb), for Quebec where 80 percent of the population speak French as their first language, the West Indies (notably Martinique and Guadeloupe), Guyana, Madagascar, Haiti, Tahiti, Reunion, Mauritius, parts of Louisiana, and New Caledonia. It still has some lingering cultural value in Vietnam and Cambodia, which formed part of the old French Indochina Empire. A global means of communication, it is therefore a language to be reckoned with.