C’est Fantastique! 101 Fascinating Facts About The French Language

The French language is one of the most polite and unique languages in the world.

The French language has often been referred to as the ‘romance language’ because of its beautiful words, phrases, and clever tongue twisters. It is a major language (official language) in 29 countries while also being the second most prominently spoken language in European countries.

However, the French language is one of the most challenging official languages as recognized by the United Nations even though native speakers. It is a very widely studied foreign language, with many people preferring to learn French as their second language!

The French language also happens to be the only language after English to be spoken on all five continents.

When you study some of the facts about French language, you discover that it has a long and winding history(including the French revolution); being a French citizen must be fun when you have a mother tongue that is literally called the romance language (can’t get more romantic than that!).

History Of The French Language

The French language has a fascinating backstory. The French origin takes us back to a place in Western Europe called Gaul, which refers to the countries France and Belgium in the modern world. Read on for some interesting facts related to the history of the French language.

The dates are a point of debate for people, but something which everyone seems to agree on is the fact that Latin has had some influence on the French language. Since Latin in itself is a very tough language to learn, knowing Latin eases the process of learning French.

Romans were the reason for the birth of the French language since they were the ones who spoke something called Vulgar Latin.

The Norman Conquest of England, which happened around 1066 CE, was led by William the Conqueror; this conquest seemed to impact the English language as thousands of English words seem to have had their origin from the French language.

A quick run-through of the French language facts shows that Latin has influenced French. The French found its origin in Vulgar Latin, which was majorly spoken in Northern France. If you happen to understand Latin, chances are you will be quick to pick up languages like French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

Now, let us look at the impact of de la révolution française (or the impact of the French Revolution). During the French revolution, French citizens were confused about the revolution’s politics since only three million people out of 25 million spoke the native language, Parisian French.

Thus, schools were encouraged to teach the French language in its purity, which led to the French language becoming an important symbol of unity. French words were used to put out important speeches and messages across the French citizens.

If we look at the timeline, it shows us that the time from the fifth to eighth centuries was home to Vulgar Latin mixed with Gaulish, while the ninth to 13th centuries were the time of Old French.

The 14th-15th centuries led to the rise of Middle French; the 16th century ushered in Early Modern French while the 17th and 18th centuries brought in classical modern french.

French-Speaking Countries

As we’ve seen before, the French language is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents. French speakers, however, are spread all around the world, with many opting to speak French as their second language.

The wildest fact is that many international organizations (even the United Nations) worldwide list French as an official working language!

Since the population of French speakers might be touching 300 million, this might be a good opportunity for us to brush up on our knowledge of our favorite French words and discover French-speaking countries.

While the US is not regarded as a French-speaking country, you will be surprised to know that there is a considerable French-speaking population here. Here are some interesting facts about the French language and its relation with the US:

French is the mother tongue of almost two million American citizens, but nearly 11 million Americans can speak French fluently as their second language. As per a study, almost half of all the foreign films watched and one-third of the books read in the country are French.

Did you know that several international organizations use French as a working language! The names include Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Red Cross.

Why is the French language famous?

Calling French a popular language might be a grave understatement. We have seen that many English words find their origin in the French language (words like budget, challenge, design, discount, fuel, etc.). Read on to know why the French language is famous across the world.

Foreign films made in French are widely popular around the globe. The French movie industry has won the Oscar for their movies a record nine times, which is a considerable achievement considering the huge competition! No wonder French is so famous and iconic.

To understand why French is so popular, let us first examine how the French language looks! The fun thing to note is that even though French has 26 alphabets like English, the sounds are quite different from what we usually hear.

For example, the letter’ a’ is pronounced ‘ah,’ like in blah; similarly, ‘b’ is pronounced as ‘beh,’ like in bay. These minute differences make a big difference.

A lot of stress is also given to accents in French.

The list includes The Cedilla accent, like in the word façade; the Acute accent, you’ll understand this if you say a word like a bay with stress at ‘ay’; the Grave accent, like the word déjà; the Circumflex, like the word ancêtre which means ancestor, and the Trema accent (with words like Zoë).

What makes French famous is also the fact that it is known as the “Romance Language”; this means that the words are very sweet. If you listen to fluent French, it will sound very aesthetically pleasing to the ear!

French is also ridiculously tough to learn and understand because it has a lot of similar-sounding words with various accents and complex rules. One of the biggest attractions is ‘r’ pronunciation in French, which is spoken right from the epiglottis.

Facts About The French Language

Let’s get the most common ones out of the way, the stuff which we have already discovered. French is a romantic and sweet language hence the name ‘Romance Language,’ although even languages like Portuguese have this honor! Read on for some interesting facts about the French language.

About 45% of modern English words are directly derived from French( which includes establishment, gin, jury, management, etc.)

French is very hard to learn since it has complex rules which dictate the grammar and specific nuances which might seem abstract to the ear, especially if you’re majorly an English-speaking person!

Let us look at some very interesting facts about this beautiful language:

Kinshasa (the Capital of Congo) actually has more French speakers than Paris (the Capital of France).

French is a very important diplomatic language besides English which is why many foreign diplomats tend to pick up French.

French Language purism (traditional rules) originated from a single writer known as François de Malherbe.

The population of French words is booming, with a million members in the family!

Many people suggest that you should learn French before you plan a visit to France in order to break the language barrier.

A very popular dance form goes hand in hand with the French language, and that dance form is Ballet.

A lot of terms in the culinary(cooking) world are French.

The reason why French is so unique also has to do with its words. Did you know the word ‘oiseaux’ is the longest word where none of the letters is pronounced individually?

Another astonishing fact is that the continent with the highest number of French speakers is not Europe; instead, it is Africa!

So, the next time you go out looking for inspiration to learn French, refer to this article and ponder the endless possibilities you have out there. Au revoir!