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World Languages: French comes in at 10th place
The French like to claim that their language is one of the world's most spoken, but the numbers don't add up.
According to this map (click for bigger), French barely makes it to the top-10, with 129 million speakers worldwide. Among the European languages, English scores 508 million, Spanish 392 million, Russian 277 million, and Portuguese 191 million. The world's most spoken language is Mandarin (1 billion+). Other languages scoring more speakers than French are Hindustani (497 million), Arabic (246 million), Bengali (211 million) and Malay (159 million).
Fri 15-Aug-08 | Posted in: Language, Statistics
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Comment from superfrenchie
Time: August 15, 2008, 8:35 pm
//The French like to claim that their language is one of the world's most spoken//
Source?
Comment from romke
Time: August 15, 2008, 8:46 pm
There probably isn\'t an official source, but just look at the way the Francophonie organisation (look on wikipedia) is blown up. Quote \"Few of the member states are majority French-speaking aside from France and its overseas possessions, and sub-national members. French functions in several other member states as a common language while having little current presence in the other members, being that the links are mainly historical and cultural.\"
Also: French is one of the three official languages in the EU, but Spanish and Portuguese don\'t have that status.
Comment from superfrenchie
Time: August 15, 2008, 9:40 pm
Is the "Francophonie organization" the same as "The French"?
More to the point, do you have a source that the "Francophonie organization" claims, as you apparently suggest they do, that French is one of the world's most spoken language (besides being in the top-10)?
And why is the "Francophonie" organization "blown up" by having members who are not necessarily majority French-speaking?
Do the French force countries to join?
Comment from romke
Time: August 15, 2008, 10:46 pm
I should probably have used the word 'pretend' rather than 'claim'.
Comment from superfrenchie
Time: August 15, 2008, 11:05 pm
Even then, what's the source?
I personally have never heard any French claim, or pretend, that French is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It's a common stereotype in the US and the UK that we do indeed pretend that all the time and I've heard your claim repeated many times in the US, but just like most stereotypes about the French, it has no real basis in fact.
However, Jean-Benoit Nadeau, who is Canadian, writes this about the topic:
"It's simply false to pretend that French is on the decline. The number of French-speakers in the world has tripled in the last 50 years to 175 million. French is the world's 9th language for number of speakers [note: I'm not contesting your 129 million and 10th place numbers, there's probably various ways to count, and it's not very important anyway], but it's still the world's second international language after English, and the only other language taught in all countries of the world.
French far outweighs Spanish, Arabic or even Chinese for its number of students: 100 million. The International Federation of Teachers of French has 80,000 members, a small proportion of the world's 2 million teachers of French — 10,000 of whom are in the United States.
French is second only to English for the number of countries where it is an official language — 33 compared to 45 — and for the number of international institutions where it is used, including the UN, the EU, the International Monetary Fund, the International Red Cross Committee, Interpol and the International Labour Organization."
Comment from superfrenchie
Time: August 15, 2008, 11:16 pm
Looks like I have a comment in moderation or in the spam box.
Comment from dominique
Time: August 15, 2008, 11:40 pm
Hi,
What is important is the number of foreign speakers, where English (and Espagnol) should be the most spoken language, en French certainly not so far.
Comment from superfrenchie
Time: August 16, 2008, 12:41 pm
OK, so my posts were not freed up (I assume I'm not being moderated on purpose…) so I'm gonna repost without the links, in case that's the problem.
********
Oh, and Nadeau also writes this:
"One of the most surprising threats to French today is, in fact, coming from the French, most of whom seem to think their language is irremediably on the decline."
And that, I've heard a lot from the French (With sources, for example:
Link deleted )
Comment from superfrenchie
Time: August 16, 2008, 12:42 pm
And French is NOT "one of the three official languages in the EU." All 23 languages of the EU are official:
[wiki link deleted]
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