French is a Latin language spoken in France, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and in 51 more countries, the most of which were part of the French ancient colonial empire. HistoryThe history of French language begins with the invasion of Gaul by the roman army under Julius Caesar in 59 B.C. Gaul was then inhabited by many tribes which spoke a variety of languages. After the conquest of the country in 51 B.C and during the following centuries, the Roman language became gradually adopted by everyone. Linguistically, the development of ancient French, or protofrench, from the vulgar Latin language was distinguished by a complex set of phonetic transformations and by reduction of grammatical cases with respect to Latin. The Oaths of Strasbourg of 842 are considered as the first written text in protofrench. And i n 1539, the edict of Villiers-Cotterêts imposes French as the language of law and administration. French todayFrench is an official language in many countries, and it's widely used in others. Most of the nations which use this language are grouped together within the "French-speaking world" (Francophonie). More information: www.francophonie.orgDespite the recognition of French language and its influence, it continues to step back from the international scene, particularly faced with English. But it remains one of the official languages in many international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, NATO, the African Union, the European Union, etc. French is also one of the six official and the two working languages of the UNO and its agencies. French is the third most teached second language in EU and USA schools, respectively after English and Spanish. Regional languagesBesides French, there exist many other regional languages of France, both in the metropolitan territory and in the French overseas territories. These languages have no official status. In 1999 the government signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, a European convention adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical, regional and minority languages in Europe, but it was not ratified. The Constitutional Council of France declared that the implementation of the Charter would be unconstitutional since the Constitution states that the language of the Republic is French. The teaching and promotion of regional languages are still debated. Since the 1980s, there have been bilingual schools in some regions, but only a few children attend classes in regional language. The most spoken regional languages in France are: Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican and Occitan. The other languages are still spoken but are all considered endangered. Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki
