Languages of France

There are a number of languages of France, although the French language is by far the most widely spoken and the only official language of the country. However, several historical regional languages are still spoken to varying degrees. Some of them are sometimes called patois, but this term (roughly meaning dialect) is sometimes considered derogatory. The real importance of local languages remains subject to debate. Several other languages are spoken by a substantial percentage of the population due to immigration.

Government outlook

The official language of the French Republic is French (art. 2 of the French Constitution), and the French government is, by law, compelled to communicate primarily in French. The government, furthermore, mandates that commercial advertising should be available in French (though it can also be featured in other languages); see Toubon Law. The French government, however, does not mandate the usage of French in non-commercial publications by private individuals or corporations.

In April 2001, the Minister of Education, Jack Lang, admitted formally that for more than two centuries, the political powers of the French government had repressed regional languages, and announced that bilingual education would, for the first time, be recognized, and bilingual teachers recruited in French public schools.

The 1999 Report written for the French government by Bernard Cerquiglini identified 75 languages that would qualify for recognition under the government’s proposed ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 24 of those languages are indigenous to the European territory of the state, while all the others are from overseas areas of the French Republic (in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and South America).

The topic of the teaching of regional languages in public primary and secondary schools is controversial. Proponents of the measure state that it would be necessary for the preservation of those languages and to show respect to the local culture. Opponents contend that local languages are often non-standardized (thus making curricula difficult), of dubious practical usefulness (since most are spoken by a small number of people, without any sizable corpus of publications) and that the curriculum and funding of public schools are already too strained. The topic also leads to wider controversial questions of autonomy of the regions.

Although ratification was blocked by the Constitutional Council as contradicting the Fifth Republic’s constitutional provision enshrining French as the language of the Republic, the government continues to recognise regional and minority languages to a limited extent (without granting them official status) and the Delegation generale a la langue française has acquired the additional function of observing and studying the languages of France and has had “et aux langues de France” added to its title.

Certain of the languages of France are also cross-border languages (for example, Basque, Catalan, Picard, Norman, Franco-Provençal, Flemish, Occitan and others), some of which enjoy a recognised or official status in the respective neighbouring state or territory.

List of languages

The languages of metropolitan France include:
Language isolate:
Basque
Celtic language
Breton
Germanic languages:
Alsatian (Elsasserdeutsch)
Frankish, the Lorraine dialect
West Flemish
Romance languages:
Catalan
Corsican (Corsu)
Franco-Provençal
Bressois
Dauphinois
Forezien
Lyonnais
Savoyard
Oc language family (also Occitan):
Alpine Provençal
Auvergnat
Gascon
Ariegese (Ariegeois)
Bearnese (Bearnais)
Landese (Landais)
Languedocien
Limousin
Nissart (Niçois or Nissart)
Provençal
Oïl language family:
French
Bourguignon-Morvandiau
Champenois
Franc-Comtois
Gallo
Lorrain
Norman
Picard
Poitevin-Saintongeais
Walloon

There are migrant languages
Arabic (dialectal)
Armenian (eastern)
Bambara
Berber languages
Lao
Mandarin
Portuguese
Romany
Vietnamese
Yiddish

There are also several languages spoken in France’s overseas areas (see Administrative divisions of France for details)
Amerindian languages in French Guiana
Creole languages in French West Indies and Reunion
English in Saint Martin
35 Melanesian languages in New Caledonia
Polynesian languages - 1 in New Caledonia, others in Wallis & Futuna and French Polynesia
shiMaore and shiBushi in Mayotte

French Sign Language is also recognised as a language of France.

Statistics

At the 1999 census, INSEE sampled 380,000 adult people all across Metropolitan France, and asked them questions about their family situation. One of the questions was about the languages that their parents spoke with them before the age of 5. This is the first time serious statistics were computed about the proportion of mother tongues in France. The results were published in Enquete familiale, Insee, 1999.

Here is a list of the nine most prominent mother tongues in France based on Enquete familiale. Before trying to use these data, or analyze them, readers should peruse the notes at the bottom of the table.