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Latest update: 20/03/2010
- Africa - French culture - language
Increased African literacy boosts number of French speakers in world
There are more and more French speakers in the world, the International Organisation of La Francophonie - which represents the French-speaking world - said as it turns 40 this year. French is on the rise thanks to marked progress in African literacy.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - The number of French speakers in the world is rising thanks to increasing literacy in Africa, the International Organisation of La Francophonie said ahead of its 40th birthday.
"The figures that we will release in September on French in the world ... will show a marked progress compared to 2007," said Alexandre Wolff of the 56-member IOF.
There are currently estimated to be 200 million French speakers in the world, making it the ninth most-spoken language.
Of them, around 96 million live in Africa, where the increase in literacy combined with a high birth rate could see the number of French speakers rise to 700 million by 2050, the IOF said.
But such dramatic progress in countries where French is taught at school as a second language rather than by the family at home is dependant on national governments' policies, especially in education.
The number of people who speak French as a first langauge is only around 75 million, the IOF says.
The IOF was founded on March 20, 1970 by four leaders from former French colonies Cambodia, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia.
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Comments (6)
i like this langauge
200 million people speak to France luangauge this great>>>>specily i like france football team>>
i like this langauge
200 million people speak to France luangauge this great>>>>specily i like france football team>>
C'est ça une langue
C'est ça la langue du monde
c'est plus belle que l'anglais et la reste....je suis tellement content de ça.......merci et vive le français!
Number of speakers
There's a flaw in the reasoning of this article. An improvement in literacy wouldn't necessarily mean there are more French speakers - presumably most of these people could already speak French, they just struggled with reading and writing. An increase in the number of people fluent in French as a second language would actually mean there were more French speakers
U.K., Australia, New Zealand,
U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. and scores of other minor territories and countries are all in one group: the English speaking world. I wish France, Quebec, French Africa, and other French speaking areas were one block the way the Anglo world operates. The Slavs mimic the Anglo world in this as well. There is also a sense of unity among all Spanish speaking South and Central America.
Francophany
Is an increase good news? Can anyone explain why? Are there any tables available to show actual figures of the estimated speakers of the 8 languages ranking above French? It might be interesting to publish these alongside such a story for comparison purposes.
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