On March 20, 2021, we will celebrate, as every year since 1988, the International Francophonie Day. This celebration brings together 70 states around a common point: the French language. As good language enthusiasts that we are, this is an opportunity for us to give you a little inventory of the use of the French language around the world. What place does the Francophonie occupy in 2021?
The Francophonie, what exactly is it?
Often put forward by linguists and politicians, the term Francophonie designates, according to the Larousse dictionary, " all the countries which have in common the use, total or partial, of the French language."
If the French language became in 1539 the official administrative language of France, it did not however remain confined to its geological borders. Cultural anchor point of French colonial expansion, the language of Molière and Bougainville crossed the oceans, to develop there in a polymorphic way. Whether in its literal, oral, idiomatic or dialectical forms (through its patois and dialects), the Francophonie is a linguistic constellation, the variants of which are as legitimate as each other. A…
