French (français, French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃sɛ]) is a Romance language globally spoken by about 80 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. The rest live essentially in Canada (particularly Quebec, and...
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French (français, French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃sɛ]) is a Romance language globally spoken by about 80 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. The rest live essentially in Canada (particularly Quebec, and to a lesser extent Ontario and New Brunswick), Belgium, Switzerland, French-speaking Africa (Cameroon, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire), Luxembourg, Monaco. Most second-language speakers of French live in Francophonic Africa, arguably exceeding the number of native speakers. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the Francophone country with the largest population.
French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, and Catalan, and minority languages ranging from...
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