Portal:France/Languages

French is the official language of France, but each region in France has its own unique accent, such as the French spoken in Paris, or in the south (Meridional French) or in the region around Tours.

In addition to French, there are several other languages of France (sometimes called "patois") traditionally spoken, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years.

In the north of France are languages from the Oïl language family closely related to French : Tourangeau, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Berrichon, Bourguignon-Morvandiau, Champenois, Gallo, Lorrain, Norman, Franc-Comtois, Picard, Poitevin-Saintongeais, and Walloon.

In the south of France are languages from the Oc language family (or "Occitan"): Alpine Provençal, Auvergnat, Gascon (Ariégeois, Béarnais, Landais), Languedocien, Limousin, Nissart, and Provençal.

Dialects and languages in France

Nestled between these two groups are the Franco-Provençal languages (including Bressan, Dauphinois, Forézien, Jurassien, Lyonnais and Savoyard).

Other traditional languages spoken in France:

• Basque
• Breton
• Alsatian
• Frankish (in Lorraine)
• West Flemish
• Catalan
• Corsican (Corsu).

In addition to French, French-based creole languages are spoken in the "DOMs" and other traditional languages are spoken in overseas areas.

Because of immigration, France also has populations who speak Arabic (dialectal), Armenian (eastern), Bambara, Berber languages, Lao, Mandarin, Portuguese, Romany, Vietnamese and Yiddish.

French is also spoken by people in numerous countries around the world, including Canada, Haiti, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Mali, Niger, Chad, Cameroun, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Madagascar, the United States (Louisiana, New England), Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Syria, and Puducherry in India.