Language

There are a number of languages of France. The French language is by far the most widely spoken and the only official language of France. Several regional languages are also spoken to varying degrees. Other languages are spoken by a substantial percentage of the population due to immigration.

French culture is profoundly allied with the French language. The artful use of the mother tongue, and its defence against perceived decline or corruption by foreign terms, is a major preoccupation for some persons and entities.

Status

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. Some action has been taken by the government in order to promote French culture and the French language. For instance, there exists a system of subsidies and preferential loans for supporting French cinema. The Toubon law, from the name of the conservative culture minister who promoted it, makes it mandatory to use French in advertisements directed to the general public (though it can also use other languages). The French government, however, does not mandate the usage of French in non-commercial publications by private individuals or corporations.

The 1999 Report written for the 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).

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 (i.e. without granting them official status) and the Délégation générale à 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. The category of languages of France (in French: langues de France) is thus administratively recognised even if this does not go as far as providing any official status.

Cross-Border Languages

Certain of the languages of France are also cross-border languages (for example, Basque, Catalan, Picard, Norman, Franco-Provençal, Dutch, 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 (Elsässerdeutsch)
  • West Flemish dialect of Dutch
  • Lorraine Franconian
• Romance languages:
  • Catalan
  • Corsican (Corsu)
  • Franco-Provençal
    • Bressan
    • Dauphinois
    • Forèzien
    • Jurassien
    • Lyonnais
    • Savoyard
  • Occitan language (also Lenga d'òc, Langue d'oc):
    • Vivaroalpenc
    • Auvergnat
    • Gascon
      • Bearnese (Béarnais)
      • Landese (Landais)
    • Languedocien
    • Limousin
    • Nissart (Niçois or Nissart)
    • Provençal
  • Oïl language family:
    • Bourguignon-Morvandiau
    • Champenois
    • Franc-Comtois
    • French
    • Gallo
    • Lorrain
    • Norman
    • Picard
    • Poitevin-Saintongeais
    • Walloon