Editing French language (section)

=== Europe ===
{{Main|European French}}
[[File:Knowledge French EU map.svg|thumb|Knowledge of French in the [[European Union]] and candidate countries<ref>[http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf EUROPA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617020142/http://www.tns-opinion.com/ |date=17 June 2017 }}, data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement.</ref>]]
Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English.<ref name="nativeLanguages" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Explore language knowledge in Europe |url=http://languageknowledge.eu/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917153120/http://languageknowledge.eu/ |archive-date=17 September 2016 |access-date=24 November 2014 |website=languageknowledge.eu}}</ref>

Under the [[Constitution of France]], French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992,<ref name="Benet-MartínezHong2014">{{Citation |last1=Novoa |first1=Cristina |title=The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity |year=2014 |page=468 |editor-last=Benet-Martínez |editor-first=Verónica |series=Oxford Library of Psychology |chapter=Applied Perspectives: Policies for Managing Cultural Diversity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gAqKAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA468 |place=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-979669-4 |lccn=2014006430 |oclc=871965715 |last2=Moghaddam |first2=Fathali M. |editor2-last=Hong |editor2-first=Ying-Yi |mode=cs1}}</ref> although the [[Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts]] made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.

In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of [[Wallonia]] (excluding a part of the [[East Cantons]], which are [[German language|German-speaking]]) and one of the two official languages—along with [[Dutch language|Dutch]]—of the [[Brussels-Capital Region]], where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language.<ref name="philippevanparijs">{{Cite journal |author-link=Philippe Van Parijs|last=Van Parijs|first=Philippe|title=Belgium's new linguistic challenge |url=http://www.statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac699_en.pdf |journal=KVS Express (Supplement to Newspaper de Morgen) March–April 2006 |pages=Article from [http://www.kvs.be/kvs_express/KVS_EXPRESS_13_WEB.pdf original source (pdf 4.9 MB)] pp. 34–36 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy – Directorate–general Statistics Belgium |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613234540/http://www.statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac699_en.pdf |archive-date=13 June 2007 |access-date=5 May 2007|df=dmy}}</ref>

French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and [[Romansh language|Romansh]], and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called [[Romandy]], of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some [[Cantons of Switzerland|cantons]] have bilingual status: for example, cities such as [[Biel/Bienne]] and cantons such as [[Canton of Valais|Valais]], [[Canton of Fribourg|Fribourg]] and [[Canton of Bern|Bern]]. French is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50%<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abalain |first=Hervé |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=abit8Yd6J-cC&pg=PA92 |title=Le français et les langues |publisher=Editions Jean-paul Gisserot |year=2007 |isbn=978-2-87747-881-6 |access-date=10 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918104351/https://books.google.com/books?id=abit8Yd6J-cC&pg=PA92 |archive-date=18 September 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> of the population.

Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of [[Luxembourg]], where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of [[Monaco]].

At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in the [[Aosta Valley]] region of [[Italy]] (the first government authority to adopt Modern French as the official language in 1536, three years before France itself),<ref>{{cite news |last1=Caniggia |first1=Mauro |last2=Poggianti |first2=Luca |date=25 October 2012 |title=La Vallée d'Aoste: enclave francophone au sud-est du Mont Blanc |url=http://zigzag-francophonie.eu/ITALIE-Le-Val-d-Aoste |publisher=Zigzag magazine |language=fr |access-date=2013-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204062709/http://zigzag-francophonie.eu/ITALIE-Le-Val-d-Aoste |archive-date=2013-12-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> in which is spoken as a first language by 1.25% of the population and as a second one by approximately 50%.<ref>''Une Vallée d'Aoste bilingue dans une Europe plurilingue / Una Valle d'Aosta bilingue in un'Europa plurilingue'', Aoste, Fondation Émile Chanoux, 2003.</ref> French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the [[Channel Islands]]; it is also spoken in [[Andorra]] and is the main language after [[Catalan language|Catalan]] in [[El Pas de la Casa]]. The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of [[Saarland]], with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 April 2014 |title=Allemagne: le français, bientôt la deuxième langue officielle de la Sarre |url=http://www.francetvinfo.fr/allemagne-le-francais-bientot-la-deuxieme-langue-officielle-de-la-sarre_587877.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822012043/http://www.francetvinfo.fr/allemagne-le-francais-bientot-la-deuxieme-langue-officielle-de-la-sarre_587877.html |archive-date=22 August 2017 |access-date=20 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=21 January 2014 |title=German region of Saarland moves towards bilingualism |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25834960 |url-status=live |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181014054905/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25834960 |archive-date=14 October 2018}}</ref>
{{clear}}