International Francophonie Celebration Day March 20th!

March 20 is The International Francophonie Day, which commemorates the founding of the Francophonie. To celebrate the day, everyone who comes into the cafe today and orders in French will receive a free mini chocolate croissant!

In honor of the occasion we did a little bit of information searching to bring some interesting facts to you.

First, what is the Francophonie?

Well Francophone means French-speaking. French around the world can be used in different ways:

As maternal language used in the home

As daily means of public communication

As the official language used in government and business

As the principal language of education

The term Francophone started being used in the 1960s when Léopold Sédar Senghor, first president of Sénégal, and one of the founders of the Négritude movement used it consistently. He was the one who in 1962, pointed out the cultural aspect of the francophonie in an important article: « Le français langue de culture » or French, a cultural language.

For the history, French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. It was the most important language of diplomacy and international relations from the 17th century to approximately the middle of the 20th century. English has now taken over that role. French remains one of the most important diplomatic languages, being one of the working languages of NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the UN Secretariat, the Council of Europe, the International Court of Justice…

In the United States French is an official language in one state (Louisiana) and is still an important minority language in several others (New England in particular). In Wisconsin, French was a common language in many homes as recently as 50 years ago. A French Belgian dialect, called Walloon, is still spoken by several thousand people in Northeast Wisconsin. Francophones are an important part of Wisconsin’s past and present.

The International Francophonie Day is organized by the Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF), whose mission is the promotion of the French language as an international language and of worldwide cultural and linguistic diversity in the era of economic globalization. This event started in 1998 as an occasion for the 70 states and governments of the OIF to celebrate their similarity — French — as well as their diversity. There are about 220 millions of French speaking in the world.

Francophonie in numbers:

• 60% of the francophones are under 30 year old
• There are about 900,000 French teachers in the world
• The 77 states and governments members of the OIF represent more than a third of      the UN
• In 32 of those states French is the official language
• In the EU French is the second most spoken language
• Africa is the continent with the most francophones with 96.2 millions
• TV5MONDE, first French speaking TV channel, is the second international TV network broadcasted in more than 200 countries
• L’Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) include 786 colleges and universities spread out in 98 countries ;
• More than 116 millions people study French, according to the OIF and 500,000 are registered to Alliances Francaises

Members of the OIF have been holding The Jeux de la Francophonie (Francophonie Games), which are a combination of artistic and sporting events for the Francophonie every four years since 1989.

Did you know that French is also the base for many dialects?

Acadian French

African French

Aostan French

Belgian French

Cambodian French

Canadian French

French-based creole languages

Guyana French

Indian French

Jersey Legal French

Lao French

Louisiana French

Maghreb French (North African French)

Meridional French

Metropolitan French

Missouri French

New Caledonian French

Newfoundland French

Quebec French

South East Asian French

Swiss French

Vietnamese French

West Indian French