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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Will French be the most spoken tongue by 2050?

A recent study by a French bank has caused a stir after it concluded that French, not English or Mandarin Chinese, will be the world’s most spoken language by the year 2050. But will it really?

Will French be the most spoken tongue by 2050?
Will French be more spoken than English by the year 2050? Photo: Shutterstock

The French language has taken a back seat in recent years due to the continued dominance of English but a recent study by French bank Natixis suggests the tide could soon turn.  

Natixis's study concludes that by 2050 French could be the world’s most spoken language with a potential 750 million people speaking the language of Moliere.

That’s a big jump compared to the 220 million French speakers in the world in 2010.

The study puts the huge rise of French speakers down to the surge in population of sub Saharan Africa, one of the fastest growing regions of the world, and where French is the offical national language of many countries.

Needless to say the study has caused a bit of a stir in France and beyond, but many are skeptical that Natixis’s conclusions will come true.

In an interview with Challenges magazine Alexandre Wolff from the Observatory of the French Language, suggested that English will retain its hegemony.

“In reality English will remain the most used language in the world by 2050. But on the other hand it is possible [for French] to achieve such a result if we just take into account the inhabitants of countries where French is the official language.

“This concerns 32 states where French is the official language and here the projections are indeed impressive, but they do not take into account the coexistence of languages, which is the reality in many countries,” Wolff said.

“Many countries have several official languages, like Belgium, while in African countries, French may the official national language, but not the most spoken,” he added.

Writing on his blog for Forbes magazine Pascal Emmanuel Gabry doubted the study’s conclusion but stressed that the French language was indeed on the rise.

“The point still stands: French is still a fast-growing, global language,” Gabry wrote.

“The other mooted language of the future, Mandarin, despite being excruciatingly hard to learn for most Westerners, will probably not be that given China’s certain demographic slide.

“Meanwhile, French will be present on all continents, and particularly predominant in a continent that, by 2050, should be a fast-growing economic powerhouse–Africa.”

Gabry concluded that “If you were to pick a language of the future, you could do a lot worse.”

So don’t give up those French lessons just yet.

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POLITICS

French elections: What is ‘parrainage’ and how does it affect candidates?

If you follow French politics, it's about this time that you will start to see a lot of mentions of parrainage - here's what that means and how it affects the race for the presidency.

French elections: What is 'parrainage' and how does it affect candidates?

The French word parrainage means sponsorship or guardianship and it comes from parrain – godfather.

Just as in English, parrain can be used in its literal sense for a child’s godfather (godmother is marraine) or a more general sense for anyone who is a powerful figure – the classic mafia movie The Godfather is Le Parrain in France.

But in the context of presidential elections it has a more specific meaning, which is to do with how you get onto the ballot paper.

In order to be a candidate in a French election you have to be a French citizen aged 18 years or over. 

But you also need to collect at least 500 signatures (or parrainages) from elected officials to back your campaign.

These can be from anyone elected to public office from village mayors to MPs, MEPs and Senator but there are some rules – the officials must come from at least 30 different French départements or overseas French territories and no more than 50 signatures can come from one département or overseas territory.

This year, candidates have until March 4th to gain the signatures they need, if you’re on French social media you may recently have spotted lots of obscure politicians tweeting pictures of either a signed form or a letter being popped into the postbox – they’re making a public declaration of their parrainage.

You don’t need to be on Twitter though, the names of all the officials who have given their signatures will be published on March 8th, along with the list of candidates who have gained the required 500 and therefore their place on the ballot paper. 

Until that date, the question of who has the required numbers of parrainages is the subject of a lot of speculation and newspaper headlines, as well as charts like the one below, which are generally based on public declarations of support.

You can follow all the latest news and explanations of the 2022 presidential election campaign HERE.

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