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> Looking at the official languages of countries, French Countries with french as an official language only have a total population of 434 million people. And

by qubax 8y ago

> Looking at the official languages of countries, French Countries with french as an official language only have a total population of 434 million people. And a few of them, like canada, has english as an official language as well. Also, most of the francophile countries are small former african colonies which may one day give up french as an official language and move to english or a native language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_territorial_entities_where_French_is_an_official_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_territorial_entities_w... French language's geographical and population reach is smaller than china's. The same applies for arabic and spanish. > and Chinese (Mandarin) indeed largely useless outside greater China. Which is true, but greater china accounts for a significant amount of land and people. French, Arabic and Spanish account for 1.3 billion people. China alone has 1.4 billion people. But this is a moot point since the french, arabs, spaniards and chinese are all desperate to learn english since english ( for the time being ) is the language of culture, science and business. I don't see chinese, french, arabic or spanish unseating english as the world's language.

barry-cotter 8y ago
> Also, most of the francophile countries are small former african colonies which may one day give up french as an official language and move to english or a native language. That’s not happening outside of a war. It did in Rwanda because of a war where the side that eventually won spent long periods outside their home country and hated French as a symbol of the Belgians. Ditto for Algeria with the French though French is still a lingua franca so pervasive it might as well be official. Why would an entire country that’s not undergoing a war or revolution stop speaking a language basically all educated people speak? Where is the political benefit in doing so?
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  Also, it takes a good and organized educational system to get everyone to learn a new language. Without that people only learn the languages that are already spoken around them. I'm struggling to imagine these listed African countries pull it off in the same way that, e.g., Germany did with English post-WWII, or China did with Mandarin.
- qubax 8y ago
  > Why would an entire country that’s not undergoing a war or revolution stop speaking a language basically all educated people speak? Usually nationalism and self-interest. It's why england switched from norman french to english a few hundred years ago. It's also why kazahkstan switched from cryllic to latin alphabet recently and has been pushing for kazakh and english education to the detriment of russian. > Where is the political benefit in doing so? To get rid of their former foreign masters' language? As france's power and influence continues to wane, what incentive is there for africans to hold onto a language forced upon them by colonizers? The french language is a symbol of humiliation for a lot of african and asian countries and their elites. Especially the nationalists. I'm not saying it will happen, but it could. Especially if france declines further and the political and financial incentive to stick to french disappears.

by qubax 8y ago

barry-cotter 8y ago

> Also, most of the francophile countries are small former african colonies which may one day give up french as an official language and move to english or a native language. That’s not happening outside of a war. It did in Rwanda because of a war where the side that eventually won spent long periods outside their home country and hated French as a symbol of the Belgians. Ditto for Algeria with the French though French is still a lingua franca so pervasive it might as well be official. Why would an entire country that’s not undergoing a war or revolution stop speaking a language basically all educated people speak? Where is the political benefit in doing so?

CydeWeys 8y ago
Also, it takes a good and organized educational system to get everyone to learn a new language. Without that people only learn the languages that are already spoken around them. I'm struggling to imagine these listed African countries pull it off in the same way that, e.g., Germany did with English post-WWII, or China did with Mandarin.
qubax 8y ago
> Why would an entire country that’s not undergoing a war or revolution stop speaking a language basically all educated people speak? Usually nationalism and self-interest. It's why england switched from norman french to english a few hundred years ago. It's also why kazahkstan switched from cryllic to latin alphabet recently and has been pushing for kazakh and english education to the detriment of russian. > Where is the political benefit in doing so? To get rid of their former foreign masters' language? As france's power and influence continues to wane, what incentive is there for africans to hold onto a language forced upon them by colonizers? The french language is a symbol of humiliation for a lot of african and asian countries and their elites. Especially the nationalists. I'm not saying it will happen, but it could. Especially if france declines further and the political and financial incentive to stick to french disappears.