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"French in the United States" redirects here. For French people in the United States, see French American.
French language in the United States. Counties and parishes marked in yellow are those where 6-12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12-18%; red, over 18%. The census response "Cajun" and French-based creole languages are not included

The French language is spoken as a minority language in the United States. According to year 2000 census figures, 1.6 million Americans over the age of five speak the language at home;[1] making French the fourth most-spoken language in the country, behind English, Spanish, and Chinese.[2] French-speaking communities have historically been located in southern Louisiana and in northern New England. French is the second most-spoken language in four states: Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Contents

French ancestry

More than 13 million Americans claim some French ancestry, and French is currently the fourth most-spoken language in the country after English, Spanish and when Chinese languages such as Mandarin and Cantonese are grouped together.

Colonial French communities

Cajun French and Louisiana Creole French are spoken in some parts of Louisiana, which was a colony of France from 1682 to 1762 and again from 1800 until it was sold to the United States in 1803. Cajuns are descendants of Acadians, French colonists in what is now Nova Scotia who were deported by the British in 1755 in the grand dérangement, and who eventually settled in southern Louisiana. (The name Cajun is a corruption of "Acadian".)

Canadian French is spoken in parts of northern New England, which has a legacy of significant immigration from Canada, especially during the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Some Americans of French heritage who have lost the language are currently attempting to revive it[3][4].

Haden [5] identifies the French of Frenchville, Pennsylvania (Covington Township) as a distinct dialect of North American French. "While the French enclave of Frenchville, Pennsylvania first received attention in the late 1960s, the variety of French spoken has not been the subject of systematic linguistic study. Haden reports that the geographical origin of its settlers is central France, as was also the case of New Orleans, but with settlement being more recent (1830-1840). He also reports that in the 1960s French seemed to be on the verge of extinction in the community."[6]

Newer Francophone immigrants

New York, California, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Hawaii are frequently visited by Francophone tourists. In Florida, the city of Miami is home to a large Francophone community, consisting of French expatriates, Haitians, and French Canadians (although the Haitians mainly speak French as their second language, their first being Haitian Creole); there is also a growing community of Francophone Africans in and around Orlando and Tampa. A small but sustaining French community that originated in San Francisco during the Gold Rush and was supplemented by French wine-making immigrants to the Bay Area, is centered culturally around that city's French Quarter. Many retired individuals from Quebec have moved either to Florida or Hawaii, or at least spend the winter there. Also, the many Canadians who travel to the Southeastern states in the winter and spring comprise many Francophones, mostly from Quebec but also from New Brunswick and Ontario. Quebecers also tend to visit Louisiana, as Quebec and Louisiana share a number of cultural ties.

Language study

French has traditionally been the foreign language of choice for English-speakers across the globe. That distinction has since been claimed by Spanish – likely a consequence of heavy immigration from, and increased general interest in, Latin America. French is currently the second-most studied foreign language in the country, behind Spanish and ahead of German. Most U.S. high schools and universities offer French-language courses, and degree programs in the language are common. As a rule, the French taught in American classrooms is that of France, as opposed to Canadian French, despite the geographic proximity of Canada to the United States. This can cause confusion when U.S. students attempt to speak French in Canada, as there are significant dialectal differences between the two; although the differences are fortunately minimized if formal French is used, informal conversational Quebec French can be challenging for Americans to understand. However, the written form of French in Quebec is the same as in France and other parts of Europe. A similar phenomenon exists in Spanish-language classrooms in the United States, which tend to teach the variety used in Spain, and not that of Mexico, despite the fact that Mexican Spanish is far more prevalent in North America.

Francophone communities

More than 1,000 inhabitants

Fewer than 1,000 inhabitants

Counties and parishes with the highest proportion of French-speakers

Note: speakers of French-based creole languages are not included in percentages.

Seasonal migrations

Florida, California, New York, Texas, Louisiana, Hawaii, and a few other popular resort regions (most notably Old Orchard Beach, Maine and Cape May, New Jersey) are visited in large numbers by French-speaking Quebecers during winter and summer vacations.

French Place-Names

Main article: List of U.S. place names of French origin

French schools in the United States

External links

References

  1. ^ Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000
  2. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=D&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP16&-ds_name=D&-_lang=en
  3. ^ French Language Reacquisition, retrieved May 14, 2009
  4. ^ Amy Calder. Film examines revival of French language, culture, CentralMaine.com, November 18, 2002, retrieved May 14, 2009
  5. ^ Haden, Ernest F. 1973. "French dialect geography in North America." In Thomas A. Sebeok (Ed). Current trends in linguistics. The Hague: Mouton, 10.422-439.
  6. ^ King, Ruth. 2000. The Lexical Basis of Grammatical Borrowing: A Prince Edward Island French Case Study. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. p. 5. See also http://vorlon.case.edu/~flm/flm/Frenchville/Frenchville.html
  7. ^ Audubon Charter School
  8. ^ http://www.ebnola.com/cms/index.php?page=home École Bilingue de la Nouvelle Orléans
  9. ^ THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF LOUISIANA
  10. ^ http://www.efiponline.com/cg.html







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