Languages of France - List of Languages

List of Languages

The languages of Metropolitan France include:

• Indo-European languages
  • Romance languages:
    • Oïl language family:
      • Bourguignon-Morvandiau
      • Champenois or Campanois.
      • Franc-Comtois.
      • French.
      • Gallo.
      • Lorrain.
      • Norman.
      • Picard.
      • Poitevin and Saintongeais.
      • Walloon.
      • Angevin.
      • Manceau.
      • Mayennais.
      • Romande.
    • Occitan language (also Lenga d'òc, Langue d'oc):
      • Vivaroalpenc.
      • Auvergnat.
      • Gascon.
        • Béarnese (Béarnais).
        • Landese (Landais).
      • Languedocien.
      • Limousin.
      • Nissart (Niçois or Niçart).
      • Provençal.
    • Franco-Provençal also named Arpitan:
      • Bressan.
      • Dauphinois.
      • Forèzien.
      • Jurassien.
      • Lyonnais.
      • Savoyard.
    • Gallo Italic
      • Ligurian language.
    • Italian languages
      • Corsican (Corsu).
    • Catalan (Northern Catalan).
  • Germanic languages:
    • Alsatian (Elsässerdeutsch).
    • French Flemish: West Flemish dialect of Dutch.
    • Lorraine Franconian aka Lothringen.
  • Celtic language:
    • Breton aka Brita or Brezhoneg.
• Language isolate:
  • Basque aka Euskara.

There are also several languages spoken in France's overseas areas (see Administrative divisions of France for details)

• Amerindian languages in French Guiana.
• French-based creole languages in the French West Indies (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthélemy), French Guiana, and Réunion (see: Antillean Creole, Haitian Creole, French Guiana Creole and Réunion Creole);
  • also Dutch, and English in Saint Martin;
  • also Saint-Barths Patois (local derivation from regional dialects of French in France), and English in Saint Barthélemy.
• Many Austronesian languages:
  • several languages in New Caledonia (see: New Caledonian languages, Loyalty Island languages).
  • two languages in Wallis & Futuna (see:Wallisian language, Futunan language).
  • many languages in French Polynesia (Tahitian and other Eastern Polynesian languages).
• shiMaore and shiBushi in Mayotte.
• Kabyles spoken in New Caledonia.

French Sign Language is also recognised as a language of France (with at least one regional variant in Provence).

There are immigrant languages spoken in some parts of France.

• African French - French is spoken both natively and as a second language by a large number of immigrants from Francophone countries in Africa
• Arabic (dialectal, mainly darija).
• Armenian (Western Armenian mostly, due to immigration from former French mandates in the Middle East, Lebanon and Syria; but there is an increasing minority of Eastern Armenian speakers due to recent immigrants arriving from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran).
• Bambara.
• Berber.
• Cambodian.
• Chinese and Cantonese - with a significant speaking population, of native Chinese refugees from the former French colony of French Indochina (modern-day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos), and their descendants, settled around Paris (see 13th arrondissement of Paris).
• Danish.
• Dutch
  • Surinamese Dutch.
• English (Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy), with significant minorities of British communities in Aquitaine (historic), Brittany, and in Nord-Pas-de-Calais (commuters working in UK but living in France), and from many countries dispersed in Paris and on Côte d'Azur (French Riviera); also includes people from many English-speaking countries working in France for US companies or various international organisations; also the most widely taught foreign language in French schools, colleges and universities (before Spanish and German), but not widely used and understood after that, except in specific job positions (technical and tourism).
• Geg Albanian by refugees from Albania, Kosovo in former Yugoslavia and Republic of Macedonia.
• Standard German, also represented by regional dialects such as Low German.
• Greek.
• Haitian Creole.
• Hebrew
• Hindustani.
• Hungarian.
• Italian and Italian dialects (spoken by Italian immigrant communities in many major French cities, as well as French regions of former Italian state possession, such as Nice, Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Corsica).
• Japanese.
• Kabyles from Algeria.
• Korean.
• Lao.
• Lithuanian.
• Mandarin.
• Persian.
• Polish
• Portuguese from Portugal and Brazil.
• Romanian.
• Romany - spoken by the Roma people.
• Russian - brought over mostly by migrants fleeing Russia after the Soviet revolution, but also now by Russians installed in the French Riviera.
• Croatian - brought over by workers and refugees from former Yugoslavia, the area made up of republics of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Serbian.
• Spanish; the second foreign language taught in French schools, also a major language of Latin American immigrants in France.
• Tamil.
• Thai.
• Turkish.
• Ukrainian.
• Vietnamese.
• Welsh - Introduced by small late 19th century migration from Wales and minuscule community based in the mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
• Wolof, a West African language of the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, and Western Sahara.
• Yiddish.