Official Status and Observances of the French Language
📌 The United Nations (UN) recognizes 6 official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, each having an official day.
🗓️ March 20th celebrates the French Language Day, coinciding with the International Day of La Francophonie, which marks the founding of La Francophonie in Niamey in 1970.
👑 Key founders of La Francophonie included leaders like Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal) and Habib Bourguiba (Tunisia), emphasizing it was not solely a French initiative.

Global Distribution of French Speakers
🌍 The majority of French speakers are not in France: nearly 44% reside in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean area.
🏙️ Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is cited as the world's largest Francophone city with 17 million inhabitants.
🗣️ Around 300 million people worldwide are said to speak French, though some estimates suggest the actual number might be closer to 160 million.

The International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) and Current Projects
🇫🇷 The OIF currently comprises 88 member states and focuses on cultural, pedagogical, and economic cooperation to promote French against the dominance of English.
🏛️ France planned the inauguration of the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts, which was postponed due to COVID-19.
📜 Villers-Cotterêts was historically significant as the site where Francis I signed the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539, making French mandatory in administrative acts instead of Latin.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ The majority of French speakers (44%) live in Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the language's strong African roots.
➡️ The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) is considered the official birth act of the French language in administration, replacing Latin.
➡️ The OIF's core mission is promoting the French language as a collective effort to resist the global spread of English.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Oct 16, 2025, 17:14 UTC