Marius Sala | Britannica

Marius Sala

Contributor

BIOGRAPHY

Director, Institute of Linguistics, Bucharest, Romania. Coeditor of Enciclopedia limbilor romanice.

Primary Contributions (11)

Articles

World map highlighting countries where French is an official language in dark pink, including France, much of central and western Africa, parts of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Madagascar, and several island territories. Lighter pink indicates regions where French is widely spoken but not official, such as parts of North Africa and Southeast Asia.

French language

French language, a Romance language that developed out of the variety of Vulgar Latin spoken in northern and central Transalpine Gaul. French is an official language of more than 25 countries. In France and Corsica about 56 million individuals use it as their first language, in Canada more than 7.7…