Philological information about French was prepared by the Translation Studies division of Dijital Tercüme.
Worldwide, French is in the ninth position as an official language, and is eighteenth in terms of the number of speakers. French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is a romance language from Latin lineage, and for this reason has verbal similarities to languages such as Italian and Spanish. It is the official language of France, or officially the Republic of France. France is a country which, although located in continental Western Europe, has overseas territories in many regions of the world. It is bordered by Luxembourg, Belgium and the English Channel in the north, by the Atlantic Ocean and Bay of Biscay in the west, by Spain and the Mediterranean in the south, and by Italy, Switzerland and Germany in the east. Outside of France, French is spoken on a total of five continents: in Europe France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra and the Vatican; in Africa Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Algeria, Djibouti, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Cameroon, the Comoro Islands, the Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Senegal, the Seychelles Islands, Togo and Tunisia; and in the Americas the USA, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Canada and Martinique. In addition, in Asia it is spoken in Syria, Lebanon, and the city of Puducherry in India, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In Oceania, it is spoken in the French Polynesia, the Wallis and Futuna Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It is an official language in France, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Chad, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Switzerland, Cameroon, Canada, the Comoro Islands, Congo Republic, Mauritius, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Senegal, the Seychelles Islands, Togo and Vanuatu. In addition, it is an official language of the African Union, the European Union, the UN, FIFA and several other international organisations. It is an official language of all the sub-agencies of the UN and most international organisations. 128 million people worldwide speak it as a mother tongue or a second language.