World Language Map

Languages spoken in France

40 living languages are mapped in France. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is French (97% of the population). They belong to 7 language families, the largest being Indo-European (28 languages). One is a language isolate, with no known relatives.

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of France at a glance

  • 40living languages
  • 7language families
  • 68.4 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 15with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in France. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in France

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
FrenchIndo-European97%66,323,362Not endangered
EnglishIndo-European39%26,666,094Not endangered
SpanishIndo-European13%8,888,698Not endangered
GermanIndo-European5%3,418,730Not endangered
OccitanIndo-European3%2,051,238Not endangered
ItalianIndo-European1.7%1,162,368Not endangered
PortugueseIndo-European1.3%888,870Not endangered
PicardIndo-European1.1%752,121Threatened
Central AlemannicIndo-European0.9%622,209Threatened
BretonIndo-European0.8%567,509Not endangered
CorsicanIndo-European0.2%164,099Not endangered
Hmong NjuaHmong-Mien0.2%129,912Not endangered
CatalanIndo-European0.2%116,237Threatened
BasqueIsolate0.1%88,887Threatened
DutchIndo-European0.1%88,887Not endangered
ApalaíCaribanShifting
AragoneseIndo-EuropeanShifting
ArpitanIndo-EuropeanShifting
AukanIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Balkan RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Central RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
East UveanAustronesianNot endangered
Galibi CaribCaribanShifting
Guadeloupe-Martinique Creole FrenchIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Guianese Creole FrenchIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Kibosy Kiantalaotsy-MajungaAustronesianThreatened
LigurianIndo-EuropeanShifting
Maore ComorianAtlantic-CongoShifting
Moselle FranconianIndo-EuropeanThreatened
PalikúrArawakanShifting
Réunion Creole FrenchIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Sinte-Manus RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
TekoTupianShifting
VannetaisIndo-European
Vlax RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
WalloonIndo-EuropeanShifting
WayampiTupianShifting
WayanaCaribanShifting
Western FlemishIndo-EuropeanThreatened
YenicheunclassifiedShifting

Read more: where is French spoken?

Language families in France

About these numbers

The list of languages in France comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in France

How many languages are spoken in France?

40 living languages are mapped in France, from 7 families, plus 1 language isolate. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in France?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, French is spoken by 97% of the population, about 66,323,362 people, followed by English (39%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in France?

Indo-European (28 languages), Cariban (3 languages), Austronesian (2 languages), Tupian (2 languages) and Hmong-Mien (1 language), and 2 more.

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