Claim: The French language arose from the Latin that was spoken in ancient Northern Gaul.

French -LRB- le français -LSB- lə fʁɑ̃sɛ -RSB- or la langue française -LSB- la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz -RSB- -RRB- is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire , as did all Romance languages . French has evolved from Gallo-Romance , the spoken Latin in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul . Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl -- languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium , which French -LRB- Francien -RRB- has largely supplanted . French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the -LRB- Germanic -RRB- Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders . Today , owing to France 's past overseas expansion , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as `` Francophone '' in both English and French .   French is an official language in 29 countries , most of which are members of la francophonie , the community of French-speaking countries . It is spoken as a first language -LRB- in descending order of the highest number -RRB- in France , the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick , the region of Wallonia in Belgium , western Switzerland , Monaco , certain other regions of Canada and the United States , and by various communities elsewhere . In 2015 , approximately 40 % of the francophone population -LRB- including L2 and partial speakers -RRB- lived in Europe , 35 % in sub-Saharan Africa , 15 % in North Africa and the Middle East , 8 % in the Americas , and 1 % in Asia and Oceania .   French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively , approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language . As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward , French was introduced to new territories in the Americas , Africa and Asia . Most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa , in particular Gabon , Algeria , Mauritius , Senegal and Ivory Coast . In 2015 , French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers , and 190 million secondary speakers . Approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language . According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie , total French speakers will number approximately 500 million people in 2025 and 650 million people by 2050 . The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050 , 80 % of whom will be in Africa .   French has a long history as an international language of literature , and scientific some standards and is a second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union , NATO , the WTO , the International Olympic Committee , and the ICRC . In 2011 , Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business , after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese .