page_title: French people
section_title: In France
hierarchical_section_title: French people / Languages / In France
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing the ethno-linguistic groups in Metropolitan France: &#160;&#160; Alemannic Germans (Ditschers) &#160;&#160; Arpitans (Arpetans) &#160;&#160; Basques (Euskaldunak) &#160;&#160; Bretons (Bretoned) &#160;&#160; Catalans (Catalans) &#160;&#160; Corsicans (Corsi) &#160;&#160; Flemings (Vlamingen) &#160;&#160; Occitans (Occitans) &#160;&#160; Oïl dialect speakers (Locuteurs des dialectes d’oïl)
context_page_description: French people are a Western European ethnic group and nation that shares a common French culture, ancestry, French language and is identified with the country of France.
  The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oil from northern and central France, are primarily the descendants of Gauls and Romans, as well as Germanic peoples such as the Franks, the Visigoths, the Suebi and the Burgundians who settled Gaul from east of the Rhine after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Norse also settled in Normandy in the 10th century and contributed ancestry to the Normans. Furthermore, regional ethnic minorities also exist within France that have distinct lineages, languages and cultures such as Bretons in Brittany, Occitans in Occitania, Basques in the French Basque Country, Catalans in northern Catalonia, Germans in Alsace and Flemings in French Flanders.
context_section_description: Most French people speak the French language as their mother tongue, but certain languages like Norman, Occitan languages, Corsican, Euskara, French Flemish and Breton remain spoken in certain regions (see Language policy in France). There have also been periods of history when a majority of French people had other first languages (local languages such as Occitan, Catalan, Alsatian, West Flemish, Lorraine Franconian, Gallo, Picard or Ch'timi and Arpitan). Today, many immigrants speak another tongue at home.
  According to historian Eric Hobsbawm, "the French language has been essential to the concept of 'France'," although in 1789, 50 percent of the French people did not speak it at all, and only 12 to 13 percent spoke it fairly well; even in oïl languages zones, it was not usually used except in cities, and even there not always in the outlying districts.
caption: A map showing the (historical) linguistic groups in Metropolitan France:   Alsatians   Arpitan speakers   Basques   Bretons   Catalans   Corsicans   Dutch speakers   Occitan speakers   Langues d'oil speakers
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