History of French and is a lingua franca in some regions, notably in Africa. The legacy of French as a living language outside Europe is mixed: it is nearly extinct in some former French colonies (Southeast Asia), while the language has changed to creoles, dialects or pidgins in the French departments in the West Indies, even though people there are still educated in standard French. On the other hand, many former French colonies have adopted French as an official language, and the total number of French speakers has increased, especially in Africa. In the Canadian province of Quebec, different laws have promoted the
The Universality of the French Language for Castilian, Rivarol reproached the language for being redundant. He also depicted Spanish pronunciation as pompous. When it came to his ancestral country, Antoine de Rivarol's discourse veered to a more solemn tone. In fact, he did not hesitate to dedicate five or six pages of eulogy on the “centre of the world for so many centuries”. It is interesting to notice that Rivarol profoundly regretted the glorious times of the Roman Empire when “the only passable routes in Europe led to Rome” Consequently, the French writer asked himself why Italy did not succeed in imposing its language to the