French language 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 across five different continents, most of which are members of the "Organisation internationale de la Francophonie" (OIF), the community of 84 countries which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick as well as other Francophone regions, Belgium (Wallonia and the
Origin of the name Khuzestan Origin of the name Khuzestan Although Herodotus and Xenophon referred to the entire region as Susiana, the name Khuzestan is what has been referred to the southwestern most province of Persia (Iran) from antiquity. In some instances, sugar and sugar cane have been given as the meaning of Khuz. The fertile soil of Khuzestan has a splendid potential for growing this plant, making excellent harvests for sugar cane possible here. However, most experts believe the name Khuzestan to be derived from "Ķūzī", the name of the original non-Semitic people of the province, whose distinctive language reportedly survived until Sassanid times.