French is the official language in

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

, spoken natively in large metropolitan areas and in total by 320,000 people or 14% of the country. 32% of the people speak Fang as a mother tongue. French is the medium of instruction. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

very few Gabonese learned French, nearly all of them working in either business or government administration. After the war,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

worked for universal primary education in

, and by the 1960-61 census, 47% of the Gabonese over the age of 14 spoke some French, while 13% were literate in the language. By the 1990s, the literacy rate had risen to about 60%. Gabon is a

Francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

country, where, as of 2024, 1.683 million (66.3%) out of 2.539 million people speak French. It is estimated that 80%''La Francophonie dans le monde 2006-2007''
published by the

Organisation internationale de la Francophonie The (OIF; sometimes shortened to ''La Francophonie'', , sometimes also called International Organisation of in English) is an international organization representing where there is a notable affiliation with French language and culture. ...

. Nathan,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 2007 of the country's population can speak the language competently and one-third of residents of

Libreville Libreville (; ) is the capital and largest city of Gabon, located on the Gabon Estuary. Libreville occupies of the northwestern province of Estuaire Province, Estuaire. Libreville is also a port on the Gabon Estuary, near the Gulf of Guinea. A ...

, the capital city, had become native French speakers. Across major metropolitan areas, French is increasingly being spoken as a native language as well. More than 10,000

French people French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common Culture of France, French culture, History of France, history, and French language, language, identified with the country of France. The French people, esp ...

live in

, and

predominates the country's foreign cultural and commercial influences. Outside the capital, French is less commonly spoken, though it is used by those who have completed a secondary or university education. The indigenous languages are all members of the Bantu family, estimated to have come to

about 2,000 years ago, and differentiated into about 40 languages. They are generally spoken but not written; while missionaries from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

developed transcriptions for a number of languages based on the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

starting in the 1840s, and translated the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

into several of them, French colonial policy officially promoted the study of French and discouraged African languages. The languages continue to be transmitted through family and clan, and individuals in cities and other areas where different people may learn several Bantu languages. The Gabonese government sponsored research on the Bantu languages starting in the 1970s. The three largest languages are Fang, Mbere, and Sira (Eshira), each with about 25–30% of the speakers. The remainder of the languages (including Teke, Vili, Punu, Myene and Kota) are single-digit percentages, and some have only a few thousand speakers. Education for the deaf in

uses

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

, introduced by the deaf American missionary Andrew Foster. (See

Francophone African Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) developed in the United States, starting as a blend of local sign languages and French Sign Language (FSL). Local varieties have developed in many countries, but there is little research on which should be considered ...

List of languages

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

**''

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

'' *** French (ISO code fra) *

Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups ...

**'' Beti languages'' *** Fang (fan) **'' Kele–Tsogo languages'' *** Kendell (kbs) ***

Sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

(sag) *** Seki (syi) *** Sighu (sxe) *** Simba (sbw) *** Tsogo (tsv) *** Viya (gev) *** Wumbvu (wum) **'' Makaa–Njem languages'' *** Bekwel (bkw) **'' Mbam languages'' *** Bubi (buw) **'' Mbete languages'' *** Kanin (kzo) **'' Nzebi languages'' ***

Duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...

(dma) *** Tsaangi (tsa) *** Wandji (wdd) **''

Sawabantu languages Sawabantu languages are a group of Bantu languages that are spoken in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The group consists mostly of zones A.20 and A.30 of Guthrie's classification, and most likely also part of zone A.10. According to Nurse ...

'' *** Benga (ben) *** Yasa (yko) **''

Sira languages The Sira languages are a clade of Bantu languages coded Zone B.40 in Guthrie's classification. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), together with a couple languages from H10, they form a valid node. They are: : (B.40) Punu language, Punu, Bwisi ...

'' *** Barama (bbg) *** Bwisi (bwz) *** Lumbu (lup) *** Sangu (snq) *** Sira (swj), aka Eshira, Shira *** Vili (vif) **'' Teke languages'' *** Northern Teke (teg) *** Western Teke (tez) *** Vumbu (vum) * Ubangian languages **'' Ngbaka languages'' *** Baka

References

External links

Ethnologue.com report on languages of Gabon

PanAfriL10n page on Gabon
{{Gabon topics