French Voices Featured on Voices Voices of the World Week

When the French people or French language is thought of, images of elegance, haute couture, Amelie and Ratatouille may abound. French is not only the language of love, it’s also a very useful and universal language that has found its way into many lands, whether through conquest or substantial settling by French immigrants to the New World as is the case with speakers in North America representing French Canadians, Acadians, and Cajuns, spreading its influence far beyond France. For instance, the American state of Louisiana was originally named in honor of the French ruler Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King.

According to French Canadian voice talent Andre Clermont, French is the 11th language in the world and is spoken in more than 60 countries by 79,572,000 native speakers (The Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) Ethnologue Survey 1999). Also, the International Organization of Francophonie has 51 member states and governments. Of these, 28 countries recognize French as an official language. French is also the only language other than English spoken on five continents, positioning French and English as the only two truly global languages. French, alongside English, is the official working language of organizations such as The United Nations, UNESCO, NATO, The International Red Cross, and the International Olympic Committee to name a handful. Liz de Nesnera, professional voice over talent, US citizen and native speaker of European French said that French is becoming the “third language” most spoken after English and Spanish in the United States.

Liz has seen a definite increase in the amount of jobs requesting French as the language of choice, including more complex options for corporate telephony (IVR or Message on Hold) or narrations geared toward French speakers.

In addition to the embrace of French in the US, the language has always been a major market as far as voice over goes in Canada, a country whose national languages are officially English and French. Having a neutral French accent makes it easier to work for bilingual projects requiring both English and French voice over as there is a standard dialect, dubbed “Broadcast French,” that is required to reach a mass audience

“The accent in Paris is not the same as the accent in Marseilles or Quebec or Brussels, Geneva or Algiers. However, having an almost a generic accent that can allow the client’s message to be understood by everyone is, in essence, what we in Voice-Over are here to provide.”

One of the best ways to find a native speaker of French is to conduct a search online or post a job using the Voices web service, home to over 15,000 voice over talents, hundreds of which, both male and female, are native speakers of French located around the world including talent from France, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

To read the full interviews with Andre Clermont and Liz de Nesnera as well as participate in Worldly Voices Week, go to: https://blogs.voices.com

To learn more about French voice overs and how to hire a native speaker of French, go to Voices: https://www.voices.com

About Voices

Based in London, Canada, Voices provides an online marketplace, facilitating transactions between business clients and voice-over professionals employing a comprehensive suite of web-based services. Clients that have worked at Voices include NBC, ESPN, PBS, The History Channel, Reader’s Digest, Comcast, Nortel Networks, Bell Canada, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, ING, Western Union, Ford, GM, Jaguar, US Army, the US Government and more.