French language in Sohainesia

The was an official language in Sohainesia from the beginning of French colonial rule in 1860 to the Coup of 11/22 in 1962.

Since the Coup of 11/22 in 1962, the use of French has rapidly declined from an official language of politics and education to an "extinct" language in Sohainesia. Unlike Vietnam, where the government has made plans to promote the use of French for its historic cultural role, the Sohainesian government has not made any plans to revive the use of the French language since the return to democracy in 1974, and the Sohainesia has declared the use of French extinct.

History
The French language was first introduced in the late-18th century when the French replaced the Portuguese as the primary European power in Southeast Asia. After Sohainesia was captured by the French, the French abolished the teaching Chinese in favor of French, and made it the governing language of French Indochina. Soon after, the colonial authorities forced Vietnamese students in Sohainesia to learn French, but many of those did not speak the language well.

Despite Sohainesia's first years of independence as an absolute monarchy, French was an administrative language of Sohainesia until November 1962. The communist government imposed Sohainesian, Chinese, and Vietnamese as the official languages and banned any Sohainesian citizen from speaking French. Meanwhile, English replaced French as the language for trade in 1974, further accelerating the rapid decline of French.