the four major western sprachraums are those of english, spanish, portuguese and french (according to the number of speakers). the english sprachraum (anglosphere) spans the globe, from the united kingdom, ireland, united states, canada, australia, and new zealand to the many former british colonies where english has official language status alongside local languages, such as india and south africa. the french sprachraum, which also has area on several continents, is known as the francophonie (). the francophonie is also the short name of an international organisation composed of countries with french as an official language.