PROVIDENCE — The French will have their say during a 15-day celebration boasting meals, music and hockey in all six New England states.

The Fortnight of Francophonie, which runs March 13-28, celebrates the French language, solidarity and cultural diversity.

About 1.5-million New Englanders boast French, Franco-Canadian or Acadian descent, according to the event’s sponsor, the Francophonie Committee of New England, chaired by the Quebec Government Office in Boston.

“If you open up a Rhode Island phone book, you will find French-sounding names,” said Alexis Berthier, a spokesman for the event. “In Rhode Island, there are big pockets of mostly French-Canadians.”

In Boston, history buffs on Thursday can glimpse a rarely seen manuscript by French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who made 29 journeys across the Atlantic, explored the east coast of North America from Cape Cod to the St. Lawrence River and founded Quebec City in 1608.

The Boston Public Library will display the manuscript as part of an exhibit, which opens that day, titled “Before New England: Champlain’s America.” The exhibit — which also includes early maps, drawings and engravings from the John Carter Brown Library archives — will continue through May 31.

“I hope this exhibit will help Americans to see that we have been a deeply international people from our very beginnings,” said Edward Widmer, director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, an independent research library affiliated with Brown University.

Other scheduled events include a Bruins vs. Canadiens hockey game, a performance by the Quebec pop music group Tricot Machine, and concerts, dinners, conferences and film festivals. Some restaurants will offer French meals.

In Rhode Island, celebrants can catch the 11th annual Providence French Film Festival, a celebration at the State House and a jazz concert in Providence, among other events.

The full program is available at www.franco-newengland.org.

Almost 300,000 New Englanders speak French at home, and French is the third-most common language in the region, Berthier said.

In Maine, 5.5 percent of the people speak French at home, the highest percentage in the U.S. Maine is closely followed by New Hampshire (3.4 percent), Vermont (2.5 percent), and Massachusetts and Rhode Island (both about 2 percent), Berthier said.

pdavis@projo.com