Linguistic policy of France

Since 1992, the French is single the Official language in France. The Politique linguistics of France thus rests on the Monolinguisme of State.

Standardization and coding of the French language

Modern France constituted itself (cf territorial Formation of France) starting from the agregration with the royal field of various territories, unquestionable resulting from the division of the Carolingian Empire, others not.

It is resulted from it an assembly of areas speaking various languages is Romance (languages of oil, Langues of oc, Corsica), Germanic (Flemish Alsacien, , Francique), or other origins (Breton, Basque).

Time prélittéraire

Exit of the Latin known as “vulgar” (i.e. of Latin spoken by the people with the distinction about that known as “traditional”, which was never more than the literary language and that of a restricted elite), the French underwent quantity of vocalic and consonant changes especially during the time prélittéraire (3rd century at the 8th century approximately).

These changes distinguished the Latin language from the spoken language of the people so much so that at the 8th century, one becomes aware owing to the fact that it is developed a new language, initially called rustica lingua romana (rustic Romance language). But it is only with the beginning of the literature in popular language that the need for a standardization of this new language is essential.

The the Middle Ages

At the beginning of the literary time, as of the 11th century, it is the clergy which produces sacral literature. It is thus in the inkstands (Scriptoria) of the monasteries that various traditions of writing of the Former French develops, the scriptae , more or less fixed conventions of Orthographe which transcribe the oral language. Those are based on the known Alphabet of Latin, but this one cannot provide many sounds which developed the Former French. The script writers must invent by combining several letters (it, ill, Li, ili to return the L wet) or by allotting a versatility to some (U being always marked /y/, the letter O often returns from now on the /u/ sounds).

The main issue was since always being rendered comprehensible per as many readers as possible (the taught reading and writing part of the population, it should be pointed out, was however negligible at the time and was limited especially to some clerks).

Certain dialectal features enter the scriptae as of the beginning, but the central dialect of the Île-de-France tends as of the 12th century to prevail. Since the king chooses Paris for permanent residence, the city becomes definitively the center of the power and also of the trade. From now on, the dialect francilien is essential more and more like language of communication, trade, policy and religion.

The Rebirth

From the 14th century, one speaks about average French: the language still underwent important morphological changes which bring it closer to much modern French.

With the development of the literature and especially with the novel method of impression of Gutenberg, the writings multiply, and at the same time the discussion on the quality of the French language starts among the well-read men.

The Old Mode

A circle of poets, the Pleiad, and among them especially Ronsard, Of Bellay and Furrier of Mans, launch out in the debate to enrich French by the means by loans to other dialects (between goatskin bottles). Rabelais and Montaigne ridicules in their literature the abundance of Italianisms which entered the language due to the influence of Catherine de Médicis, wife of the king Henri II of France.

At the same time starts the official fight against the regional languages and the dialects spoken on the territory about France. In 1490, Charles VIII has by the ordinance Mills which the language of the jurisdiction will be from now on the “native tongue or franceoise” and not Latin. This provision will be confirmed by an ordinance of Louis XII in June 1510:

Let us order (…) that doresnavant all the criminal lawsuits and the aforementioned enquestes, in some manner that it is, will be made into vulgar and language of feed (…) otherwise will not be of any effect nor value

François Ier will confirm this text in 1531 for the Languedoc. But this decision will be returned null and void (or confirmed) by the promulgation of the Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 which replaces the use of Latin by that of the “native tongue franceoise” . From now on, the other languages of the country are not thus allowed any more.

The traditional century

The 17th century marks an important point not only for the literature, but also for the evolution of the French language. The orthography of French still not being fixed, the debate on the quality of the French language not having ceased since the Rebirth, the need for a coding is felt more and more strongly.

From a circle initially quasi-secrecy of well-read men is born the French Academy. It is officially founded in 1635 by the cardinal of Richelieu. Its task is from now on to give rules to the French language, to return it clear, pure and reasonable in order to make it comprehensible by all. It will have to provide the references necessary to the French language: a Dictionary indexing the words of the French language (whose first edition in 1694 was accomplished), a Grammaire which was criticized severely with its late publication in 1932, moreover a Poétique and a Rhétorique which never were born.

At the same time, Vaugelas is concerned with good use of the French language. This one is, according to him, to seek with the way of speaking “like the healthiest part of the Court” and with the way of writing “like the healthiest part of the autheurs of time” . It founds the bases of traditional French who is directed with the courtiers and authors considered reasonable, to the detriment of all the linguistic variations present among the people.

The French revolution

The day before the French revolution the idea appears according to which the French is an elected language. It is in particular the ideology propagated by Antoine Rivarol in his book Of the universality of the French language .

At the beginning, the French revolution is as shown reconciling as the preceding mode. During the first years, the revolutionary decrees are translated. However, gradually current of thought appears according to which cultural diversity and linguistics must be destroyed in the name of the unification of the nation (cf Jacobinisme).

The Abbé Gregoire writes a Rapport on the need and the means of destroying the patois, and of universalizing the use of the French language .

Barrère written in 1794 in a report/ratio with the Committee of public hello:

The federalism and the superstition speak low-Breton; the emigration and hatred of the Republic speak German… The Counter-revolution speaks Italian and fanaticism speaks Basque. Glass fragments these instruments of damage and errors.

Then, the decree of Thermidor 2 (July 20th, 1794) sanctioned the linguistic terror . As from this moment, the local patois were pursued. This linguistic law gave, with the surplus, an good idea of the intentions of the revolutionary leaders:

Article 1. As from the day of the publication of this law, no public act will not be able, in some part that it is territory of the Republic, being writes that in language française.

Article 2. After the month which will follow the publication of this law, it could not be recorded any act, even under private signature, if it is not written in language française.

Article 3. Any civil servant or public officer, any government official which, from the day of the publication of this law, will draw up, write or subscribe, in the performance of its duties, of the official reports, judgments, contracts or other generally unspecified acts designed in idioms or languages other than the Frenchwoman, will be translated in front of the correctional police court of its residence, condemned to six months of imprisonment, and destitué.

Article 4. The same sorrow will take place against any receiver of the fee registration which, after the month of the publication of this law, will record acts, even under private signature, written in idioms or languages other than French.

19th century and beginning of the 20th century

During the 19th century, regional languages, although scorned (the qualifiers dépréciatifs such as patois, idioms… are generally employed) are not fought. It is however only well after the establishment of the Third Republic that a linguistic policy of levelling is set up. Obligatory schooling rejects the regional language teaching, even as a tool for teaching in the monolingual zones others that in French.

Policy of assimilation

Since the end of the 19th century and the policy of Francization of the Third Republic, one attends the emergence of claims for the protection of the regional Langues of France. In 1902, the government of Emile Combes fight by decree against “ the improper use of Breton the ”.

During the period lasts (fine of the 19th century - 1950) of fight against the languages known as regional, the use of the symbol was used in order to punish the guilty children to express itself in a language other than French, was it them native tongue.

The State imposed this policy within the framework of its fight against what it calls the clericalism. However the position of the Church was always on the one hand pragmatic (to employ the vernacular languages) and on the other hand, always sought the support or the neutrality of the capacity. As regards regional language, the Church thus followed the governmental uses and the symbol was thus employed in the private schools as in the public schools.

The monolinguism moves back gradually with the profit of a bilingualism with French. When the campaigns are revolutionized by the passage of the traditional farming community to agribusiness industry, of many French areas see to take place a linguistic swing into French. The passage of a traditional country civilization to a modern civilization largely influenced by the cities (although the vestimentary modes were by place already under the influence of the cities) is accompanied by the swing into French. In many areas, one notes the coexistence of the generation of the monolingual back-large-parents, of the bilingual grandparents but whose Native tongue was not French, that of the passive bilingual parents and finally that of the French-speaking monolingual children. The influence of the JAC (Christian agricultural Youth) is notable in Brittany.

Reactions

Since the years 1950, several measurements were taken in favor of the regional languages: the Law Deixonne in 1951 which authorizes the regional language teaching at the school. However UNESCO can only note that their future remains threatened.

See in particular the article of Philippe Strainer: '' Enseigner languages of France? ''

Since the years 1970, in reaction, developed in several areas of the associative schools in order to save cultural diversity:

schools Diwan in Brittany;
ikastolas with the Basque Country;
calandretas occitanes ;
Bressola Catalan, etc

Bilingual classes also exist within State education (in particular, association Div Yezh - Two Languages - promotes French-Breton bilingual teaching). But the means which are devoted there are very limited, which leads sometimes to even scandalous intolerable situations (classes on four levels, integration forced with monolingual classes, etc) in spite of the pressing requests of the parents and the principals. The good will of the persons in charge of State education cannot be formally questioned - but one can point their obvious errors of management all the same (the majority of the pupils of CP will find itself the following year in CE1, etc).

See in particular:

Problems at the school of Merville - Morbihan
Protest concerning the problems at the school of Languidic

Second half of the 20th century

The influence of linguistic policy of the State of eradication of the minority languages is limited by other factors:

Certaines regional languages was definitely better maintained than of different, in particular the transborder languages which profit from the support or the linguistic radiation of the neighbor. The history of Alsace-Lorraine enabled him not to undergo the hard period of Francization, while once joined together in France, certain compromises was made have regard to the privileges of which it profited when it was German.

the prestige of a language near its speakers plays; it is partly related to the linguistic policies into force (systematic devalorization of the minority languages), with the prestige of a close “language-mother” in the case of the frontier or transborder languages (Basque, Corsican, Alsatian). The case of the very devalued languages of oil, not recognized like languages different from French and treated “patois” is significant in this direction. For the linguist Claude Hagège, “ the shame of its own language, the prestige of a foreign language, explain the death of the languages. It is obvious for the Breton one. Already in XVIe century the Breton aristocracy had given up the Breton one, considering that French had more prestige . ”

However, this policy of brutal acculturation has consequences still now. This is in particular clarified by studies like those of Philippe Carrer for Brittany (see Ethnopsychiatrie).

The situation of the minority languages in other states which practice a Politique different linguistics can give a point of comparison:

political near to that of France - not of official statute of the minority languages: Algeria, Poland, Greece;
political different from that of France: The United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain;
the case of Turkey deserves a special mention because if the design of the State-nation were taken again France and inspired a linguistic policy of assimilation completely similar to that of France of the 20th century, the historical situation degenerated there into an also wild terrorism and a repression (see Kurdish Kurdistan and ).

Recently, France hardened its legislation against the regional languages.

The Article 2 of the Constitution of the fifth French Republic was modified in 1992 (at the time of a congress joined together in order to amend the constitution to make it compatible with the Traité of Maastricht. Mention The language of the Republic is French there was then added.

The law n° 94-665 of August 4th 1994 relating to the use of the French language known as “ Law Toubon ” which affirms the obligatory character of teaching in French and extends the obligation to employ French in the private contracts, the messages transmitted by the media, the scientific papers, etc This law envisages specific measures for the regional languages, but returns in illegal fact any monolingual teaching except in French and avoids financing the lesson in another language, including those traditionally spoken on its territory.

The the Council of Europe adopted in 1992 the European Charte of the regional or minority languages which devotes “ the imprescriptible right to practice a language regional in the private life and public ”. In 1999, France signs it, like all the countries of the European Union, but without ratifying it, because of its anticonstitutional aspect. The ratification binds the State juridically contracting, the signature is a simple recognition of the general objectives of the charter; it there has thus no evolution of situation of languages minority in France, if it is not an ageing of the speakers which should bring most fragile of them “to die” before the end of the 21e century, after an existence for some more than thousand-year-old. France is one of the rare States d' Europe not to have ratified this charter.

See also : bilingual Road signs in France.

Linguistic unification in the imaginary one

A sentence marked the imaginary collective, which was posted a long time in certain elementary schools: “ It is interdict to spit by ground and of speaking Breton ”, sentence which juxtaposes two prohibitions of different nature, illustrating the Nature well average employees to manage to carry out a linguicide in Low-Brittany.

Such a poster is visible with the “Rural Museum of the Education of Bothoa” with Saint-Nicolas-of-Pélem the in the Coast-with Armor. The scarcity of the remaining specimens led some to express the doubt on its real existence, thus Fañch Broudig concluded with an extrapolation:

As much the principle enacted in 1897 by the Inspector of Academy of the Finistere, Dosimont, according to which not a word of Breton was to be marked neither classifies some nor in the courses of recreation is usually referred, as much it is difficult to find trace of prohibition “to spit by ground and of speaking Breton”… Subject to complementary inventory, it should be considered that the sentence which one holds up from now on as a against-slogan is, historically, an extrapolation.

However, if this sentence did not exist such as it is, it indeed existed in paraphrased form. The same author quotes the “ Règlement for the elementary elementary schools of the district of Lorient ”, adopted and adopted by the Higher committee of the district, in 1836 and approved by the vice-chancellor in 1842, which lays out: “ Article 21. It is defended with the pupils of speaking Breton, even during the recreation and uttering any coarse word. No Breton book will have to be allowed nor tolerated. ” to be expressed into Breton and to speak “ coarsely ” is the subject of the same prohibition.

Colonial linguistic policy of France

At the time of colonialism

Louis-Jean Calvet devoted a book on this subject (“Linguistic and colonialism”). Here a summarized court of its thesis:

The study of the languages always proposed, at the end of the day, a certain vision of the speech communities and their reports/ratios. This vision could be used to justify the colonial company. The social sciences are indeed locked up in a secular yoke: that they want it or not, they speak about us, our conflicts, our fights. And the translation that they give some, that they want it or not, is often used with the profit of some, in these conflicts and these fights. From a certain point of view, linguistics was to the paddle of our century a manner of denying the language of the other people, this negation, with others, constituting the ideological base of our “superiority”, of the superiority of the Christian Occident on the “exotic” people which we were going to control joyeusement. The phenomenon did not disappear besides with the “decolonization”.

Louis-Jean Calvet very clearly shows it through a certain number of behaviors, not only overseas, but inside even of the hexagon where the regional languages remain the victims of a linguistic imperialism of which one of the most recent masks is perhaps that of the Francophonie. A linguistics conscious of these political implications can be only militant. It is to the linguists concerned, in their respective countries, in their areas, which they belongs to assume this combat, assumption of responsibility for defense and blooming of their own language and their culture.

The following site gives a lighting on the linguistic situation (related to the social situation, of course) to Tunis during French protectorate: http://revel.unice.fr/urmis/document.html?id=4

Linguistic neocolonialism

During the creation of the colonial Empire French, French became the language obligatorily taught in all the colony S. It in priority is taught with the children of the local elite or the chiefs of tribes. At the time of independences, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa, this elite formed in French will maintain the language colonial like official language.

However, at the time of the post-colonial phase, the State is not any more the only person in charge of the linguistic “colonialisation”: the multinational companies have also their share in the use either of the French language, or - and more and more - English language.

The sites according to give complementary lightings on the linguistic situation “néocoloniale”:

In Guinea: Defense of the national languages
In Kabylie: Francophonie to counter the Arabisation in Algeria

Promotion of French abroad

French Place du abroad

Policy of France concerning French abroad

General principles of the policy of France concerning French abroad

Francophonie and the linguistic policy of France

Defense and promotion of the Cultural diversity

The French Ministry of the Culture often states to take a vigorous action for the “defense of cultural diversity”: he understands by there the defense of the French cinema and his economic interests vis-a-vis the Hollywood cinema.

It is not at all a question of applying this defense to cultural diversity and linguistics which exists in France. The defenders of the minority languages in France see there a contradiction - moreover not easily assumed by some (see the concept of “Langue partner” introduced by the organizations in load of the francophonie).

For holding of the French design of the State (a State, a nation, people), the cultural unit first being the Nation, the defense of linguistic diversity gets along then at the European and world level, and could not be retained like argument in favor of regionalistic claims. This idea is debatable since a cultural unit first , does not have to be exclusive… secondary cultural units , if as well is as this expression has a direction.

The place of the French language in the European institutions

European commission

French is, behind English, one of the two principal working languages of the European Union (German is also a working language).

Sciences and technology

The French is one of the three official languages of the the European Patent Office. However, the protocol of London, signed by ten countries (Germany, France in 2001, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland).

This protocol was signed by France in 2001, and was not ratified in 2007. This ratification is not in conformity with the Constitution, insofar as the article 2 of the Constitution specifies that the Official language of the Republic is the French.

Interface with the national rights

The Usage of the English language tends to be spread in the companies, owing to the fact that English is a Common language in the businesses. It results from it that for approximately two years, it has occurred abusive employment of English in document concerning with the law the labor, being able to go in violation of legal provisions of Member States (in France, for example, the Loi Toubon).

Data processing of the language

However, the standards of interworking on which are based the electronic documents are exclusively written in English, and not transposed in the principal languages of the European Union (software documentations, Operating systems,…).

Random links: