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Language policy in France

January 01, 1970

France has one official language, the French language. The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as La Francophonie. The perceived threat from Anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France.[citation needed]

French / Occitan bilingual signs in Limousin

Besides French, there exist many other vernacular minority languages of France, both in European France, in Overseas France, and in French overseas territories. These languages are recognized by article 75-1 of the French constitution.[1] The 1999 report[2] written for the French government by Bernard Cerquiglini identified 75 languages (including just eight in continental France proper) that would qualify for recognition were the government to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (currently signed but not ratified).

History edit

The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 made French the administrative language of the kingdom of France for legal documents and laws. Previously, official documents were written in medieval Latin, which was the language used by the Roman Catholic Church.

Académie française edit

The Académie française was established in 1635 to act as the official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language, and to publish an official dictionary of the French language. Its recommendations however carry no legal power and are sometimes disregarded even by governmental authorities. In recent years the Académie has tried to prevent the Anglicisation of the French language.[3]

French Revolution edit

Prior to the French Revolution of 1789, French kings did not take a strong position on the language spoken by their subjects. However, in sweeping away the old provinces, parlements and laws, the Revolution strengthened the unified system of administration across the state. At first, the revolutionaries declared liberty of language for all citizens of the Republic; this policy was subsequently abandoned in favour of the imposition of a common language which was to do away with the other languages of France. Other languages were seen as keeping the peasant masses in obscurantism.[citation needed]

The new idea was expounded in the 1794 Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalise the use of the French language. Its author, Henri Grégoire, deplored that France, the most advanced country in the world with regard to politics, had not progressed beyond the Tower of Babel as far as languages were concerned, and that only three million of the 25 million inhabitants of France spoke a pure Parisian French as their native tongue. The lack of ability of the population to understand the language in which were the political debates and the administrative documents was then seen as antidemocratic.[4]

The report resulted the same year in two laws which stated that the only language tolerated in France in public life and in schools would be French. Within two years, the French language had become the symbol of the national unity of the French State. However, the revolutionaries lacked both time and money to implement a language policy.

Third Republic edit

In the 1880s, the Third Republic sought to modernize France, and in particular to increase literacy and general knowledge in the population, especially the rural population, and established free compulsory primary education.

The only language allowed in primary school was French. All other languages were forbidden, even in the schoolyard, and transgressions were severely punished.[5][full citation needed] After 1918, the use of German in Alsace-Lorraine was outlawed. In 1925, Anatole de Monzie, Minister of public education, stated that "for the linguistic unity of France, the Breton language must disappear." As a result, the speakers of minority languages began to be ashamed when using their own language – especially in the educational system – and over time, many families stopped teaching their language to their children and tried to speak only French with them. [citation needed] In neighbouring Belgium, a parallel policy to expand the use of standard French also took place.

Fourth Republic edit

The 1950s were also the first time the French state recognised the right of the regional languages to exist. A law allowed for the teaching of regional languages in secondary schools, and the policy of repression in the primary schools came to an end. The Breton language began to appear in the media during this time.[citation needed]

Fifth Republic edit

The French government allowed in 1964 for the first time one and a half minutes of Breton on regional television. But even in 1972, president Georges Pompidou declared that "there is no place for minority languages in a France destined to make its mark on Europe."[6]

In 1992 the constitution was amended to state explicitly that "the language of the Republic is French."[7][8]

The Toubon Law (full name: law 94-665 of 4 August 1994 relating to usage of the French language) mandated the use of the French language in official government publications, in all advertisements, in all workplaces, in commercial contracts, in some other commercial communication contexts, in all government-financed schools, and some other contexts.[9]

The law does not concern private, non-commercial communications, such as non-commercial web publications by private bodies. It does not concern books, films, public speeches, and other forms of communications not constituting commercial activity. However, the law mandates the use of the French language in all broadcast audiovisual programs, with exceptions for musical works and "original version" films.[10]

Broadcast musical works are subject to quota rules under a related law whereby a minimum percentage of the songs on radio and television must be in the French language.[10] A minimum of four in ten songs broadcast by domestic radio stations must be in the French language.[11][12]

In 2006, under this law, a French subsidiary of a US company was fined €500,000 plus an ongoing fine of €20,000 per day for providing software and related technical documentation to its employees in English only.[13]

In 2008, a revision of the French constitution creating official recognition of regional languages was implemented by the Parliament in Congress at Versailles.[1]

In 2021, a law on regional languages was adopted by the parliament. However, its articles on immersion education in public schools and on use of regional languages' diacritics in civil records were vetoed by the Constitutional Council.[14]

The debate about the Council of Europe's Charter for Regional or Minority Languages edit

In 1999 the Socialist government of Lionel Jospin signed the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but it was not ratified. The Constitutional Council of France declared that the Charter contains unconstitutional provisions since the Constitution states that the language of the Republic is French.[15]

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European convention (ETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe, ratified and implemented by 25 States, but not by France, as of 2014. The charter contains 98 articles of which signatories must adopt a minimum of 35 (France signed 39).[citation needed] The signing, and the failure to have it ratified, provoked a public debate in French society over the charter.

More recently, in a letter to several deputies dated 4 June 2015, François Hollande announced the upcoming filing of a constitutional bill for the ratification of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages.[16] On 30 July 2015, the Council of State gave an unfavorable opinion on the charter.[17] On 27 October 2015, the Senate rejected the draft law on ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages driving away the assumption of Congress for the adoption of the constitutional reform which would have given the value and legitimacy to regional languages.[18]

Minority and endangered languages edit

Excluding the languages spoken in the overseas regions and other overseas territories, and the languages of recent immigrants, the following languages are spoken by sizeable minorities in France:[19]

Celtic languages edit

Breton (Gwenedeg/Vannetais, Gwennraneg, Kerneveg, Leoneg, and Tregerieg)

Francosign languages edit

French Sign Language (LSF)

Germanic languages edit

Alsatian, Dutch (West Flemish/French Flemish), Lorrainian, Luxembourgish, and Yenish

Isolate languages edit

Basque/Euskara and Lyons Sign Language

Romance languages edit

Romani languages edit

Auvergnat Romani, Caló, and Sintikès

 
"Speak French, Be Clean", written on the wall of the Ayguatébia-Talau school

The non-French Oïl languages and Franco-Provençal are highly endangered; because of their similarity to standard French, their speakers conformed first in phonology, and then orthography much more readily. The other languages are still spoken but are all considered endangered.

In the 1940s, more than one million people spoke Breton as their main language. The countryside in western Brittany was still overwhelmingly Breton-speaking. Today, about 170,000 people are able to speak Breton (around 8% of the population in the traditionally Breton speaking area), most of whom are elderly. Other regional languages have generally followed the same pattern; Alsatian and Corsican have resisted better, while Occitan has followed an even worse trend.[more detail needed]

Accurate information on the state of language use is complicated by the inability (due to constitutional provisions) of the state to ask language use questions in the census.

Since the rejection of ratification of the European Charter, French governments have offered token support to regional languages within the limits of the law. The Délégation générale à la langue française (General delegation of the French tongue) has acquired the additional function of observing and studying the languages of France and has had "et aux langues de France" (...and languages of France) added to its title.

The French government hosted the first Assises nationales des langues de France in 2003,[20] but this national round table on the languages of France served to highlight the contrast between cultural organisations and language activists on the one hand and the state on the other.

The decentralization has not extended to giving power in language policy to the regions.

In April 2021, France approved the "Molac" law (8 April 2021) which aims to protect and promote regional languages across the country.[21] The law allows for schools to offer teaching in the medium of a regional minority language for the majority of the school day. However, the French Minister of Education, opposed to the teaching in minority languages, asked the Conseil Constitutionnel to declare it unconstitutional. This led to certain provisions of the law being constitutionally struck down on 21 May 2021.[22]

Opposition to language policy edit

 
This roadsign in Corsica has had the non-Corsican placenames defaced by FLNC supporters.

According to French republican ideology (see also Laïcité), all citizens are ultimately Frenchmen and therefore no minority groups (i.e. ethnolinguistic groups) may exercise extra rights; this is an idea stemming from the French Revolution, contrasting with the previous situation in which many distinguishable groups had special rights and privileges in their regions.

This policy of cultural homogeneity has been challenged from both the right wing and the left wing. In the 1970s, nationalist or regionalist movements emerged in regions such as Brittany, Corsica and Occitania. Even though they remain a minority, networks of schools teaching France's regional languages have arisen, such as the Diwan in Brittany, the Ikastola in the Basque Country, the Calandreta in Occitania, and the La Bressola schools in Northern Catalonia.[23]

Despite popular demand for official recognition, regional language teaching is not supported by the state.[24][better source needed] However, in certain areas, such as Brittany, regional councils maintain bilingual public schools as far as it is within the law. Other Breton education is provided by Catholic schools and private schools, Dihun and Diwan, respectively. In 2011, only 14,000 pupils were enrolled in French-Breton bilingual schools, although this number reflected an increase of around 30% from the year 2006, when the number of pupils was just over 11,000. The Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg also reported in 2011 that a further 16,000 students from early childhood to adulthood were learning Breton as a second language (at primary schools, collèges, lycées, university or evening courses), bringing the total number of Breton learners to at least 30,000.[25]

A long campaign of defacing road signs led to the first bilingual road signs in the 1980s. These are now increasingly common in Brittany, because of the help given by the Ofis ar Brezhoneg in bilingualizing many road, town hall and other official signs.

As far as the media are concerned, there is still little Breton to be found on the airwaves, although since 1982 a few Breton-speaking radio stations have been created on an associative basis. The launching of the Breton TV Breizh in 2000 was intended to offer wider coverage of Breton. However, Breton-language programme schedules gradually decreased in favour of French-language broadcasting, until in 2010 they totally disappeared.

In Corsica, the 1991 "Joxe Statute", in setting up the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, also provided for the Corsican Assembly, and charged it with developing a plan for the optional teaching of Corsu. At the primary school level Corsu is taught up to a fixed number of hours per week (three in the year 2000) and is a voluntary subject at the secondary school level,[26] but is required at the University of Corsica.

There is some opposition to the Loi Toubon mandating the use of French (or at least a translation into French) in commercial advertising and packaging, as well as in some other contexts.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Article 75-1: (a new article): "Les langues régionales appartiennent au patrimoine de la France" ("Regional languages belong to the patrimony of France"). See Loi constitutionnelle du 23 juillet 2008.
  2. ^ Cerquiglini, Bernard (April 1999). Les langues de France: Rapport au ministre de l'éducation nationale, de la recherche et de la technologie et à la ministre de la culture et de la communication (Report) (in French).
  3. ^ "Le français aujourd'hui". Académie française (in French). Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  4. ^ Grégoire, Henri (1794). Rapport sur la nécessité et les moyens d'anéantir les patois et d'universaliser l'usage de la langue française (Report) (in French). Paris: Convention nationale. pp. 1–19. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  5. ^ Lodge 2001: 218
  6. ^ Barbour, Stephen; Carmichael, Cathie, eds. (2000). Language and Nationalism in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 75. ISBN 9780191584077.
  7. ^ Hewitt, Nicholas, ed. (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 141. ISBN 9780521794657.
  8. ^ Loi constitutionnelle n° 92-554 du 25 juin 1992 (in French) – via Légifrance.
  9. ^ See the text of the Toubon Law in English at La Délégation Générale à la Langue Française.
  10. ^ a b See Television Regulation in France a 2005 report sponsored by the Open Society Institute.
  11. ^ "French radio goes to war with language quotas in fight for musical freedom". France 24. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  12. ^ "French rebel over music language quotas". BBC News. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  13. ^ Desprès, Philippe (April 2006). . American Bar Association. Archived from the original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 26 November 2007.
  14. ^ "The French Constitutional partially vetoes the law that allowed linguistic immersion in France". The News 24. 21 May 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  15. ^ Décision n° 99-412 DC du 15 juin 1999 (in French) – via Conseil constitutionnel.
  16. ^ "Vers un projet de loi constitutionnelle pour ratifier la Charte des langues régionales". Le Monde (in French). 4 June 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  17. ^ de Montvalon, Jean-Baptiste (1 August 2015). "Nouvel obstacle à la ratification de la Charte des langues régionales". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  18. ^ "Le Sénat dit non à la Charte européenne des langues régionales". France Info (in French). 27 October 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  19. ^ "France". Ethnologue. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  20. ^ Verny, Marie-Jeanne (25 October 2003). "01-11-03 – À propos des Assises nationales des langues de France, 4 octobre 2003 | FELCO" (in French). Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  21. ^ "France adopts historic law to protect its regional languages". The Connexion. 9 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  22. ^ "Langues régionales: Le Conseil constitutionnel censure partiellement la proposition de loi". Le Figaro (in French). 21 May 2021.
  23. ^ Brant, Colin (2020). "Communication and Culture: The Role of Language Policy on Regional Minority Languages in the Reduction of Political Conflict". Honors Program Theses (Honors Degree Program Senior Honors Project). Rollins College.
  24. ^ . Eurolang. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  25. ^ Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg - L'enseignment
  26. ^ (French) Dispositif académique d’enseignement de la langue corse dans le premier degré, année scolaire 2010-2011, Academy of Corsica

Further reading edit

  • GEMIE, S. (2002), The politics of language : debates and identities in contemporary Brittany, French Cultural Studies n°13, p. 145-164.
  • HAQUE, Shahzaman (2010b), "Enjeux des politiques linguistiques: pratiques et comportements langagiers mutilingues dans un pays monolingue". In: M.Iliescu, H. Siller-Runggaldier, P. Danler (éds.) Actes du XXVe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes, Innsbruck 2007, Tome I. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 163-172. Available at doi:10.1515/9783110231922.1-163
  • HAQUE, Shahzaman (2010a)Place des langues natives et d'accueil chez trois familles migrantes indiennes en Europe. In Andrea Rocci, Alexandre Duchêne, Aleksandra Gnach & Daniel Stotz (Eds.) Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée, printemps 2010: Sociétés en mutations: les défis méthodologiques de la linguistique appliquée. Numéro Spécial, 2010/1, 225-236.
  • HAQUE, Shahzaman (2008), "Différences de politiques linguisitiques entre nation et famille: Etude de cas de trois familles indiennes migrantes dans trois pays d'Europe". In: Suvremena Lingvistika Vol. 34 (65), 57-72. Available at https://hrcak.srce.hr/25188
  • KYMLICKA (Will), Les droits des minorités et le multiculturalisme: l’évolution du débat anglo-américain , in KYMLICKA (Will) et MESURE (Sylvie) dir., Comprendre les identités culturelles, Paris, PUF, Revue de Philosophie et de sciences sociales n°1, 2000, p. 141-171.
  • SZULMAJSTER-CELNIKER (Anne), La politique de la langue en France, La Linguistique, vol 32, n°2, 1996, p. 35-63.
  • WRIGHT (Sue), 2000, Jacobins, Regionalists and the Council of Europe's Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, Journal of Multilingual and Multicural Development, vol. 21, n°5, p. 414-424.
  • REUTNER, Ursula (2017), Manuel des francophonies. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter.

External links edit

  • Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France
  • French language documents on French language policy 12 December 2004 at the Wayback Machine

January 01, 1970
language, policy, france, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, m. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Language policy in France news newspapers books scholar JSTOR March 2009 Learn how and when to remove this message France has one official language the French language The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as La Francophonie The perceived threat from Anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France citation needed French Occitan bilingual signs in Limousin Besides French there exist many other vernacular minority languages of France both in European France in Overseas France and in French overseas territories These languages are recognized by article 75 1 of the French constitution 1 The 1999 report 2 written for the French government by Bernard Cerquiglini identified 75 languages including just eight in continental France proper that would qualify for recognition were the government to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages currently signed but not ratified Contents 1 History 1 1 Academie francaise 1 2 French Revolution 1 3 Third Republic 1 4 Fourth Republic 1 5 Fifth Republic 1 5 1 The debate about the Council of Europe s Charter for Regional or Minority Languages 2 Minority and endangered languages 2 1 Celtic languages 2 2 Francosign languages 2 3 Germanic languages 2 4 Isolate languages 2 5 Romance languages 2 6 Romani languages 3 Opposition to language policy 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksHistory editThe Ordinance of Villers Cotterets of 1539 made French the administrative language of the kingdom of France for legal documents and laws Previously official documents were written in medieval Latin which was the language used by the Roman Catholic Church Academie francaise edit The Academie francaise was established in 1635 to act as the official authority on the usages vocabulary and grammar of the French language and to publish an official dictionary of the French language Its recommendations however carry no legal power and are sometimes disregarded even by governmental authorities In recent years the Academie has tried to prevent the Anglicisation of the French language 3 French Revolution edit Prior to the French Revolution of 1789 French kings did not take a strong position on the language spoken by their subjects However in sweeping away the old provinces parlements and laws the Revolution strengthened the unified system of administration across the state At first the revolutionaries declared liberty of language for all citizens of the Republic this policy was subsequently abandoned in favour of the imposition of a common language which was to do away with the other languages of France Other languages were seen as keeping the peasant masses in obscurantism citation needed The new idea was expounded in the 1794 Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalise the use of the French language Its author Henri Gregoire deplored that France the most advanced country in the world with regard to politics had not progressed beyond the Tower of Babel as far as languages were concerned and that only three million of the 25 million inhabitants of France spoke a pure Parisian French as their native tongue The lack of ability of the population to understand the language in which were the political debates and the administrative documents was then seen as antidemocratic 4 The report resulted the same year in two laws which stated that the only language tolerated in France in public life and in schools would be French Within two years the French language had become the symbol of the national unity of the French State However the revolutionaries lacked both time and money to implement a language policy Third Republic edit In the 1880s the Third Republic sought to modernize France and in particular to increase literacy and general knowledge in the population especially the rural population and established free compulsory primary education The only language allowed in primary school was French All other languages were forbidden even in the schoolyard and transgressions were severely punished 5 full citation needed After 1918 the use of German in Alsace Lorraine was outlawed In 1925 Anatole de Monzie Minister of public education stated that for the linguistic unity of France the Breton language must disappear As a result the speakers of minority languages began to be ashamed when using their own language especially in the educational system and over time many families stopped teaching their language to their children and tried to speak only French with them citation needed In neighbouring Belgium a parallel policy to expand the use of standard French also took place Fourth Republic edit The 1950s were also the first time the French state recognised the right of the regional languages to exist A law allowed for the teaching of regional languages in secondary schools and the policy of repression in the primary schools came to an end The Breton language began to appear in the media during this time citation needed Fifth Republic edit The French government allowed in 1964 for the first time one and a half minutes of Breton on regional television But even in 1972 president Georges Pompidou declared that there is no place for minority languages in a France destined to make its mark on Europe 6 In 1992 the constitution was amended to state explicitly that the language of the Republic is French 7 8 The Toubon Law full name law 94 665 of 4 August 1994 relating to usage of the French language mandated the use of the French language in official government publications in all advertisements in all workplaces in commercial contracts in some other commercial communication contexts in all government financed schools and some other contexts 9 The law does not concern private non commercial communications such as non commercial web publications by private bodies It does not concern books films public speeches and other forms of communications not constituting commercial activity However the law mandates the use of the French language in all broadcast audiovisual programs with exceptions for musical works and original version films 10 Broadcast musical works are subject to quota rules under a related law whereby a minimum percentage of the songs on radio and television must be in the French language 10 A minimum of four in ten songs broadcast by domestic radio stations must be in the French language 11 12 In 2006 under this law a French subsidiary of a US company was fined 500 000 plus an ongoing fine of 20 000 per day for providing software and related technical documentation to its employees in English only 13 In 2008 a revision of the French constitution creating official recognition of regional languages was implemented by the Parliament in Congress at Versailles 1 In 2021 a law on regional languages was adopted by the parliament However its articles on immersion education in public schools and on use of regional languages diacritics in civil records were vetoed by the Constitutional Council 14 The debate about the Council of Europe s Charter for Regional or Minority Languages edit In 1999 the Socialist government of Lionel Jospin signed the Council of Europe s European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages but it was not ratified The Constitutional Council of France declared that the Charter contains unconstitutional provisions since the Constitution states that the language of the Republic is French 15 The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European convention ETS 148 adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe ratified and implemented by 25 States but not by France as of 2014 update The charter contains 98 articles of which signatories must adopt a minimum of 35 France signed 39 citation needed The signing and the failure to have it ratified provoked a public debate in French society over the charter More recently in a letter to several deputies dated 4 June 2015 Francois Hollande announced the upcoming filing of a constitutional bill for the ratification of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages 16 On 30 July 2015 the Council of State gave an unfavorable opinion on the charter 17 On 27 October 2015 the Senate rejected the draft law on ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages driving away the assumption of Congress for the adoption of the constitutional reform which would have given the value and legitimacy to regional languages 18 Minority and endangered languages editExcluding the languages spoken in the overseas regions and other overseas territories and the languages of recent immigrants the following languages are spoken by sizeable minorities in France 19 Celtic languages edit Breton Gwenedeg Vannetais Gwennraneg Kerneveg Leoneg and Tregerieg Francosign languages edit French Sign Language LSF Germanic languages edit Alsatian Dutch West Flemish French Flemish Lorrainian Luxembourgish and Yenish Isolate languages edit Basque Euskara and Lyons Sign Language Romance languages edit Gallo Italic languages Ligurian Gallo Romance languages Langues d oil Angevin Berrichon Burgundian Champenois Frainc Comtou Gallo Lorrain Manceau Mayennais Normaund Picard Poetevin Saintonjhais and Walloon Occitano Romance languages Auvergnat Catalan Gascon Bearnese and Landese Langadocian Limousin Nicard Occitan Provencal and Vivaroalpenc Arpitan languages Burgondan Dauphinois Nord Iserois Forezien Franco Provencal Jurassien Lyonnais Bressan Maconnais and Savoyard Ibero Romance languages Portuguese and Spanish Castilian Italo Dalmatian languages Corsican and Italian Romani languages edit Auvergnat Romani Calo and Sintikes nbsp Speak French Be Clean written on the wall of the Ayguatebia Talau school The non French Oil languages and Franco Provencal are highly endangered because of their similarity to standard French their speakers conformed first in phonology and then orthography much more readily The other languages are still spoken but are all considered endangered In the 1940s more than one million people spoke Breton as their main language The countryside in western Brittany was still overwhelmingly Breton speaking Today about 170 000 people are able to speak Breton around 8 of the population in the traditionally Breton speaking area most of whom are elderly Other regional languages have generally followed the same pattern Alsatian and Corsican have resisted better while Occitan has followed an even worse trend more detail needed Accurate information on the state of language use is complicated by the inability due to constitutional provisions of the state to ask language use questions in the census Since the rejection of ratification of the European Charter French governments have offered token support to regional languages within the limits of the law The Delegation generale a la langue francaise General delegation of the French tongue has acquired the additional function of observing and studying the languages of France and has had et aux langues de France and languages of France added to its title The French government hosted the first Assises nationales des langues de France in 2003 20 but this national round table on the languages of France served to highlight the contrast between cultural organisations and language activists on the one hand and the state on the other The decentralization has not extended to giving power in language policy to the regions In April 2021 France approved the Molac law 8 April 2021 which aims to protect and promote regional languages across the country 21 The law allows for schools to offer teaching in the medium of a regional minority language for the majority of the school day However the French Minister of Education opposed to the teaching in minority languages asked the Conseil Constitutionnel to declare it unconstitutional This led to certain provisions of the law being constitutionally struck down on 21 May 2021 22 Opposition to language policy edit nbsp This roadsign in Corsica has had the non Corsican placenames defaced by FLNC supporters According to French republican ideology see also Laicite all citizens are ultimately Frenchmen and therefore no minority groups i e ethnolinguistic groups may exercise extra rights this is an idea stemming from the French Revolution contrasting with the previous situation in which many distinguishable groups had special rights and privileges in their regions This policy of cultural homogeneity has been challenged from both the right wing and the left wing In the 1970s nationalist or regionalist movements emerged in regions such as Brittany Corsica and Occitania Even though they remain a minority networks of schools teaching France s regional languages have arisen such as the Diwan in Brittany the Ikastola in the Basque Country the Calandreta in Occitania and the La Bressola schools in Northern Catalonia 23 Despite popular demand for official recognition regional language teaching is not supported by the state 24 better source needed However in certain areas such as Brittany regional councils maintain bilingual public schools as far as it is within the law Other Breton education is provided by Catholic schools and private schools Dihun and Diwan respectively In 2011 only 14 000 pupils were enrolled in French Breton bilingual schools although this number reflected an increase of around 30 from the year 2006 when the number of pupils was just over 11 000 The Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg also reported in 2011 that a further 16 000 students from early childhood to adulthood were learning Breton as a second language at primary schools colleges lycees university or evening courses bringing the total number of Breton learners to at least 30 000 25 A long campaign of defacing road signs led to the first bilingual road signs in the 1980s These are now increasingly common in Brittany because of the help given by the Ofis ar Brezhoneg in bilingualizing many road town hall and other official signs As far as the media are concerned there is still little Breton to be found on the airwaves although since 1982 a few Breton speaking radio stations have been created on an associative basis The launching of the Breton TV Breizh in 2000 was intended to offer wider coverage of Breton However Breton language programme schedules gradually decreased in favour of French language broadcasting until in 2010 they totally disappeared In Corsica the 1991 Joxe Statute in setting up the Collectivite Territoriale de Corse also provided for the Corsican Assembly and charged it with developing a plan for the optional teaching of Corsu At the primary school level Corsu is taught up to a fixed number of hours per week three in the year 2000 and is a voluntary subject at the secondary school level 26 but is required at the University of Corsica There is some opposition to the Loi Toubon mandating the use of French or at least a translation into French in commercial advertising and packaging as well as in some other contexts See also edit nbsp France portal nbsp Languages portal Academie de la Carpette anglaise Francization Language death Language planning Language policy VergonhaReferences edit a b Article 75 1 a new article Les langues regionales appartiennent au patrimoine de la France Regional languages belong to the patrimony of France See Loi constitutionnelle du 23 juillet 2008 Cerquiglini Bernard April 1999 Les langues de France Rapport au ministre de l education nationale de la recherche et de la technologie et a la ministre de la culture et de la communication Report in French Le francais aujourd hui Academie francaise in French Retrieved 18 June 2022 Gregoire Henri 1794 Rapport sur la necessite et les moyens d aneantir les patois et d universaliser l usage de la langue francaise Report in French Paris Convention nationale pp 1 19 Retrieved 17 April 2021 Lodge 2001 218 Barbour Stephen Carmichael Cathie eds 2000 Language and Nationalism in Europe Oxford Oxford University Press p 75 ISBN 9780191584077 Hewitt Nicholas ed 2003 The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 141 ISBN 9780521794657 Loi constitutionnelle n 92 554 du 25 juin 1992 in French via Legifrance See the text of the Toubon Law in English at La Delegation Generale a la Langue Francaise a b See Television Regulation in France a 2005 report sponsored by the Open Society Institute French radio goes to war with language quotas in fight for musical freedom France 24 28 September 2015 Retrieved 18 December 2021 French rebel over music language quotas BBC News 3 October 2015 Retrieved 18 December 2021 Despres Philippe April 2006 Foreign Firms In House Communications and Technical Documents Must be in French American Bar Association Archived from the original on 6 August 2009 Retrieved 26 November 2007 The French Constitutional partially vetoes the law that allowed linguistic immersion in France The News 24 21 May 2021 Retrieved 18 June 2022 Decision n 99 412 DC du 15 juin 1999 in French via Conseil constitutionnel Vers un projet de loi constitutionnelle pour ratifier la Charte des langues regionales Le Monde in French 4 June 2015 Retrieved 1 November 2015 de Montvalon Jean Baptiste 1 August 2015 Nouvel obstacle a la ratification de la Charte des langues regionales Le Monde in French Retrieved 1 November 2015 Le Senat dit non a la Charte europeenne des langues regionales France Info in French 27 October 2015 Retrieved 1 November 2015 France Ethnologue Retrieved 18 June 2022 Verny Marie Jeanne 25 October 2003 01 11 03 A propos des Assises nationales des langues de France 4 octobre 2003 FELCO in French Retrieved 17 April 2021 France adopts historic law to protect its regional languages The Connexion 9 April 2021 Retrieved 14 April 2021 Langues regionales Le Conseil constitutionnel censure partiellement la proposition de loi Le Figaro in French 21 May 2021 Brant Colin 2020 Communication and Culture The Role of Language Policy on Regional Minority Languages in the Reduction of Political Conflict Honors Program Theses Honors Degree Program Senior Honors Project Rollins College Meet the French strong supporters of regional languages Eurolang Archived from the original on 9 November 2014 Retrieved 13 July 2008 Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg L enseignment French Dispositif academique d enseignement de la langue corse dans le premier degre annee scolaire 2010 2011 Academy of CorsicaFurther reading editGEMIE S 2002 The politics of language debates and identities in contemporary Brittany French Cultural Studies n 13 p 145 164 HAQUE Shahzaman 2010b Enjeux des politiques linguistiques pratiques et comportements langagiers mutilingues dans un pays monolingue In M Iliescu H Siller Runggaldier P Danler eds Actes du XXVe Congres International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes Innsbruck 2007 Tome I Berlin Walter de Gruyter 163 172 Available at doi 10 1515 9783110231922 1 163 HAQUE Shahzaman 2010a Place des langues natives et d accueil chez trois familles migrantes indiennes en Europe In Andrea Rocci Alexandre Duchene Aleksandra Gnach amp Daniel Stotz Eds Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquee printemps 2010 Societes en mutations les defis methodologiques de la linguistique appliquee Numero Special 2010 1 225 236 HAQUE Shahzaman 2008 Differences de politiques linguisitiques entre nation et famille Etude de cas de trois familles indiennes migrantes dans trois pays d Europe In Suvremena Lingvistika Vol 34 65 57 72 Available at https hrcak srce hr 25188 KYMLICKA Will Les droits des minorites et le multiculturalisme l evolution du debat anglo americain in KYMLICKA Will et MESURE Sylvie dir Comprendre les identites culturelles Paris PUF Revue de Philosophie et de sciences sociales n 1 2000 p 141 171 SZULMAJSTER CELNIKER Anne La politique de la langue en France La Linguistique vol 32 n 2 1996 p 35 63 WRIGHT Sue 2000 Jacobins Regionalists and the Council of Europe s Charter for Regional and Minority Languages Journal of Multilingual and Multicural Development vol 21 n 5 p 414 424 REUTNER Ursula 2017 Manuel des francophonies Berlin Boston de Gruyter External links editDelegation generale a la langue francaise et aux langues de France French language documents on French language policy Archived 12 December 2004 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Language policy in France amp oldid 1207185593, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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