The place of the French language in our society

Résumé du document

The French language is one those languages which are spoken all around the world. It's the 11th most used language through the world, the second most commonly-taught second language in the world (after English) and the official language in 29 countries . According to some estimations, more than 170 millions of people are French speaker, this means 3.2% of the global population. Europe gathers 44% of the francophone population, the USA 7.6%, Africa 46.3%, Asia 1.8% and Oceania 0.3%.

After the denial of the Constitution of the EU in 2005, many countries called into question the engagement of the French, who were with the Germans, the leader of this process. It appeared that the French were not ready to harmonize their laws and many people misunderstood the constitution, they perceived it as a threat for their culture, their jobs. But, the French can not deny the globalization and the evolutions which are going with such as the question which is on everybody's lips: in which ways can we consider English as a new Lingua Franca?

The French pride themselves for having an extremely "civilized" language, a pure language different from the English which is considered as a hybrid language. An amount of 1 billion $ is invested each year to promote the French language in order to maintain its place and its prestige all over the world. But the inevitable spread of English through the internet, the movies, marketing and the mechanism of globalization, is regarded as a threat to French. How does one preserve the French cultural exception and how does one safeguard linguistic diversity without expelling the country from the international scene?

Extraits

[...] From where come this necessity to protect the French language[9]? First, from the intelligentsia who had tried to replace the classical latin by the French. In a second view, the idea that the French was the ideal language for the international diplomacy came from the efforts of the Académie to create the clearest, the most logical and the most precise language in the world. The Académie aims to have a civilising influence, and acts in a mixture of idealism, elitism and liberalism spirit. [...]

[...] The place of the French language in our society Content Introduction 1. The status of the French language 1. Definition of the French language 2. The place of the French language in the world 3. The International Organisation for the Francophonie 4. The use of the French language in France 5. The French diversity 6. The French language abroad 1. Legal status in Canada 7. [...]

[...] Thanks to the qualtity of transports, the French language spread fast in the provinces The Ferry law was taken in 1881: this law introduced the free, compulsory and non-religious education and was the beginning of a serie of laws which were in a favour of the spread of the modern French. The position of the French fascinated and charmed many people. Any languages could compete with the French which was the reference in international communication, scientific publication and literature. The French was also an instrument of identification for educated people. [...]

[...] This report gave France the lowest rating. The French actually regressed between 1996 and 2005 whereas the Spanish, traditionally the least polyglot of western European nationalities, are now doing better than the French. Under a 1990 law, all Spanish schoolchildren are now taught a foreign language choose English) from the age of 8 and in some regions start at 6. Whereas the Americans and British just allowed the spread of English, the French have spent billions on promoting their language in French-speaking territories such as Africa and the Pacific.What do you think about a country which denies to do like the others and to harmonize their habits and, in the same time, which tries to harmonize process in the construction of the EU? [...]

[...] On the Internet, the place of the French language is growing from in 1997 to more than today Do you speak Franglais? Franglais[12] is a result of a mix between the words français ("French") and anglais ("English"). In English, Franglais means a combination of English and French, which is produced either by poor knowledge of one or the other language or for humorous effect. If one tries to speak French and fills in gaps in their knowledge with English words or false friends with their incorrect meaning, the result is Franglais. [...]