European Central: Académie Française Warns Of English Intrusion In French Language
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Académie Française, originally found under Henry VIII to protect the pureness of the French language has raised the alarm about a growing influence in the French language from English. Académie Française released a 31-page report detailing concerns it has about this influence and includes pictures from various cities such as Paris, Lyons, and Nice which all have messages in English for tourists. The institution went as far as saying that this influence from English may damage the social cohesion of France. There is concern that the divide will continue to grow between those who only speak French and those who speak English and use English phrases when talking. This may be plausible since in 2017 according to data from Eurostat 39.9 percent of people in France speak no foreign languages. Of the 60.1 percent who do speak one or more languages, 51.1 percent described their proficiency in their best foreign language as ‘basic” in 2016. Académie Française is also perplexed that certain English terms are being used even if a French word already exists. An example is the term follower which is often used by social media yet has five possible translations in French. There is also concern that the phrases being used can be confusing as they are not always grammatically correct such as “Ouigo” which is a play on words since it is pronounced as “we go”, along with the slogan of Peugeot “unboring the future”.
However, as previously mentioned, the pictures of signs used as examples in Paris, Lyon, and Nice appear to be used to communicate with tourists. In Paris, the official motto of the 2024 Olympic games candidacy was “made for sharing” and was projected on the Eiffel Tower. The city of Lyon has a sign that says “Only Lyon” with a red lion and Nice has a sign that reads “I Love Nice”, both appearing in a similar fashion as other cities around the world have created in order to gain traction amongst tourists who post pictures on social media. While Académie Française may be annoyed these are in English, the reality is these messages are meant for foreigners and to attract tourism to these cities. They are not likely to cause social cohesion among the French who already live in the country and do not need to be convinced to spend money to travel there.
One aspect that people may not realize about French is that it is the sole working language of the European Court of Justice, the highest court in the European Union. This is in sharp contrast to any other European institution, which are all multilingual. Another interesting fact about the language is that the continent with the most speakers is not Europe yet instead is Africa, where the number of speakers is expected to continue to grow due to the high population growth throughout the continent including French speaking countries. In 2019, 44 percent of the 300 French speakers around the world lived in sub-Saharan Africa, yet by 2050 85 percent of French speakers are expected to be in Africa. This is in part thanks to French being the official language of 20 African nations.
While Académie Française advocates for the French language, it is important to examine how the history of aggressively pushing French as a national language has also hurt language diversity in France. Due to pushing French so much, regional dialects and language have died out, meaning France lost some of its regional heritage. This however continues into the 21st century with the Académie Française notably pushing the French government to reject a proposal in 2008 that would have protected regional languages. Part of the problem with attempting to protect minority languages is the language of the French Constitution which states “The language of the Republic shall be French”, stated in article 2 of the constitution. This helped the Constitutional Council strike down legislation in 2021 which would have permitted students to take courses for a majority of the school day in a regional language. The council also struck down another measure which would have finally permitted the use of diacritic marks that are present in regional languages but are not present in French.
France has also failed to ratify the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, a treaty created by the European Council and is one of only a handful of members who have not ratified it. However, France did sign the treaty in 1999. France’s approach also appears to have continued to contradict that of the European Union as the bloc passed a resolution in 2018 with the goal of protecting the right for people to speak in minority languages and help preserve language diversity. The problem is the resolution appears focused on member states where there is more than one official language already, instead of in nations such as France which have denied legal protections for minority languages that have been spoken for centuries.
It is understandable that France wants to promote and preserve the French language, but it needs to also allow for preservation of regional languages. If not, these regional languages may disappear, partially wiping out the regional culture that exists within France. While French may have gained some English words such as follower due to social media, it is still expected to see an increase in the number of speakers and will continue to be a global language. Académie Française needs to realize this and allow for regional languages to coexist rather than to continue to assert the dominance of the French language within the country which has already been clearly established.
