Campaigning for the French, on behalf of the diversity of languages and cultures is a test of the linguist French Claude Hagege , published in 2006.

In the introduction, Claude Hagege distinguishes two conceptions of human languages. The first is an instrument of communication pure. The second considers that language is a reflection of the identity of a deep community. In this second design, it is involved in the essential language of symbolic values: mode of expression of a certain culture , language is nourished by all that the past is constructed traces.

For some, the linguistic state of the world where English is dominant, would be a final stage of history. A language with powerful resources necessary to others, showing a natural law of evolution. For others, the diversity of languages reflects a situation in which each language is naturally the mirror of a people and its representations.

The dominance of one language is no longer a promise but a threat. In Europe and the rest of the world, the extension of the regular field of English seems to be a difficult process to reverse. Claude Hagege seeks to raise awareness of this situation and to open avenues of action.

Part One: Yesterday the French, now English?

Claude Hagege between the radiation of present and former French contemporary universalization of English.

Chapter 1: past and current influence of language and French culture

The French and French culture have shown again and succeeding in the world. Claude Hagege describes three stages of radiation of the French language and French culture shows that today continues to shine in the field of cinema.

Three moments of European influence of French

The first time was that of medieval French , a period that extends from the late ^eleventh to early ^fourteenth century. The French, under its Norman form , moved to England after the conquest of that country in 1066. This reign will last more than three hundred years, leaving deep marks on the vocabulary of English. Following the Norman Conquest, the French medieval forms of spread to Naples, Sicily, the Morea , Cyprus, Constantinople, in Palestine and Syria. French became the common language of the Christian West, and remained until the end of the ^thirteenth century.

The second time was that of the French classic , period from the second half of the ^seventeenth century to the late ^eighteenth century. Shortly after the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV in the 1670s , the brilliance of the literary works of the classical age adds to the success of interior and exterior to ensure the absolute monarchy to the French language a European influence. At that time, as in the Middle Ages , it was in the privileged social fringes that French prevailed in major European cities. The image of French was already that of a language of elites.

The third time was that of modern French , from the late ^nineteenth to early ^twentieth century. This is the era of colonial expansion strongest. The French school and compulsory secular spread, particularly among African elites associated with the universalist ideals, since the Revolution , like the French culture. The foundations of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in 1860 , and the French Alliance in 1883 , are indicative of the feeling that we had the need to bring the culture. There was a conviction of a deep connection between language and culture. French was seen as an important weapon to support a policy of expansion.

The cultural exception today

The cultural exception , which was subsistu expression cultural diversity is the view that goods, services, and cultural products like films, television programs, etc.. should be treated separately. Advocating cultural exception is also promoting the language , living support cultural content. France is at the forefront of the battle is to defend the films produced in their language, imposing a quota of dissemination of French works: in 1986, a law imposed on any broadcaster seeking the Supreme Council of the Audiovisual permission to use a certain frequency, to predict the time allowed for the dissemination of audiovisual original French. The legislation allowed the movie and song to escape the devastating effects of American competition ^{Chapter 2: the position of English in Europe today}

The English occupy positions of increasingly strong in the world, particularly in Europe. This is due to conidrable development in contemporary Europe, economic liberal for whom English is the medium.

The external axis and the internal axis

There are, to a dominant language, two ways of exercising pressure on the others. The first, called internal, the result of lexical borrowing. The proportion of loans to English language Western is less than 7% of the vocabulary. Nevertheless distinguishable frequency in the lexicon and the frequency in use, which can be high if the same words, such as technical terms, appear regularly in the business vocabulary of different professional backgrounds. The phenomenon of the loan is certainly a factor that constitutes the life of languages, but the integrity of a language is provided only to the extent that borrowings do not exceed a threshold, we can evaluate 15% of the lexicon.

Part Two

Claude Hagege offers many ways to reverse the seemingly inevitable domination of the English and thus ensure a harmony between the domination of one language and the need for cultural diversity and language in the world.

See also

• French
• Linguistic imperialism
• French Culture

• Language portal

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