A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - Ideas and Struggles: Regional Languages: Misconceptions and Real Questions (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Languages to Live By ---- We live in France, the unitary nature of its 
political system and its construction of the idea of the Nation lead us 
to consider one language, French, as that of the Republic, to quote 
Article 2 of the 1958 Constitution. Yet this language did not appear one 
fine summer day, frozen for eternity. In the program "Au fil des pages" 
on Radio libertaire, we presented Gilles Siouffi's book, Paris-Babel, 
Linguistic History of a World City (Actes-Sud, 2024). In it, he 
demonstrates the evolution of this language over the centuries and how 
other idioms have enriched it and could have supplanted it. The Académie 
française, an offshoot of the Ancien Régime, was tasked by Richelieu 
with ensuring orthographic and grammatical uniformity. The French 
Revolution, through the voice of Abbé Grégoire, sought to annihilate the 
patois and other dialects used throughout the country. Mirabeau 
considered France to be a mosaic of peoples. Years of fighting and 
oppression by the Republic, and particularly by schools, have 
relentlessly targeted these languages of the people, combining contempt, 
mockery, and repression. All children speaking Breton, Corsican, and 
other languages have experienced the signal, the practice of 
denunciation and punishment for those who spoke their mother tongue, the 
one in which an individual utters their first and last words, the one 
that comes from the heart.

With the official unity of France achieved, we can only be surprised by 
the virulence of the debates regarding the use of regional languages 
today. Proponents of a single language confuse a common language with a 
unique language. Everyone can see that these regional languages endure 
and are not the preserve of "a few babbling reactionary old men." Mona 
Ozouf, in her book Composition française (Gallimard, 2009), had already 
analyzed the encounter between French and Breton cultures.

French, an overwhelming language?

Rozenn Milin, a historian and speaker of Breton, and Philippe Blanchet 
Lunati, an academic specializing in Provençal, have published Regional 
Languages: False Ideas and Real Questions with Héliopoles. In an 
accessible and humorous style, enhanced with drawings by Joël Auvin, 
known as Nono, they correct misinformation and shed light on the debate 
in a serious and constructive manner, drawing on scientific knowledge 
about languages-not limited to those of mainland France-their practices, 
their histories, their functioning, and their place in the language. 
Based on statements made by people who have no language experience, they 
dismantle the process of ostracizing these dialects. Of course, we have 
the ineffable current President of the Republic peremptorily asserting 
that these languages "were, ultimately, an instrument of the division of 
the nation," which, as everyone knows, he is not!

We are familiar with the contempt for these languages, referred to as 
patois. Yet, they reflect part of the speakers' identity and their 
understanding of their environment. "Nothing allows us to objectively 
establish a hierarchy between languages. There is no ladder whose summit 
would be occupied by 'noble' languages, like French, overlooking 
dialects, a kind of local sub-languages translated into 'patois' by the 
poorly educated working classes."

Denouncing the Clichés

Clichés are denounced throughout the pages. These languages allegedly 
have no grammar. False, so Kanak, Breton, and Béarnais have very 
elaborate grammatical rules. Wouldn't they be exclaimed? Incorrect, the 
first text dates back to 880. Are these languages frozen in time, an 
agro-pastoral era? False, researchers are working on enriching them, 
just as French is evolving. The lack of literature in these languages is 
also denounced. Yet authors highlight many contemporary novelists, 
poets, and essayists. Unfortunately, these texts are not included in 
school curricula.

To further demonstrate the value of these languages, their critics 
consider that they are no longer spoken, or only rarely. This is also 
false; including courses in the school curriculum contributes to their 
spread. And Rozenn Milin and Philippe Blanchet Lunati provide us with 
very precise and encouraging statistics regarding the use of these 
languages by younger generations. Some terms are even used in 
advertising and commerce. For a language of the past... We can come back!

In practice, a language is part of the heritage of its speakers. It is a 
tragedy for human culture when a language disappears, a reality 
denounced by linguists like Claude Hagège. Everyone has the right to 
their language or languages. "Each of them, with its own specificities, 
contributes to the way we understand and approach the world."

* Rozenn Milin, Philippe Blanchet Lunati
Regional Languages: Misconceptions and Real Questions
Ed. Héliopoles, 2025

https://monde-libertaire.net/?articlen=8476
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