DOCSLIB.ORG

Gallo Language: Distribution Area, Functional Status’ Dynamics and Vitality Factors

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Gallo Language: Distribution Area, Functional Status’ Dynamics and Vitality Factors Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 97 Proceedings of the 7th International Scientific and Practical Conference Current Issues of Linguistics and Didactics: The Interdisciplinary Approach in Humanities (CILDIAH 2017) Gallo language: distribution area, functional status’ dynamics and vitality factors A.S. Bukhonkina V.P. Sviridonova Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication Volgograd State University Volgograd State University Volgograd, Russia Volgograd, Russia [email protected] [email protected] A.V. Stramnoy Department of Economy and Managements Volgograd State Technical University Volgograd, Russia [email protected] Abstract—This paper discusses the distribution area, the language, acquiring such characteristics as writing and functional status and vitality factors of the Gallo language institutionality. The rest of the Northern Romance dialects relating to the languages of the northern regions of France gradually started to fade away and eventually either (langues d'oil), and classified by UNESCO among the languages disappeared completely, preserved its rudiments in regional on the verge of extinction. The sociolinguistic situation in Upper dialects, or, as in the case of Gallo, began to be perceived as Brittany, where they speak Gallo, requires close attention: it is dialectal variants of the French language. However, it is worth more complex than in Lower Brittany, as the territory of the mentioning that Gallo is the only form of the Northern spread of its indigenous language is a buffer zone between the Romance speech that received the status of the regional continental romance habitat and Breton enclave in the west of the language, which is acknowledged by the Ministry of National peninsula. If the Breton language as a historical language of Education of France. Upper Brittany is well known in France and abroad, the Gallo language is little known. This due to the fact that the Breton Secondly, the Breton language being the basis of the language has been considered as the only true historical language Breton identity has always been considered the only true of Brittany. The paper analyses the dynamics of the functional language of historical Brittany and outmatched Gallo with this status of the Gallo because the interest in its study has really region being positioned as a successor of Celtic culture increased, its positions have strengthened, as well as the overall tradition. Breton has always had the status of the language social and cultural context related to regional languages in even if it was supplanted from the local communicative France has changed. In addition, the paper involves the analysis environment. According to H.Walter, “the Breton language, of the Gallo language generation transmission, actual number of the Gallo language speakers, spheres of its use and the degree of apparently being different from French, seems more Breton as its vitality in conditions of domination of the majority (the Romance forms of speech in Upper Brittany poorly contribute French) language and the other local language (the Breton to image creating of Breton, the non-romance region. In this language). regard, residents of Upper Brittany are not considered to be Bretons, unlike residents of Lower Brittany” [1]. Keywords— Gallo language; Upper Brittany; language vitality; II. DISTRIBUTION ZONE OF GALLO I. INTRODUCTION The term Gallo is of Breton origin and means “foreign, The Breton language as a historical language of Upper alien”. Initially, this word was used to refer to those who did Brittany is quite well known within and outside of France, not speak the Breton language. First written usage of this term whereas the language of Lower Brittany (Gallo) is little known dates back to XIV century. Since that time it was more and overshadowed by the former. This is due to several widespread in linguistic environment; the adaptation by the reasons. Firstly, for a long time Gallo had been wrongly native speakers was sporadic as they prefered to call it “patois, perceived as a distorted local variant of the standard French uncultivated speech” (patois, parler local). Currently, it is language. This perception was connected to the fact that both quite difficult to identify language facts of the Romance Gallo and French are related to the language group that region area as the major part of the spoken language in this originated from the Northern Romance speech, which includes area fits into the inherent form of speech (Gallo) along with poitevin, norman and picardian dialects. As a result of a acquired standard French. Due to the fact that Gallo and favourable historical and political context, French, among French have a lot in common, indigenous population does not other equal languages, received the status of supradialectal perceive this mixed form of speech as a regional language. Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. 57 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 97 This can be proved by the results of several polls conducted in as it is relatively easy to distinguish and classify French form Brittany, which show that the local population does not of speech in this area. But it is incredibly difficult to say where understand the expression “regional French language” [2]. The Gallo begins if it really begins somewhere [6]. main problem facing specialists in northern French dialects, which are closely-related to French, is to define the borders As a result, conducting polls about the transmission and and separate them from regional variants of the French use of this idiom in everyday life is complicated. Standard language. For the majority of people, Gallo is still considered question for this analysis “How often and in what situation do to be ‘patois’. It is indeed difficult for a foreigner to hear you use the regional language?” does not require additional people spontaneously speaking Gallo as this form of speech is comments in the distribution zone of the Breton language, but used within families [3]. it can be misunderstood by native speakers of Gallo, as they cannot identify it (which is possibly wrong) as a “language”. Ille-et-Vilaine, the western part of Morbihan, the western Depending on social and age categories, informers can part of Côtes-d'Armor and the northern part of Loire- identify this form of speech as “Gallo”, “regional language”, Atlantique are traditionally considered to be a distribution “uncultivated speech”, “patois”. In this regard, those few polls zone of Gallo. Gallo is mainly spoken in rural areas and less conducted in Upper Brittany [CREDILIF, INSEE] avoid any common in cities. Residents of these areas understand the categorization and designation of local idioms using such local idiom worse than their parents and grandparents. Young terms as “Gallo”, “local idiom”, “regional language” and and middle-aged people have the least understanding of this “patois” as equavalents and choosing the same designation as language. Despite the significant decrease in the number of an informer does. people understanding and speaking Gallo, recently the number of those who want to study it as a part of school or university The first complex poll, showing the number of Gallo programme has increased [4]. speakers, was conducted in 1999 as a part of the project called «Étude de l’histoire familiale» (Study of family history) Moreover, the continuing social stigmatization of Gallo initiated by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic probably entails slight distortion of polls’ results, as Studies (INSEE). According to its results, the number of respondents, especially the young ones, can deliberately Gallo speakers in historical Brittany was estimated to be 28 underestimate (hide?) their communicative competence. In 000 or 1% of its population, thus at that time Gallo took the 4- particular, the tests conducted by ERELLIF linguistic th place in the region after French, Breton (11.3%) and laboratory of the University of Rennes 2 in partnership with English (4.3%) [7]. the Gallo Teachers' Association show that there is an obvious difference between reported and real respondents’ However, the results of this poll could give inexact competences. They overestimate the ability to understand information about the number of native speakers, as formal Gallo and underestimate the ability to speak it themselves [5]. categorization of Gallo was not given in the questionnaire. If a family circle used to be a channel for passing on Gallo, a The question “What regional language do you practice?” regional form of speech, from the older generation to the sounds incorrectly in Upper Brittany. Even those people who younger one, currently the situation has changed. Today use Gallo in everyday life could give negative response to this young generation first gets acquainted with the regional question because they use different designation for this language at school, whereas communication in Gallo within a language phenomenon and call it patois, dialect, regional family has decreased. French and local speech. The modality of the questions can significantly influence respondents and distort the real III. LANGUAGE PRACTICE. NUMBER OF NATIVE SPEAKERS sociolinguistic situation. In this case, “formal characteristics of the questionnaire determine understatement of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • PDF Download Enacting Brittany 1St Edition Pdf Free Download
    ENACTING BRITTANY 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Patrick Young | 9781317144076 | | | | | Enacting Brittany 1st edition PDF Book At Tregor, boudins de Calage hand-bricks were the typical form of briquetage, between 2. Since , Brittany was re-established as a Sovereign Duchy with somewhat definite borders, administered by Dukes of Breton houses from to , before falling into the sphere of influence of the Plantagenets and then the Capets. Saint-Brieuc Main article: Duchy of Brittany. In the camp was closed and the French military decided to incorporate the remaining 19, Breton soldiers into the 2nd Army of the Loire. In Vannes , there was an unfavorable attitude towards the Revolution with only of the city's population of 12, accepting the new constitution. Prieur sought to implement the authority of the Convention by arresting suspected counter-revolutionaries, removing the local authorities of Brittany, and making speeches. The rulers of Domnonia such as Conomor sought to expand their territory including holdings in British Devon and Cornwall , claiming overlordship over all Bretons, though there was constant tension between local lords. It is therefore a strategic choice as a case study of some of the processes associated with the emergence of mass tourism, and the effects of this kind of tourism development on local populations. The first unified Duchy of Brittany was founded by Nominoe. This book was the world's first trilingual dictionary, the first Breton dictionary and also the first French dictionary. However, he provides less extensive access to how ordinary Breton inhabitants participated in the making of Breton tourism. And herein lies the central dilemma that Young explores in this impressive, deeply researched study of the development of regional tourism in Brittany.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright by Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey 2010
    Copyright by Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Planning language practices and representations of identity within the Gallo community in Brittany: A case of language maintenance Committee: _________________________________ Jean-Pierre Montreuil, Supervisor _________________________________ Cinzia Russi _________________________________ Carl Blyth _________________________________ Hans Boas _________________________________ Anthony Woodbury Planning language practices and representations of identity within the Gallo community in Brittany: A case of language maintenance by Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2010 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my parents and my family for their patience and support, their belief in me, and their love. I would like to thank my supervisor Jean-Pierre Montreuil for his advice, his inspiration, and constant support. Thank you to my committee members Cinzia Russi, Carl Blyth, Hans Boas and Anthony Woodbury for their guidance in this project and their understanding. Special thanks to Christian Lefeuvre who let me stay with him during the summer 2009 in Langan and helped me realize this project. For their help and support, I would like to thank Rosalie Grot, Pierre Gardan, Christine Trochu, Shaun Nolan, Bruno Chemin, Chantal Hermann, the associations Bertaèyn Galeizz, Chubri, l’Association des Enseignants de Gallo, A-Demórr, and Gallo Tonic Liffré. For financial support, I would like to thank the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin for the David Bruton, Jr.
    [Show full text]
  • Language Transmission in France in the Course of the 20Th Century
    https://archined.ined.fr Language transmission in France in the course of the 20th century François Héran, Alexandra Filhon et Christine Deprez Version Libre accès Licence / License CC Attribution - Pas d'Œuvre dérivée 4.0 International (CC BY- ND) POUR CITER CETTE VERSION / TO CITE THIS VERSION François Héran, Alexandra Filhon et Christine Deprez, 2002, "Language transmission in France in the course of the 20th century", Population & Societies: 1-4. Disponible sur / Availabe at: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12204/AXCwcStFDxhNsJusqTx6 POPU TTIION &SOCIÉTTÉÉS No.FEBRU ARY37 20062 Language transmission in France in the course of the 20th century François Héran *, Alexandra Filhon ** and Christine Deprez *** “French shall be the only language of education”, pro- Institute of Linguistics’ languages of the world data- claimed the Ministerial Order of 7 June 1880 laying base [4]. The ten most frequently recalled childhood down the model primary school regulations. “The lan- languages are cited by two thirds of the respondents, guage of the Republic is French”, recently added arti- while a much larger number are recalled by a bare cle 2 of the Constitution (1992). But do families follow handful. the strictures of state education and institutions? What The Families Survey distinguishes languages were the real linguistic practices of the population of “usually” spoken by parents with their children (fig- France in the last century? Sandwiched between the ure 1A) from those which they “also” spoke to them, monopoly of the national language and
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Gascon Énonciatif System: Past, Present, and Future. A study of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/12v9d1gx Author Marcus, Nicole Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Gascon Énonciatif System: Past, Present, and Future A study of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance by Nicole Elise Marcus A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Gary Holland, Chair Professor Leanne Hinton Professor Johanna Nichols Fall 2010 The Gascon Énonciatif System: Past, Present, and Future A study of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance © 2010 by Nicole Elise Marcus Abstract The Gascon Énonciatif System: Past, Present, and Future A study of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance by Nicole Elise Marcus Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Gary Holland, Chair The énonciatif system is a defining linguistic feature of Gascon, an endangered Romance language spoken primarily in southwestern France, separating it not only from its neighboring Occitan languages, but from the entire Romance language family. This study examines this preverbal particle system from a diachronic and synchronic perspective to shed light on issues of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance. The diachronic source of this system has important implications regarding its current and future status. My research indicates that this system is an ancient feature of the language, deriving from contact between the original inhabitants of Gascony, who spoke Basque or an ancestral form of the language, and the Romans who conquered the region in 56 B.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Managing France's Regional Languages
    MANAGING FRANCE’S REGIONAL LANGUAGES: LANGUAGE POLICY IN BILINGUAL PRIMARY EDUCATION IN ALSACE Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Michelle Anne Harrison September 2012 Abstract The introduction of regional language bilingual education in France dates back to the late 1960s in the private education system and to the 1980s in the public system. Before this time the extensive use of regional languages was forbidden in French schools, which served as ‘local centres for the gallicisation of France’ (Blackwood 2008, 28). France began to pursue a French-only language policy from the time of the 1789 Revolution, with Jacobin ideology proposing that to be French, one must speak French. Thus began the shaping of France into a nation-state. As the result of the official language policy that imposed French in all public domains, as well as extra-linguistic factors such as the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars, a significant language shift occurred in France during the twentieth century, as an increasing number of parents chose not to pass on their regional language to the next generation. In light of the decline in intergenerational transmission of the regional languages, Judge (2007, 233) concludes that ‘in the short term, everything depends on education in the [regional languages]’. This thesis analyses the development of language policy in bilingual education programmes in Alsace; Spolsky’s tripartite language policy model (2004), which focuses on language management, language practices and language beliefs, will be employed. In spite of the efforts of the State to impose the French language, in Alsace the traditionally non-standard spoken regional language variety, Alsatian, continued to be used widely until the mid-twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from the King's Research Portal At
    This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ English-Medium Instruction in French Higher Education Competing Ideologies, Policies and Practices Blattes, Marianne Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 03. Oct. 2021 English-Medium Instruction in French Higher Education Competing Ideologies, Policies and Practices Marianne Blattès Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Education, Communication and Society Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy King’s College London January 2018 To my parents.
    [Show full text]
  • Celts and Celtic Languages
    U.S. Branch of the International Comittee for the Defense of the Breton Language CELTS AND CELTIC LANGUAGES www.breizh.net/icdbl.htm A Clarification of Names SCOTLAND IRELAND "'Great Britain' is a geographic term describing the main island GAIDHLIG (Scottish Gaelic) GAEILGE (Irish Gaelic) of the British Isles which comprises England, Scotland and Wales (so called to distinguish it from "Little Britain" or Brittany). The 1991 census indicated that there were about 79,000 Republic of Ireland (26 counties) By the Act of Union, 1801, Great Britain and Ireland formed a speakers of Gaelic in Scotland. Gaelic speakers are found in legislative union as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and all parts of the country but the main concentrations are in the The 1991 census showed that 1,095,830 people, or 32.5% of the population can Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom does not include the Western Isles, Skye and Lochalsh, Lochabar, Sutherland, speak Irish with varying degrees of ability. These figures are of a self-report nature. Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man, which are direct Argyll and Bute, Ross and Cromarly, and Inverness. There There are no reliable figures for the number of people who speak Irish as their dependencies of the Crown with their own legislative and are also speakers in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and everyday home language, but it is estimated that 4 to 5% use the language taxation systems." (from the Statesman's handbook, 1984-85) Aberdeen. regularly. The Irish-speaking heartland areas (the Gaeltacht) are widely dispersed along the western seaboards and are not densely populated.
    [Show full text]
  • Partitive Article
    Book Disentangling bare nouns and nominals introduced by a partitive article IHSANE, Tabea (Ed.) Abstract The volume Disentangling Bare Nouns and Nominals Introduced by a Partitive Article, edited by Tabea Ihsane, focuses on different aspects of the distribution, semantics, and internal structure of nominal constituents with a “partitive article” in its indefinite interpretation and of potentially corresponding bare nouns. It further deals with diachronic issues, such as grammaticalization and evolution in the use of “partitive articles”. The outcome is a snapshot of current research into “partitive articles” and the way they relate to bare nouns, in a cross-linguistic perspective and on new data: the research covers noteworthy data (fieldwork data and corpora) from Standard languages - like French and Italian, but also German - to dialectal and regional varieties, including endangered ones like Francoprovençal. Reference IHSANE, Tabea (Ed.). Disentangling bare nouns and nominals introduced by a partitive article. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020 DOI : 10.1163/9789004437500 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:145202 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 Disentangling Bare Nouns and Nominals Introduced by a Partitive Article - 978-90-04-43750-0 Downloaded from PubFactory at 10/29/2020 05:18:23PM via Bibliotheque de Geneve, Bibliotheque de Geneve, University of Geneva and Universite de Geneve Syntax & Semantics Series Editor Keir Moulton (University of Toronto, Canada) Editorial Board Judith Aissen (University of California, Santa Cruz) – Peter Culicover (The Ohio State University) – Elisabet Engdahl (University of Gothenburg) – Janet Fodor (City University of New York) – Erhard Hinrichs (University of Tubingen) – Paul M.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring Occitan and Francoprovençal in Rhône-Alpes, France Michel Bert, Costa James
    What counts as a linguistic border, for whom, and with what implications? Exploring Occitan and Francoprovençal in Rhône-Alpes, France Michel Bert, Costa James To cite this version: Michel Bert, Costa James. What counts as a linguistic border, for whom, and with what implications? Exploring Occitan and Francoprovençal in Rhône-Alpes, France. Dominic Watt; Carmen Llamas. Language, Borders and Identity, Edinburgh University Press, 2014, Language, Borders and Identity, 0748669779. halshs-01413325 HAL Id: halshs-01413325 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01413325 Submitted on 9 Dec 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. What counts as a linguistic border, for whom, and with what implications? Exploring Occitan and Francoprovençal in Rhône-Alpes, France Michel Bert (DDL, Université Lumière/Lyon2) [email protected] James Costa (ICAR, Institut français de l’éducation/ENS de Lyon) [email protected] 1. Introduction Debates on the limits of the numerous Romance varieties spoken in what was once the western part of the Roman Empire have been rife for over a century (e.g. Bergounioux, 1989), and generally arose in the context of heated discussions over the constitution and legitimation of Nation-states.
    [Show full text]
  • Authentic Language
    ! " " #$% " $&'( ')*&& + + ,'-* # . / 0 1 *# $& " * # " " " * 2 *3 " 4 *# 4 55 5 * " " * *6 " " 77 .'%%)8'9:&0 * 7 4 "; 7 * *6 *# 2 .* * 0* " *6 1 " " *6 *# " *3 " *# " " *# 2 " " *! "; 4* $&'( <==* "* = >?<"< <<'-:@-$ 6 A9(%9'(@-99-@( 6 A9(%9'(@-99-(- 6A'-&&:9$' ! '&@9' Authentic Language Övdalsk, metapragmatic exchange and the margins of Sweden’s linguistic market David Karlander Centre for Research on Bilingualism Stockholm University Doctoral dissertation, 2017 Centre for Research on Bilingualism Stockholm University Copyright © David Budyński Karlander Printed and bound by Universitetsservice AB, Stockholm Correspondence: SE 106 91 Stockholm www.biling.su.se ISBN 978-91-7649-946-7 ISSN 1400-5921 Acknowledgements It would not have been possible to complete this work without the support and encouragement from a number of people. I owe them all my humble thanks.
    [Show full text]
  • Reproductions Supplied by EDRS Are the Best That Can Be Made from the Original Document
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 447 692 FL 026 310 AUTHOR Breathnech, Diarmaid, Ed. TITLE Contact Bulletin, 1990-1999. INSTITUTION European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages, Dublin (Ireland). SPONS AGENCY Commission of the European Communities, Brussels (Belgium). PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 398p.; Published triannually. Volume 13, Number 2 and Volume 14, Number 2 are available from ERIC only in French. PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022) LANGUAGE English, French JOURNAL CIT Contact Bulletin; v7-15 Spr 1990-May 1999 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC16 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Ethnic Groups; Irish; *Language Attitudes; *Language Maintenance; *Language Minorities; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Serbocroatian; *Uncommonly Taught Languages; Welsh IDENTIFIERS Austria; Belgium; Catalan; Czech Republic;-Denmark; *European Union; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; *Language Policy; Luxembourg; Malta; Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; Romania; Slovakia; Spain; Sweden; Ukraine; United Kingdom ABSTRACT This document contains 26 issues (the entire output for the 1990s) of this publication deaicated to the study and preservation of Europe's less spoken languages. Some issues are only in French, and a number are in both French and English. Each issue has articles dealing with minority languages and groups in Europe, with a focus on those in Western, Central, and Southern Europe. (KFT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. N The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages CONTACT BULLETIN This publication is funded by the Commission of the European Communities Volumes 7-15 1990-1999 REPRODUCE AND PERMISSION TO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS Office of Educational Research DISSEMINATE THIS and Improvement BEEN GRANTEDBY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has beenreproduced as received from the personor organization Xoriginating it.
    [Show full text]
  • Rémi Pach the LINGUISTIC MINORITIES of FRANCE France Is
    ISSN 0258-2279 = Literator 7 (1986) Rémi Pach THE LINGUISTIC MINORITIES OF FRANCE ABSTRACT Although France is one of the most centralized countries in Europe, its ap­ parent unity must not conceal that it is made up of many linguistic groups, and that French has only in recent years succeeded in becoming the com­ mon language of all the French. The situation of each one of the seven non­ official languages of France is at first examined. The problem is then situ­ ated in its historical context, with the emphasis falling on why and how the French state tried to destroy them. Although the monarchy did not go much further than to impose French as the language of the administration, the revolutionary period was the beginning of a deliberate attempt to substi­ tute French for the regional languages even in informal and oral usage. This was really made possible when education became compulsory: the school system was then the means of spreading French throughout the country. Nowadays the unity of France is no longer at stake, but its very identity is being threatened by the demographic weight, on French soil, of the im­ migrants from the Third-World. France is without any possible doubt the most heterogeneous country in Western Europe, as it includes no less than seven linguistic minori­ ties : Corsicans, Basques, Catalans, Occitans, Alsatians, Flemish and 85 THE LANGUAGES OF FRANCE i?|n.niviANnl NON-ROMANnS IDinMS H I^^CO H SrCA H ^g] CATAWH DIAI.CCT8 o r OCCITAN 86 Bretons.' Most of these were conquered by means of wars.
    [Show full text]