Editing Language policy in France (section)

==History==
The [[Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts]] of 1539 made French the administrative language of the kingdom of France for legal documents and laws. Previously, official documents were written in medieval [[Latin]], which was the language used by the [[Roman Catholic Church]].

===Académie française===
The {{lang|fr|[[Académie française]]|italic=no}} was established in 1635 to act as the official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language, and to publish an [[Dictionnaire de l'Académie française|official dictionary of the French language]]. Its recommendations however carry no legal power and are sometimes disregarded even by governmental authorities. In recent years the Académie has tried to prevent the [[Anglicisation]] of the French language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le français aujourd'hui |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/la-langue-francaise/le-francais-aujourdhui |access-date=18 June 2022 |website=Académie française |language=fr}}</ref>

===French Revolution===
Prior to the [[French Revolution]] of 1789, French kings did not take a strong position on the language spoken by their subjects. However, in sweeping away the old provinces, [[parlement]]s and laws, the Revolution strengthened the unified system of administration across the state. At first, the revolutionaries declared liberty of language for all citizens of the Republic; this policy was subsequently abandoned in favour of the imposition of a common language which was to do away with the other languages of France. Other languages were seen as keeping the peasant masses in [[obscurantism]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The new idea was expounded in the 1794 ''Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the [[patois]] and to universalise the use of the French language''. Its author, [[Henri Grégoire]], deplored that France, the most advanced country in the world with regard to politics, had not progressed beyond the [[Tower of Babel]] as far as languages were concerned, and that only three million of the 25 million inhabitants of France spoke a pure [[Parisian French]] as their native tongue. The lack of ability of the population to understand the language in which were the political debates and the administrative documents was then seen as antidemocratic.<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Rapport_sur_la_n%C3%A9cessit%C3%A9_et_les_moyens_d%E2%80%99an%C3%A9antir_les_patois_et_d%E2%80%99universaliser_l%E2%80%99usage_de_la_langue_fran%C3%A7aise |title=Rapport sur la nécessité et les moyens d'anéantir les patois et d'universaliser l'usage de la langue française |last=Grégoire |first=Henri |date=1794 |publisher=Convention nationale |location=Paris |pages=1–19 |language=fr |access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref>

The report resulted the same year in two laws which stated that the only language tolerated in France in public life and in schools would be French. Within two years, the French language had become the symbol of the national unity of the French State. However, the revolutionaries lacked both time and money to implement a language policy.

===Third Republic===
In the 1880s, the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] sought to modernize France, and in particular to increase [[literacy]] and general knowledge in the population, especially the rural population, and established free compulsory [[primary education]].

The only language allowed in primary school was French. All other languages were forbidden, even in the schoolyard, and transgressions were severely punished.<ref>Lodge 2001: 218</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=June 2022}} After 1918, the use of [[German language|German]] in [[Alsace-Lorraine]] was outlawed. In 1925, [[Anatole de Monzie]], Minister of public education, stated that "for the linguistic unity of France, the [[Breton language]] [[language death|must disappear]]." As a result, the speakers of minority languages began to be [[vergonha|ashamed when using their own language]] – especially in the educational system – and over time, many families stopped teaching their language to their children and tried to [[language shift|speak only French with them]]. {{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} In neighbouring [[Belgium]], a parallel [[Francization of Brussels|policy to expand the use of standard French also took place]].

===Fourth Republic===
The 1950s were also the first time the French state recognised the right of the regional languages to exist. A law allowed for the teaching of [[regional language]]s in secondary schools, and the policy of repression in the primary schools came to an end. The Breton language began to appear in the media during this time.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}

===Fifth Republic===
The French government allowed in 1964 for the first time one and a half minutes of Breton on regional television. But even in 1972, president [[Georges Pompidou]] declared that "there is no place for minority languages in a France destined to make its mark on Europe."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ixmu8Iga7gC&pg=PA75 |title=Language and Nationalism in Europe |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780191584077 |editor-last=Barbour |editor-first=Stephen |location=Oxford |page=75 |editor-last2=Carmichael |editor-first2=Cathie}}</ref>

In 1992 the constitution was amended to state explicitly that "the language of the Republic is French."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qczzKXFmPCYC&pg=PA141 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=9780521794657 |editor-last=Hewitt |editor-first=Nicholas |location=Cambridge |page=141}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Loi constitutionnelle n° 92-554 du 25 juin 1992 |url=https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000723466 |language=fr |via=Légifrance |mode=cs1}}</ref>

The [[Toubon Law]] (full name: law 94-665 of 4 August 1994 relating to usage of the French language) mandated the use of the French language in official government publications, in all advertisements, in all workplaces, in commercial contracts, in some other commercial communication contexts, in all government-financed schools, and some other contexts.<ref>See the text of the Toubon Law in English at [http://www.dglf.culture.gouv.fr/droit/loi-gb.htm La Délégation Générale à la Langue Française].</ref>

The law does not concern private, non-commercial communications, such as non-commercial web publications by private bodies. It does not concern books, films, public speeches, and other forms of communications not constituting [[Commerce|commercial activity]]. However, the law mandates the use of the French language in all broadcast audiovisual programs, with exceptions for musical works and "original version" films.<ref name="OpenSociety">See [http://www.eumap.org/topics/media/television_europe/national/france/media_fra1.pdf Television Regulation in France] a 2005 report sponsored by the [[Open Society Institute]].</ref> 

Broadcast musical works are subject to [[Quota share|quota]] rules under a related law whereby a minimum percentage of the songs on radio and television must be in the French language.<ref name=OpenSociety /> A  minimum of four in ten songs broadcast by domestic radio stations must be in the French language.<ref>{{cite news |title=French radio goes to war with language quotas in fight for musical freedom |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20150928-france-radio-stations-rebel-over-french-song-quotas-stromae-boycott |access-date=18 December 2021 |work=France 24 |date=28 September 2015 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=French rebel over music language quotas |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34422307 |access-date=18 December 2021 |work=BBC News |date=3 October 2015}}</ref>

In 2006, under this law, a French subsidiary of a US company was fined €500,000 plus an ongoing fine of €20,000 per day for providing software and related technical documentation to its employees in English only.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Desprès |first=Philippe  |date=April 2006 |title=Foreign Firms' In-House Communications and Technical Documents Must be in French |url=http://www.abanet.org/labor/newsletter/intl/2006/Apr/france3.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806073213/http://www.abanet.org/labor/newsletter/intl/2006/Apr/france3.html |archive-date=6 August 2009 |access-date=26 November 2007 |website=American Bar Association}}</ref> 

In 2008, a revision of the French constitution creating official recognition of regional languages was implemented by the Parliament in Congress at Versailles.<ref name="regionsqu" />

In 2021, a law on regional languages was adopted by the parliament. However, its articles on immersion education in public schools and on use of regional languages' diacritics in civil records were vetoed by the Constitutional Council.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 May 2021 |title=The French Constitutional partially vetoes the law that allowed linguistic immersion in France |language=en |work=The News 24 |url=https://then24.com/2021/05/21/the-french-constitutional-partially-vetoes-the-law-that-allowed-linguistic-immersion-in-france/ |access-date=18 June 2022}}</ref> 

====The debate about the Council of Europe's Charter for Regional or Minority Languages====
In 1999 the Socialist government of [[Lionel Jospin]] signed the [[Council of Europe]]'s European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but it was not ratified. The [[Constitutional Council of France]] declared that the Charter contains unconstitutional provisions since the Constitution states that the language of the Republic is French.<ref>{{Citation |title=Décision n° 99-412 DC du 15 juin 1999 |url=https://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/decision/1999/99412DC.htm |language=fr |via=Conseil constitutionnel |mode=cs1}}</ref>

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European [[Treaty|convention]] (ETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical [[regional language|regional]] and [[minority language|minority]] languages in [[Europe]], ratified and implemented by 25 States, but not by France, {{As of|2014|lc=on}}. The charter contains 98 articles of which signatories must adopt a minimum of 35 (France signed 39).{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} The signing, and the failure to have it ratified, provoked a public debate in French society over the charter.

More recently, in a letter to several deputies dated 4 June 2015, [[François Hollande]] announced the upcoming filing of a constitutional bill for the ratification of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 June 2015 |title=Vers un projet de loi constitutionnelle pour ratifier la Charte des langues régionales |language=fr |work=[[Le Monde]] |url=https://lemonde.fr/politique/article/2015/06/04/vers-un-projet-de-loi-constitutionnelle-pour-ratifier-la-charte-des-langues-regionales_4647527_823448.html |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> On 30 July 2015, the [[Conseil d'État (France)|Council of State]] gave an unfavorable opinion on the charter.<ref>{{Cite news |last=de Montvalon |first=Jean-Baptiste |date=1 August 2015 |title=Nouvel obstacle à la ratification de la Charte des langues régionales |language=fr |work=[[Le Monde]] |url=https://lemonde.fr/societe/article/2015/08/01/les-langues-regionales-bientot-reconnues-par-la-constitution_4707451_3224.html |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> On 27 October 2015, the [[Senate (France)|Senate]] rejected the draft law on ratification of the [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]] driving away the assumption of Congress for the adoption of the constitutional reform which would have given the value and legitimacy to regional languages.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 October 2015 |title=Le Sénat dit non à la Charte européenne des langues régionales |language=fr |work=France Info |url=http://www.franceinfo.fr/actu/politique/article/le-senat-rejette-le-projet-de-loi-de-ratification-de-la-charte-europeenne-des-langues-regionales-741405 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030004435/http://www.franceinfo.fr/actu/politique/article/le-senat-rejette-le-projet-de-loi-de-ratification-de-la-charte-europeenne-des-langues-regionales-741405|archive-date=30 October 2015|access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref>