Editing Languages of France (section)

==Status==
{{Main|Language policy in France}}
The official language of the French Republic is French (art. 2 of the [[Constitution of France|French Constitution]]) and the French government is, [[Toubon Law|by law]], compelled to communicate primarily in French. The government, furthermore, mandates that commercial advertising be available in French (though it can also use other languages). The French government, however, does not mandate the use of French by private individuals or corporations or in any other media.

A revision of the French constitution creating official recognition of [[regional languages]] was implemented by the Parliament in Congress at Versailles in July 2008.<ref>Article 75-1: (a new article): "Les langues régionales appartiennent au patrimoine de la France" ("Regional languages belong to the patrimony of France"). See [[:fr:Loi constitutionnelle du 23 juillet 2008|Loi constitutionnelle du 23 juillet 2008]].</ref>

The 1999 [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/dglf/lang-reg/rapport_cerquiglini/langues-france.html Report] written for the government by [[Bernard Cerquiglini]] identified 75 languages that would qualify for recognition under the government's proposed ratification of the [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]]. Of those languages, 24 are indigenous to the European territory of the state while all the others are from overseas areas of the French Republic (in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and South America).

Although ratification was blocked by the [[Constitutional Council of France|Constitutional Council]] as contradicting the Fifth Republic's constitutional provision enshrining French as the language of the Republic, the government continues to recognise regional and minority languages to a limited extent (i.e. without granting them official status) and the ''Délégation générale à la langue française'' has acquired the additional function of observing and studying the languages of France and has had ''et aux langues de France'' added to its title. The category of ''languages of France'' (in French: ''langues de France'') is thus administratively recognised even if this does not go so far as to provide any official status. Following his election as president, [[François Hollande]] reasserted in 2012 his campaign platform to ratify the European Charter and ensure a clear legal framework for regional languages (within a programme of administrative decentralisation that would give competencies to the regions in language policy).<ref>{{cite news|title=Hollande : "Je ferai ratifier la Charte des langues régionales"|url=http://www.eitb.com/fr/infos/politique/detail/958543/langues-regionales--hollande-fera-ratifier-charte-langues/|access-date=5 October 2012|newspaper=EITB|date=2012-09-25}}</ref>

The regional languages of France are sometimes called ''[[patois]]'', but this term (roughly meaning "dialects") is often considered derogatory. ''Patois'' is used to refer to essentially oral languages,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/patois/58677 |title=Définitions : patois - Dictionnaire de français Larousse |access-date=2023-12-21}}</ref> even though some have a current and/or historical use, such as Occitan, which was already being written at a time when French was not and its literature has continued to thrive, with a [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]] for [[Frédéric Mistral]] in 1904.

It is estimated that at the time of the [[French Revolution]] in 1789, only half of the population of France could speak French, and as late as 1871 only a quarter spoke French as their native language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://oyc.yale.edu/transcript/357/hist-276 |title=Open Yale Courses |publisher=Oyc.yale.edu |date=2007-09-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323024438/https://oyc.yale.edu/transcript/357/hist-276 |access-date=2023-09-07|archive-date=2017-03-23 }}</ref>

===Language education===
The topic of the teaching of regional languages in public primary and secondary schools is controversial. Proponents of the measure state that it would be necessary for the preservation of those languages and to show respect to the local culture. Opponents contend that local languages are often non-standardised (thus making curricula difficult), of dubious practical usefulness (since most are spoken by a small number of people, without any sizable corpus of publications) and that the curriculum and funding of public schools are already too strained. The topic also leads to wider controversial questions of autonomy of the ''[[région]]s''. Regarding other languages, English, Spanish, Italian and German are the most commonly studied foreign languages in French schools.

In April 2001, the Minister of Education, [[Jack Lang (French politician)|Jack Lang]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://prouvenco.presso.free.fr/archi.educ.html#lang |title=Educacioun |publisher=Prouvenco.presso.free.fr |access-date=2015-03-30}}</ref>  stated formally that "Depuis plus de deux siècles, les pouvoirs politiques ont combattu les langues régionales", ie for more than two centuries, the political powers of the French government had repressed regional languages, and announced that bilingual education would, for the first time, be recognised, and bilingual teachers recruited in French public schools.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vie-publique.fr/discours/178066-declaration-de-m-jack-lang-ministre-de-leducation-nationale-sur-len |title=Déclaration de M. Jack Lang, ministre de l'éducation nationale, sur l'enseignement des langues régionales, notamment le breton, Paris le 28 mai 2001 |publisher=vie-publique.fr |access-date=2023-12-22}}</ref>

===Cross-border languages===
Some of the languages of France are also [[cross-border language]]s (for example, [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Corsican language|Corsican]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Frainc-Comtou dialect|Franc-Comtois]], [[Franco-Provençal language|Franco-Provençal]], [[Norman language|Norman]], [[Picard language|Picard]], [[Occitan language|Occitan]] and others), some of which enjoy a recognised or official status in the respective neighbouring state or territory. French itself is also a cross-border language, being spoken in neighbouring [[Languages of Andorra|Andorra]], [[Languages of Belgium|Belgium]], [[Languages of Italy|Italy]], [[Languages of Luxembourg|Luxembourg]], [[Languages of Monaco|Monaco]], and [[Languages of Switzerland|Switzerland]].