![]() But the days of its global pomp, when it was the language of international diplomacy and spoken by much of the global elite, are long gone. French is still one of the official languages of the UN, Nato, the International Olympic Committee and Eurovision. It’s not that French is dead or even dying on the global stage. A man who speaks one language is English.” He would perhaps have approved, at least, of the doomed efforts made by Mark Twain, who wrote: “In Paris they simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.” A man who speaks two languages is bilingual. As the French writer on language Claude Gagnière observed: “A man who speaks three languages is trilingual. ![]() But for French people, the English language is also typified by the boorish native Anglophone who cannot converse in any other tongue. ![]() This was perhaps the reasoning behind Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau’s quip that “English is just badly pronounced French”. Of course, a fair amount of modern English itself derives from post-conquest Norman French. It continues to issue fatwas against English loan-words such as “email” and “weekend”, and called the proposal to allow some university courses to be taught in English “linguistic treason”. In 1966, Charles de Gaulle set up a high commission for the “defence and expansion” of the French language, subsequently replaced by a series of similar committees focusing on “correct” French and its use overseas.Īnd, of course, there is the Académie Française, created in the 17th century to protect French from the noxious influence of Italianisms, but which today sees global English as the great enemy. This text will be of interest to scholars in French and Francophone studies, applied linguists, African studies, and policy studies.The Académie Française called the proposal to allow some university courses to be taught in English linguistic treasonįrance’s postcolonial equivalent of the Commonwealth is explicitly a language-based club: the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (international organisation of the French-speaking). Using Senegal as a case study to examine language use, attitudes, and languages education in this region, the book shows that the Senegalese people, like most Francophone sub-Saharan Africans, are strongly attached to their own languages, they are loyal to the French language, and they admire the English language. The book also highlights that the challenges faced by the French language in the region are complex because of the significant use of African languages and the growing attraction of English. France has been accused of neo-colonial behaviour because of its repeated political and military interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign countries, its support of unpopular governments, and its stranglehold over the finances, economies and resources of Francophone sub-Saharan Africa. ![]() It shows that, in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa, France’s reputation and image are significantly damaged. ![]() This book is comprehensive study of the geopolitical, geolinguistic, and geostrategic challenges facing France and the French language in post-independence Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa. ![]()
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