The minoritie in Europe: french example

The Linguistic Minority in Europe : The french example

Introduction

           To begin with and for the sake (raison) of better presentation, I would like to explain to you what is, in Europe and in the rest of the world, a linguistic minority group.

First of all, it is important to define a regional language, which is a language spoken in a territory ruled (gouverné) by a state, but without being the official language of this state. Most of the time, those languages are spoken in small parts of a country, and they can either be used by the majority of the citizens of those regions or by a small minority. The notion of minority depends on the scale (échelle) of the state studied: a national minority can be a regional majority. The regional languages are sometimes protected by regional administrations, sometimes by the State. But in some cases, they are not protected at all.

Most of the European states recognize (reconnaître) their regional languages by giving them a specific status. This is the case in Spain, in Belgium and in Italy for example. There are different language politics in Europe, such as (tels que) the recognition (or not) of a language as an official language. This means (signifie) that the official documents will be published in this language. In some countries, there are many main (principale) languages. Minority languages can also be discouraged (like Breton) or promoted (like Flemish).

Having said (cela dit) that, we can now study more precisely the question of linguistic minorities in Europe in the light of the French example, which is very illustrative. First, I'm going to briefly describe the traditional vision of the state in France, which is called Jacobinism, and its consequences. Then, (ensuite) I will try to make a distinction between the different status and importance of the languages used in France. I will also try to answer some of the main questions such as the status of Corsica, and the languages here. Lastly, I'am going to focus on the specific linguistic minority policy implemented in France.

The French example: how can a State be able to deal with its language minorities without erasing its traditional vision of the national unity?

(L'exemple français: comment un État peut être en mesure de faire face à ses minorités linguistiques sans effacer sa vision traditionnelle de l'unité nationale?)

Part 1 : The traditional vision of the state in France and its consequences regarding language minorities

I think that, in order (donner) to give a good and precise description of the status of the minorities in France, it is essential to say that the conception of the state in France is really different than in the rest of Europe. The power has to be concentrated in a main capital, and the state has to be united. the French political tradition is really far from the idea of decentralization. In the 19° century, after the French revolution in 1789, the main political vision of the state was called '' Jacobinism''. This vision was a very concentrated power, a very hierarchical division of the country. What are the consequences of this political vision of the state for the language minorities in France?

From that political tradition results the ambition to have the same rules everywhere in every single part of the state: '' one state, one power, one law''. That's why no difference or no specific status could have been accepted. To preserve the unity of the state, everything has been done to hide (cacher) the regional specificities and to promote a single vision of the state. Of course that can't be imagined nowadays, and even if French is from far de most spoken language in France there is still some regional specificity as we will discuss in a second part and as you can see on this map (sur cette carte).

Part 2 : The respective importance of the minority languages spoken in France

I will try to make a distinction between the different status and importance of the languages used in France.

First they are some cross border (transfrontalières) languages, and given the fact that France has a lot of border with different countries we can find a lot of cross border languages. In the north of France some people speak Flemish or Dutch for example. Then in the East some people speak German. In the South of France there are some communities where Basque and Catalan can be used as a common language.

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