Linguistic Identities And Policies In France And The French Speaking World

The French-Speaking World is an accessible textbook that offers students the opportunity to explore for themselves a wide range of sociolinguistic issues relating to the French language and its role in the world. This new edition has been fully revised to reflect the many political and social changes of the last 15 years, including the impact of technology on language change. It continues to combine text with practical exercises and discussion questions to stimulate readers to think for themselves and to tackle specific problems. Key features of this book: Informative and comprehensive: covers a wide range of current issues Practical: contains a variety of graded exercises and tasks plus an index of terms Topical and contemporary: deals with current situations and provides up-to-date illustrative material Thought-provoking: encourages students to reflect and research for themselves The French-Speaking World is the ideal textbook for undergraduate students who have a sound practical knowledge of French but who have little or no knowledge of linguistics or sociolinguistics.

This book re-examines the relationship between language and national identity. Unlike many previous studies, it employs a comparative approach: France and Sweden have been chosen as case studies both for their similarities (e.g. both are member states of the European Union) as well as their important differences (e.g. France subscribes in principle to a civic model of national identity, whereas the basis of Swedish identity is undeniably ethnic). It is precisely differences such as these which allow for a more comprehensive understanding of the ethnolinguistic implications of some of the major challenges currently facing France, Sweden and other European countries: regionalism, immigration, European integration and globalization.The present volume benefits from the use of a multidisciplinary approach, and differs from others on the market because of the variety of methods of inquiry used. A series of societal analyses is complemented by an empirical component, bringing a more grounded understanding to the issue of language and national identity.

This edited volume presents an analysis of the evolution of French language policies and their impact on French regional languages and their communities. It gathers studies on language revitalisation from several territorial minority languages (Breton, Alsatian, Catalan, Occitan, Basque, Corsican, Francoprovençal, Picard, Reunionese) and evaluates the challenges and opportunities that they face in the 21st century. The chapters tackle different aspects of language endangerment and language planning and adopt varied theoretical and methodological approaches. The first section of the book reconsiders the difficulties in establishing linguistic boundaries and classification for some regional languages. The second section examines the important theme of the new generation of speakers with issues of transmission and identity formation and the changes they can bring to traditional communities. The third section highlights new developments in the context of new technologies and the heightened visibility of regional languages. Finally, the last section presents an overview of the contemporary situation of minority language revitalisation in France and synthesises the key trends identified in this volume: from the educational domain to the European Charter for Minority and Regional languages. This book will appeal to students and scholars of the sociology of language, sociolinguistics, language policy, minority languages and language endangerment.

This book examines policy planning and implementation and language variation in the realm of intercultural communication in France, Europe, the Americas, Australia, North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. The book aims to discern trends in the development of the capacity of Francophone speakers to engage in dialogue across linguistic boundaries. Each study in the volume seeks to evaluate and analyse the antagonistic situations that have resulted from colonial culture and the post-independence hegemonic cultures. These situations are investigated through their expression in the French language and the languages with which it coexists in the countries considered here. The expertise of linguists and language specialists in this volume provides formalist and structural insights and an innovative phenomenology of language and newly available quantitative and qualitative studies of synchronic language. These methodologies are applied to a wide range of subject areas: law, history, literature, politics and society. Taken as a whole the book offers a fresh perspective on the issues surrounding French within and beyond France in the post-colonial and Francophone contexts.

This text is about the relationship between language and the society that uses it. It specifically aims to discover what drove and drives the French to concentrate so much on language, on what it is that characterises their approach, and on the explanations for the policies governments have pursued in the past and present.

Examines the making of language policy, and language policy itself, in Britain and France, looking at how disciplines such as sociolinguistics and the analysis of the political process help in studying language policy and policymaking. Details stages, methods, and outcomes of the policymaking process, and compares policies in the two countries, with case studies on areas including the Welsh Language Act of 1993 and language policy for immigrants.

The status of English as a global language is deeply divisive and hotly contested. The Local Politics of Global English analyzes linguistic globalization in five countries that differ greatly in both their degree of global integration and their use of English. By drawing on the work of language scholars and the growing field of globalization studies, the author provides a revealing portrait of how politicians, activists, scholars and policy-makers in the United States, France, India, South Africa, and Nepal are debating the questions that plague local controversies over global English. Concepts of hegemony and resistance, elites and subalterns, and liberalization and democratization are incorporated into case studies that provide insight into the politics of linguistic globalization from above and from below. Of interest to students of politics and culture, as well as teachers and learners of language, The Local Politics of Global English is a detailed examination of a timely and controversial topic.