There are undoubtedly more serious injustices across the world. Nevertheless: I want to speak out here against one of the greatest inequities of the French language, the one which, since the dawn of time, has led us to value in a most arbitrary manner everything which relates to our “right” side and systematically disadvantages our unfortunate “left” side. Because it is a fact: when it comes to laterality, the hierarchy is immutable, invariable, implacable. Judge instead.
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On the right, it’s quite simple: everything seems good and good. Are you showing skill? So you are “skillful”. Do you need help? Lean on your “right arm”. Is your conduct “in accordance with the laws of morality and duty”? You are showing “righteousness”. Do you live an honest life? You follow “the right path”… Even religion gets involved: isn’t Jesus “seated at the right hand of the Father”? And let the anticlericals not laugh too loudly: to my knowledge, the Revolutionaries wrote the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and not the “Declaration of the Left of Man and of the Citizen”…
On the left, precisely, everything is negative, or almost. If we are in a bad mood, it is because we have “got up on the left foot”. When you die, you pass “the weapon to the left”. Is a piece of wood wavy? Use a “jointer”. Anyone who is stupid is “left”. Besides, it’s very simple, if a person is clumsy (“bad” – “dexterous”!), it’s because he “has two left arms”! I even learned the reason why common-law unions had long been referred to as “left-handed marriage.” In fact, when a noble married a woman of inferior status, he had to, during the ceremony, give her his left hand and not, as usual, the right!
Come on, let’s be honest: this iron law has at least two exceptions. On the one hand, as far as we know, there’s nothing wrong with turning left rather than right if that’s the direction you need to go. On the other hand, since the Revolution, members of the National Assembly claiming progressive ideas have demanded to sit to the left of the president. Note, however, that this habit was invented by British who, as everyone knows, take great pleasure in never doing anything like everyone else…
This inequality, in any case, comes from afar. Right indeed has a valid etymology since it comes from the Latin adjective directumwhich literally meant “without curvature” and, figuratively, “fair”. Hence the link with a field that could not be more prestigious, that of law, in other words “the set of moral principles which govern relations between humans.” This gives you a word…
This poor “left” suffers from uncertain, even thankless, origins. Some etymologists suppose it to have a Germanic root, with the meaning of “crooked”. The linguist Pierre Guiraud brings it squarely closer to the Gallo-Romance valgicusaccording to Latin valgus“who has his legs turned outwards”. It is true that in the 13th century, the adjective meant “which represents a deviation”, an meaning still attested in modern geometry since a “left” quadrilateral designates “a geometric figure whose four vertices are not located on the same plane ” (given my level in mathematics, I would like to point out that this definition is in no way the fruit of my imagination, but comes from the most serious dictionaries).
Oh, of course! I can already hear the most learned recalling that in the Middle Ages, “left” was called sinister. Except that this in no way modifies the analysis since this ancient sinister is from the same family as “sinister”… You will admit with me that we have seen more glorious cousins. Moreover, I will remind said scholars that, in medieval iconography, all left-handers were supposed to be bad guys (traitors, vile, apostates, we forget) and that Judas was generally represented to the left of Jesus. And knock!
No, if we want to find a vague reason to console ourselves, we must look elsewhere and know that the French conception is not singular. In reality, all Indo-European languages consider that there is a “good” side, the right, and a “bad” side, the left. The historical dictionary of the French language note that in Spanish, only the word “right” (derecho) comes from Latin – the supposedly noble language – while its antonym izquierdo comes from Basque. Likewise, under Roman Antiquity, an omen coming from the right side was supposed to be positive, while one arriving from the left side was associated with unfortunate fate.
And we will be surprised that with all this, there are upset left-handers!
Read elsewhere
When Michel Barnier wrongly mentions the “Savoyard dialect”
The Prime Minister assured at the end of his general policy statement that he would “try to do the best, as they say in Savoyard dialect”. Michel Barnier therefore apparently does not know that this so-called “Savoyard patois” is a language, called Franco-Provençal or Arpitan. It corresponds in fact to a specific evolution of Latin in a territory located straddling three countries: Switzerland, Italy and France (from Savoie to Saint-Etienne via the Rhône, Ain and Isère ). It has had literary works since the 13th century (Marguerite d’Oingt) and is still practiced by some 150,000 people. The word “patois” is derogatory and has the etymology “to wave one’s hands to make oneself understood like deaf-mutes”.
The Senate wants to strengthen the Toubon law
The Senate Culture Committee makes 17 proposals to strengthen the French-speaking world. Among these: the creation of a “French-speaking Erasmus”; a promotion of French-speaking cultural content and a strengthening of the Toubon law on the French language. The senators propose in particular to adapt it to the Internet and to apply it more strictly in administrations and public services.
19 municipalities in Finistère would deprive Diwan schools of their funding
According to the Breton language immersion learning network, 19 Finistère municipalities do not respect the Molac law, which requires municipalities to pay a school fee. A shortfall of around 100,000 euros which aggravates the financial difficulties of the Diwan network.
Catalan and Occitan assigned to court
The Sioccat (Intercommunal Union for the Promotion of Occitan and Catalan), chaired by Pere Manzanares, has just been summoned before the Montpellier administrative court. At issue: his desire to conduct his deliberations in Occitan or Catalan, before systematically translating them into French. An illegal practice, according to the prefect of Pyrénées-Orientales, who wishes to impose on this union for the defense of regional languages to deliberate first in French.
How to predict the success of a neologism on social networks?
French researchers analyzed 650 million tweets from 2.5 million users of the Twitter network in France to determine the dynamics leading to the success or failure of a neologism. They explain why “malaisance”, “feminazis” and “Islamoleftist” are a hit while “masculist” and “posticher” have failed.
The café-nourmaund (the Norman café) is a monthly (video) meeting dedicated to the revaluation of the Norman language. Everyone can participate, whatever their level of knowledge. The opportunity to discuss Norman, other minoritized languages of France and cultural diversity in general. Next meeting on October 25 at 6:30 p.m.
Call for papers for a conference dedicated to immersive teaching
A conference on immersive teaching will be held from Friday March 21 to Sunday March 23, 2025. The Higher Institute of Regional Languages of France (ISLRF) is launching a call for papers on this occasion on the theme: “How to imagine learning a language so as not to not speak it?” An allusion to a somewhat surreal decision by the Constitutional Council which prohibits the use of the regional language to communicate in these establishments.
Attend lectures by historian Philippe Martel
This excellent connoisseur of minority languages in France regularly gives conferences. For example, we can listen to him speak about Frédéric Mistral this October 19 in Aix-en-Provence and about Jean Jaurès’ relationship to Occitan in Narbonne on November 26.
To listen
“How did prehistoric men manage to speak French?”
This is the question asked by Paolo, 7 years old, in the show The Little Boatsfrom France Inter. Anne Lehoërf, professor of archeology at the University of Lille in protohistory of Europe, took this opportunity to explain how human beings, throughout the world, gradually constructed their language, how French appeared and why it continues to evolve.
To watch
Cosmogonia, by Laurent Cavalié and Guilhem Verger
The two artists have just released their second album on October 11. And prove once again that Occitan lends itself perfectly to contemporary creation.
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