As you might as well know, this article will not be placed under the sign of brotherhood. And for good reason: I am going to attack a colleague from Worldor rather ask myself about it. On April 11, 2020, in fact, we could read this in the evening daily about the health crisis. This, it was written, revealed the “ecopolitical turn in contemporary thought”, drawing “a progressivism, or rather a non-productivist cosmopolitanism”, a “politics (polished) of the world (cosmos) emancipatory, but freed from modernist illusions.
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I am perhaps the lowest of imbeciles, but, personally, I do not understand much about this sentence noted by the sociologist Jean-Pierre Le Goff in his work The sick society. I also don’t understand why a journalist, whose primary objective is theoretically to transmit information, spends so much energy not writing legibly. Or rather, I think I understand it. In this case, the colleague is not trying to be clear, but to stand out, by showing that he uses a level of language that separates him from the common person.
We are dealing here with a phenomenon called “linguistic arrogance” which can take multiple paths. The use of complicated syntax. The use of optional connections (“Since Zun siècle”). The preference for a certain register of vocabulary (saying a situation is “deleterious” rather than “dangerous”, for example). Non-exhaustive list…
This attitude is obviously not limited to language. In his Leisure class theory (1899), the American sociologist Thorstein Veblen had shown how the new elites established the standards of taste and respectability, whether in fashion, interior decoration or consumption choices. It remains that, through its permanent use, language is the primary vector of what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called “symbolic violence”, which is often accompanied by a form of social contempt. Because it is of course the ruling classes who are best placed to present their way of speaking as “legitimate” – and to impose it as such.
This process is true at all times.. After the arrival of Julius Caesar, the Gallic “elites” very soon switched to Latin. To rise in the social hierarchy, of course, but also to differentiate yourself from the people. It was the same in the Middle Ages. Do you know, for example, that the word “stupid”, before designating a naive and slightly stupid person, applied to the hawk barely out of the nest, which therefore had to be “un-stupid”? The use of these types of terms allowed the aristocrats to use a vocabulary that distinguished them from the peasants – because the masses obviously did not practice falconry. Later, it was the provincial “elites” who were the first to adopt French to mark their superiority over the “little ones”, who remained faithful to regional languages. Today, the use of anglicisms has taken over.
France is obviously not exclusive to this type of behavior. In Ireland, the dominant classes rallied to English while the working classes remained faithful to Gaelic for a longer time. In our African colonies, the “chief’s sons” learned French to occupy advantageous social positions. A similar phenomenon was observed in India, where the British crown formed a local English-speaking elite, sharing its values and interests (1).
To everyone’s credit, the phenomenon most often takes place unconsciously, as highlighted in an excellent article on the site. Publicist. In fact, the “aggressor” is sincerely convinced that his linguistic practice is the only valid one. And this is explained: we have all internalized the idea that there is only one “good” French. However, linguists know: the different ways of expressing oneself are in reality “variants”, as are the Quebec or Geneva forms of our language. Let’s take a concrete example. If you decide to say “We would be wrong” at a party, you will immediately appear uneducated. And yet… This formulation was in common use in the 14th and 15th centuries at the court of the King of France! It will ultimately be discredited by the aristocracy, anxious to show its “superiority” vis-à-vis the working classes, “guilty” of still using this turn of phrase.
Faced with this situation, certain ideologues believed they would find the solution from the Revolution by seeking to “annihilate” the so-called regional languages and by imposing French on everyone. Their laudable intention was to allow all of the people to access the language of power, whereas it was previously reserved for the nobility alone. Cruel mistake! Because there are other ways of despising another’s mode of expression, whether it is vocabulary or accent. An observation which leads the historian Rozenn Milin to this clear conclusion on the situation in contemporary France (2): “In reality, it is not enough to speak French, it must still be class French. superiors of Ile-de-France.” Another way to preserve the art of distinction.
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(1) The Language of the Blue Books: The Perfect Instrument of Empireby Gwyneth Tyson Roberts, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1998, pp. 55-56)
(2) “From the hoof to the monkey skull, history, modalities and consequences of the imposition of a dominant language: Brittany, Senegal and other territories”, by Rozenn Milin. Doctoral thesis in sociology, Rennes II University, directed by Ronan Le Coadic and Ibrahima Thioub.
Read elsewhere
Corsican language: Gilles Simeoni calls for a change to the Constitution
The Marseille administrative court of appeal confirmed on November 19 a decision of the Bastia administrative court. In 2023, he canceled the internal regulations of the Corsican Assembly which provided for the possibility for elected officials to use Corsican – without the translation into French being obligatory. A provision deemed contrary to article 2 of the Constitution “the language of the Republic is French”. The Court of Appeal, however, went even further by prohibiting any use of a regional language. Hence this comment from Gilles Simeoni, the nationalist president of the Corsican Assembly: “The right to express oneself in the Corsican language within the Corsican Assembly is contrary to the Constitution? Our response: we must change the Constitution!”
In Ukraine, English becomes compulsory language in education
English now enjoys the status of international communication language in Ukraine. Its teaching becomes compulsory in all establishments. Its knowledge is also obligatory for civil servants, soldiers and police officers.
Soon Breton and Gallo on board the TER
From mid-December, the Region and the SNCF will carry out an experiment on board the TER, with audio announcements recorded in the two languages of Brittany.
The teaching of Picard in danger
Since 2022, the University of Picardie Jules-Verne has offered a university diploma intended for teachers of Picardy. This training has just been canceled, officially due to a lack of sufficient numbers of participants. A decision that Olivier Engelaere, the director of the regional Picardy language agency, regrets, who puts forward counter-proposals.
Say “writing practice” and not “jogging writing”; “innovation laboratory” (and not open lab) ; “academic training” (and not formal training)… Here are some of the recommendations recently published in Official Journal of November 21, 2024 by the Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language in order to minimize the use of Anglicisms in the world of education.
Check the dictionary to see if I’m there!
Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus and Christophe Rey had the excellent idea of delving into dictionary definitions throughout History. And they unearthed some nuggets, like this one, from the Larousse of 1875: “Woman: the man’s companion; she who is or who has been married.” Which allows these two linguists to ask this pertinent question: do words have “one true meaning” or are they simply a reflection of the preconceptions of the society in which they exist?
Go look in the dictionary if I’m there!, by Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus and Christophe Rey. Workshop editions.
How is our ability to speak, read, write explained? In this popular science work, Xavier Alario, doctor in cognitive sciences, explains the way in which our brain understands language by synthesizing lessons learned from psychology, neuroscience and linguistics.
The Spirit of wordsby Xavier Alario. Editions Odile Jacob.
To listen
Does voice recognition respect accents?
William Simonin, specialist in voice biometrics, explains how artificial intelligence learns to understand the different accents of the same language. By sometimes perpetuating the discrimination to which certain pronunciations are subject.
To watch
An Occitan rocker third in the European competition for regional and minority languages
Liet International does not have the honors of the major French television channels. And yet… this European festival of song in regional and minority languages brought together 10 artists speaking in Corsican, Sardinian, Catalan, Breton and Frisian, wonderfully illustrating the cultural diversity of the Old Continent. Toulouse native Séverine Bonnin, who sings in Occitan, was rewarded for her title Catharsis.
What if you watched a cartoon in Franco-Provençal?
There are, in fact, such as The joy of the sunproduced thanks to the Unesco Chair of World Linguistic Heritage at the University of the Basque Country and the Catalan public television channel TV3. An exemplary collaboration which, in passing, puts an end to the discourse according to which the defense of minority languages is synonymous with “withdrawal in oneself”. Francoprovençal is a Latin language spoken in France, Switzerland and Italy.
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