Language diversity in Europe: can the EU prevent the genocide of the French linguistic minorities?

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Authors

Jeanjean, Henri

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Volume Title

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National Europe Centre (NEC), The Australian National University

Abstract

Introduction: All references about France, be they about French language, French culture, French arrogance or French cuisine seem to indicate that this country is homogeneous, mono-lingua and mono-cultural. If we consider some of its regions we can note a huge linguistic and cultural diversity: Corsica is Italo-Roman, Brittany is Celtic, Flemish is spoken in the North of France, Alsace is Germanic, the language in the Basque region is pre Indo-European while Catalan and Occitan both form part of the "occitano-roman group, half way between Gallo-Roman and Ibero-Roman." According to the new Atlas of Endangered World Naguages published by UNESCO, all these languages, with the exception of Corsican, are part of the 3000 languages in danger of extinction.

Description

Keywords

language diversity, Europe, EU, European Union, French linguistic minorities, French linguistic policies, European policies, dying languages

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Working/Technical Paper

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Open Access

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