We have come to the end of our investigation into linguistic sovereignty. We have seen that languages cross borders in many ways, although they are always rooted in territories, even when they have characteristics of common languages or lingua franca. Unlike economic properties which must be disposed of when they are passed on to someone else, in the case of languages and everything they carry...
In our previous editorial, we made it clear that language was not at all the means of communication that a narrow conception of language has managed to impose, but the immense power it has always been. The idea of bringing "sovereignty" and "language" closer together may come as a surprise since sovereignty is simply the basis of international relations and the UN is founded on the sovereign...
There is a lot of talk these days about "economic sovereignty". Could we talk about "linguistic sovereignty"? The word "sovereignty" is essential. If the concept itself appeared with the birth of the modern state and expresses the superior power of the state over any other kind of power, and since the state ceased to owe its existence to God, it had to draw its legitimacy from the people who are...
Prenez soin de vous et de tous - Passen Sie auf sich und alle anderen auf - Prenditi cura di te stesso e di tutti gli altri - Cuida de ti mismo y de todos los demás - Ai grijă de tine și de toată lumea - Take care of yourself and of everyone else. Can the state of the world change the linguistic order ? This is a question that one can legitimately ask, even if one does not have the...
Why be interested in Anglicisms when you don't sacralize the language and try to preserve it as a museum piece. Because language is a living organ that structures our relationship to the world and which itself undergoes all the transformations and twists of the world. Speakers will therefore seek in its own resources or in other languages the means to understand and say or write what they have...
The Roman Empire was not monolingual, but bilingual, because the Roman elites discovered the full value of the Greek culture and language from which they drew their inspiration. Everyone knows Gargantua's letter to Pantagruel in Chapter 8 of Rabelais’ Pantagruel in which Gargantua, before even listing the long list of fundamental knowledge to be acquired in the sciences, arts, law, history and...
Views on Africa and the linguistic challenge On returning from the first World Congress of Francophone Researchers and Experts organized by ACAREF (Académie africaine de recherches et études francophones) at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, from 11 to 14 June 2019, it is natural to take a benevolent look at Africa. First of all, this congress, which attracted nearly 250 participants,...
March 20 is the International Day of Francophonie, an opportunity to take stock of this rather unknown reality. Some see it as a pure extension of the French language of France, whose future would be bleak. Others see it as a colonial legacy to be liquidated as a matter of urgency Or others imagine it as a literary empire, a major part of a world literary republic. We can extend for a long time...
If plurilingualism were simply to defend languages (in fact its language) as a kind of sacred object, a wonder of nature to be safeguarded at all costs, we would actually not have much to say. The reality is that languages are infinitely more than just a museum object. In Halte à la mort des langues (2,000), Claude Hagège simply points out that it is languages that make history possible....
By establishing a web of links between languages and development, we are entering an area where language issues are rarely present, while many of the works on languages actually concern development issues. By choosing "sustainable development" as the theme for the 5th Congress, we questioned ourselves as linguists on the validity of the expression "sustainable development". As if "sustainable...
La Médiatrice européenne organise une grande consultation publique sur le fonctionnement linguistique de l’Union européenne. Si elle le fait c’est clairement parce qu’elle constate des dysfonctionnements réguliers et graves, ce qui légitime le combat que l’OEP mène depuis plus de douze ans, et c’est aussi parce qu’elle pense qu’il est possible de l’améliorer, ce qui est...
La Commission européenne a publié le 22 mai une proposition de recommandation du Conseil relative à une approche globale de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage des langues. Elle ne répond que partiellement à l’invitation du Conseil européen du 14 décembre 2017 à faire des propositions « en vue de renforcer l’apprentissage des langues et de faire en sorte que...
On 22 May the European Commission published a proposal for a Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to language teaching and learning. It responds only partially to the European Council's invitation of 14 December 2017 to make proposals "to strengthen language learning and to ensure that more young people speak at least two European languages in addition to their mother tongue", thus...
An Armenian saying goes “As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being.” Charles the Great is attributed a similar idea: “A man who speaks four languages is worth four men.” Such a wise saying could complement the European motto: “United in diversity.” Kant, in a famous chapter of his Critique of Judgment, argued that “to think into the place of others” was a...
Culture First! In his new album “Bug”, drawing artist and script writer Enki Bilal imagined a world frozen by a gigantic computer bug. Beyond the imagined catastrophe, he explained on 28th November in an interview for French newspaper Le Monde that “digital technologies constitute the new addiction which has us all in its grip. I have read that a kid coming to life today would, when...
Recovering the power of speech ! As the writer Laurent Binet reminds the readers in his humourous and talented thriller The Seventh Function of Speech, speech is a power, a function long unknown to the linguists. In this respect, Europe, or rather the European communities which have become the European Union, has always kept silent, desperately silent, on the matters of the world and on...
In his latest book, Regis Debray notes that the passage from domination to hegemony occurs when “there is no place left for public debate”. We would also say that it happens when the most obvious manifestations of domination no longer attract attention, when our ability for analysis is corrupted, when the world becomes uncontrollable, when what exists bears the mark of Providence or Fate,...
In the spring of 2013 the somewhat technical debate had unleashed passions and made communication in the papers and in the press veer on to slippery grounds. It took place just a few months after another similar case : the passage of the Instituto Politecnico di Milano to the teaching of courses in « English only » starting from the Master’s degree. In France, the offensive was...
"Monsieur le candidat, Madame la candidate,Les questions linguistiques sont rarement mises en exergue dans les programmes politiques. Elles ne sont pourtant pas anodines et traversent l'ensemble des politiques poursuivies dans tous les domaines et ne sont nullement cantonnées aux politiques culturelles et à la diplomatie.Nous souhaitons vous poser quelques questions que nous considérons...
La démocratie est fragile. Il est facile de s’en rendre compte.On se souvient de la plus grande manipulation connue à l’époque moderne, celle des « armes de destruction massives » qui a permis l’invasion et la destruction de l’Irak. La manipulation n’a pu fonctionner que parce que les médias, qualifiés de quatrième pouvoir, y ont cru massivement. La vérité a pu être...
1 Linguistic diversification In France, diversification is the current linguistic fad of this new school year. The teaching of English had been reinforced for 25 years everywhere in Europe including France. One has to go back to the period when Jack Lang was Minister of Education, from 2000 to 2002, for the teaching of foreign languages to become...
Les citoyens britanniques ont tranché et l'OEP n'a pas à dire s'ils ont fait le bon choix.Le projet européen n'a de signification que par rapport à l'intérêt à long terme des pays et des peuples qui s'y sont associés. L'OEP a dans son nom le mot « européen », signe de sa conviction profonde. Pour autant, l'OEP n'a cessé d'alerter contre l'abandon progressif au profit d'une seule...
Par un heureux concours de circonstances, l'OEP se trouve partenaire du festival international du film romantique de Cabourg, qui fête cette année sa trentième édition.Les organisateurs du festival, notamment Suzel Pietri, Déléguée générale de l’Association du Festival du Film de Cabourg, porteuse du projet, ont eu l'idée ingénieuse d'une œuvre monumentale dédiée à l'amour...
Il est courant dans la vie politique de crier victoire quand on vient de subir une cuisante défaite. Nous ne suivrons pas ces mauvais exemples. Nous avons formé un recours avec onze associations partenaires contre un arrêté ministériel restreignant à une seule langue, l'anglais, les épreuves de langue pour l'admission au concours d'accès à l'Ecole nationale d'administration. Nous n'avons...
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