프랑스의 언어 정책에 관한 고찰

Consideration of Language Policy of France

Due to the globalization of English, there have recently been interests in the protection of the vernaculars. A direct example is the language policy of France. The French society in the Middle Age saw local or regional principalities emerging and the local dialects began to develop. Among them, the dynasty of the Île-de-France had formed a great establishment, and unified its own language of Francien as the national language, which propagated to the whole country. The imperial order of Villers-Cotterêts by Francois I set the Francien dialect as the legal language and made it an obligation, and thus actively utilized the language unification for the establishment and systemization of national organization. As it passed through the French Revolution, the republic faced increasing threat from anti-revolutionists, and thus began to suppress local languages even more. As of 20th century, the French language encountered a crisis with the rise of the English language led by economic power. To counter this, under the object of world culture protection, France established a culture diplomacy strategy which acknowledges the cultural diversity (diversité culturelle). The local languages of France, however, are not being used in all parts of public agencies, and it is not possible to execute a trial in local languages. France would need to be more open towards languages of other nations and local regions.