Language Ownership: To whom does the French language belong?

[Harold Schiffman]

Forwarded From: linganth at cc.rochester.edu


[http://www.canoe.com/divertissement/celebrites/nouvelles/2008/05/23/5649766-jdm.html]

Praising the work of a French-speaking singer from Charlemagne,
Quebec, France's current president Nicolas Sarkozy revealed an
interesting attitude toward the French language. Through a complex
rhetoric, Sarkozy seemed to imply that the French language is,
somehow, associated almost exclusively with the state of which he has
been president for just over a year. Céline Dion was recently awarded
the title of «chevalier de la Légion d'honneur» (Knight of the Legion
of Honour) by Sarkozy. In a speech he gave during the event, Sarkozy
made several comments about languages and nations. I haven't located a
complete transcript of Sarkozy's speech but several of the comments
made have been covered by media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic
Ocean.
For instance, in Agnès Gaudet's transcription, in Quebec's Canoë news
outlet (emphasis mine):

«La France vous remercie, a-t-il dit, car vous contribuez par votre
succès et votre talent à faire rayonner notre langue au-delà de nos
frontières, sur tous les continents, alors que la tendance partout
dans le monde est de s'aplatir sur un seul modèle, une seule langue.»

My semi-literal translation:

"France thanks you, said he, because you contribute through your
success and your talent to making our language radiate beyond our
borders, on all continents, while the tendency everywhere in the world
is to flatten ourselves out on a single model, a single language."

«Faire rayonner» is idiomatic. Its literal meaning is "to make
radiate" but it usually refers to acts which "give exposure to,"
"increase widespread knowledge of," "expand the horizons of," or
"spread the word about" some social institution. Journalists have been
translating this part of the speech in different ways:

"her talent and success has contributed to the influence of the French
language outside of France's borders." (NBC Philadelphia)

"France thanks her as because of her talent and success; the influence
of French language has increased outside the nation's borders."
(IndiaServer)

"for spreading the French language beyond their borders." (Mister-info.com)

In all versions, the association between the French language and the
French territory (defined by national borders) remains intact. And
this association triggered, for me, some thoughts on language and
nationalism.
The "French=France" association seems problematic given the fact that
(according to Ethnologue, among others), there are more native and
second-language speakers of the French language outside of France than
there are French-speakers in France. La Francophonie goes much beyond
France's borders as it officially includes 68 member states and
governments.
While the French language has had national recognition in France since
1539, other languages have been and are still in use through the
French territory. Since the French Revolution, the expansion of the
language throughout La République française's territory has been long
and partly coercive (Holsti 1995, citing Hobsbawm). During the 20th
Century, French has almost become the exclusive language of France
with (judging from Ethnologue's statistics for France) around 85% of
the French population speaking French natively. Yet, to this day,
other languages still share the French national territory. Surely,
France's language planning and language policies must take all of
these elements into account...
Granted, Sarkozy has not said that Dion is unique in "making French
radiate outside of France" or that speaking the French language is an
exclusively French prerogative. In fact, the thrust of his speech
seems to be that the French language should be spoken by more people,
worldwide. But the implication remains that, somehow, the French
language belongs to the country of France. By «notre langue» ("our
language") and «nos frontières» ("our borders"), Sarkozy was referring
to an imagined community which excludes more people than it includes.

It's especially interesting to note that Sarkozy situated his speech
in the context of linguistic plurality. Comments about a "single
model" and a "single language" seem to emanate from a fear of
linguistic domination (and dominance) which goes much beyond France or
La Francophonie. But other comments Sarkozy made during the same
speech are more marked and specific.
For instance, Sarkozy explicitly avoids pitting French against English.
A partial transcription from France's Libération:

«Il faut comprendre que si nous sommes tellement attachés» à la langue
française, «ce n'est pas par opposition à l'anglais», a dit M.
Sarkozy, pour qui le «monde est plus heureux avec plusieurs langues»
car «la diversité est une richesse».

My semi-literal translation:

"It must be understood that if we are so attached to the French
language, it is not by opposition to English," said Mr. Sakozy, for
whom the "world is happier with various languages" as "diversity is a
resource."

Mister-info.com translation:

"We must understand that if we are so committed" to the French
language, "we are not opposed to English," said Sarkozy, for whom the
world is more pleasant with several languages "because diversity is a
treasure. "

"Treasure" seems like an appropriate translation for «richesse» in
this context but «richesse» also means "resource," as in «richesse
naturelle» ("natural resource") and "wealth" or "richness." In a
political context, «la diversité est une richesse» easily resonates
with a discourse
of resource management.

Unsurprisingly, Sarkozy's speech seems to have been politically
motivated at several levels. He apparently made a special effort, this
time, to talk about both Quebec and Canada. According to Montreal's Le
Devoir, Sarkozy has used this speech to refine his message about
France's position toward both Quebec and Canada:

«Je fais partie de ces Français qui considèrent que le Québec sont nos
frères et que le Canada sont nos amis. Je n'oppose pas les deux.»

Semi-literal translation:

"I am among those Frenchmen who consider that Quebec are our brothers
and that Canada are our friends. I don't oppose both."

The Agence France Presse version (through Yahoo! Québec) ends by «nous
avons besoin des deux» ("we need both").
Christian Rioux, in Montreal's Le Devoir has a more elaborate version,
which makes more grammatical sense and seems more neutral.

«Je sais les liens très forts qu'il y a entre le Québec et la France.
J'aurai l'occasion de venir très bientôt dire tout ce que je pense de
cette histoire. Le Québec, c'est notre famille. Le Canada, ce sont nos
amis. Et moi, je veux plus pour les deux.»

Semi-literal translation.

"I know the very strong links which exist between Quebec and France. I
will have the opportunity to come very soon to tell all of what I
think about this history. Quebec, it is our family. Canada, they are
our friends. And me, I want more for both."

Says Rioux, in this same article from Le Devoir, a previous speech of
Sarkozy's, giving equal status to both Quebec and Canada, had been
received negatively. The political impetus behind his speech seemed
clear to those journalists.

According to Radio-Canada and others, Dion was awarded the Légion
d'honneur in 2005, before Sarkozy became the French president (May,
2007). It thus sounds like Sarkozy used a ceremony planned before his
presidential mandate to make revealing statements about languages and
nations.

--
Posted By Alexandre to Linguistic Anthropology at 5/31/2008 09:41:00 AM


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