ABSTRACT
France is a country well known for its long history of language legislation and for its highly centralized administration and education system. Several researchers have analysed how French has been institutionalized as the common national language (Ager, 1999; Le Nevez, 2006; Sanders, 1996), and how, in the process, minority languages have been vitiated (Grillo, 1989; May, 2001; Williams, 1991). As recently as 1992 an amendment was added to the French constitution stating explicitly yet again that the language of the Republic is French (Journal Officiel, 1992), and in 1994 the Toubon law made the use of French obligatory in five domains: education, employment, the media, commerce and public meetings. More recently again (May 22, 2008), when the Parliament voted almost unanimously for the inclusion of regional languages in the Constitution (France 3.fr., 2008, 10/06),1 the Académie Française instantly asked (unanimously also) for the withdrawal of this amendment, using the traditional arguments of regional languages posing a threat to the unity of the nation and encouraging the development of ‘communautarisme’ (L’Express, 2008, 24/07).
