Event report

“Will English one day be the only language spoken in France?” with: Michel Feltin-Palas, journalist at L’Express, editor of the newsletter on French languages “Sur le bout des langues” and author of “Le français, un sibuleuse histoire” (Éditions Larousse) Yves Montenay, president of the Institut Culture, Economy et Geopolitics (ICEG), writer and blog host Michel Feltin-Palas (MFP) recalls that a change of language in a territory is not a rare phenomenon, it is common but not natural. To date, these changes have generally been due to military or religious conquests. To do this it takes conditions and MFP cites four main ones: the perceived usefulness of the new language, the prestige of the new language, the attitude of the local elites to the old language and time. In conclusion, MFP acknowledges that not all the conditions for the disappearance of the use of French in France have yet been met, but the process of disappearance is under way. Yves Montenay (YM) recalled that the protection of the French language can be ensured because the language is that of a state which has in its constitution Article 2 (which states that French is the language of the country) and a specific law: the Toubon Law. The problem is that the law is not enforced and even when there is a trial, they often fail for questions of detail not for a substantive matter. YM informed that the languages spoken in France are French, regional languages, immigration languages and some English. Statistical studies show that regional languages and immigration languages are relatively poorly transmitted while English is transmitted almost 100 %. French, being a language of instruction, is transmitted. YM thinks that the process of disappearance of a language is much faster today than it was in the time of Latin, in particular, because the school is widespread. Under today’s conditions, it is recognised that a language disappears in three generations. YM believes that Francophonie is a chance for the French language. Indeed, the number of speakers of French continues to grow thanks to African speakers. French therefore continues to be an international language. Machine translation in writing is of fairly good quality. It therefore reduces the pressure for learning English. Oral machine translation still needs to be improved.