Claude Hagège
Fight for French Language Publication date : January 19, 2006
English is replacing French in more and more sectors: in public life, in large industrial groups, in science. If this were also the case in the private sphere, the other European languages would disappear. It is generally believed that such a dramatic scenario is still far away. And yet, the process of language replacement is so vast and so powerful that it seems inevitable due to a sort of entropy of Anglicisation
It is still possible to react against this by urgently adopting a vigilant, well-defined linguistic policy, argues Claude Hagège, although he fears that France has already given up the struggle on the grounds that to maintain its rank among the industrialised nations it must adopt English, the language of neo-liberalism.
But this is not true, he maintains. English need not take over, and the promotion of French is perfectly compatible with power.
Claude Hagège is a professor at the Collège de France. In 1995, he was awarded a gold medal by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He is the author of the following books, published by Editions Odile Jacob: Le Français et les siècles (1987), Le Souffle de la langue (1992), LEnfant aux deux langues (1996) and Halte à la mort des langues (2000).
It is still possible to react against this by urgently adopting a vigilant, well-defined linguistic policy, argues Claude Hagège, although he fears that France has already given up the struggle on the grounds that to maintain its rank among the industrialised nations it must adopt English, the language of neo-liberalism.
But this is not true, he maintains. English need not take over, and the promotion of French is perfectly compatible with power.
Claude Hagège is a professor at the Collège de France. In 1995, he was awarded a gold medal by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He is the author of the following books, published by Editions Odile Jacob: Le Français et les siècles (1987), Le Souffle de la langue (1992), LEnfant aux deux langues (1996) and Halte à la mort des langues (2000).