From Post-Revolutionary “Glottophobia” to The Bill Against “Accent Discrimination”: France's Tortuous Journey Towards Linguistic Diversity

Title
From Post-Revolutionary “Glottophobia” to The Bill Against “Accent Discrimination”: France's Tortuous Journey Towards Linguistic Diversity
Publication Date
2024-07-23
Author(s)
Gosetti, Valentina
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5896-9146
Email: vgosetti@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:vgosetti
Editor
Editor(s): Finex Ndhlovu, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Routledge
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Edition
1
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/61759
Abstract

In December 2019, Blanchet’s concept of glottophobia was quoted in a bill presented at the Assemblé Nationale, France’s lower parliament chamber, aimed at banning all discrimination based on regional accents, considered at the same level as other forms of discrimination like racism and sexism. This chapter traces France’s history of language oppression and ‘internal colonialism’, from the French Revolution’s efforts to extirpate France’s ‘barbaric idioms’ via France’s refusal to ratify the ‘European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages’ to the recent bill to ban accent discrimination. The aim is to explore the strong nexus between language purity and national identity in the modern nation-state as well as the recent tortuous journey to embrace linguistic diversity and promote language justice.

Link
Citation
Language and Decolonisation: An Interdisciplinary Approach, p. 271-293
ISBN
9781003313618
9781032322544
9781032322537
Start page
271
End page
293

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