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

Abstract

<p>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.</p>