Language policy in France

The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 made French the administrative language of the kingdom of France for legal documents and laws.

[citation needed] The new idea was expounded in the 1794 Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalise the use of the French language.

[4] The report resulted the same year in two laws which stated that the only language tolerated in France in public life and in schools would be French.

In 1925, Anatole de Monzie, Minister of public education, stated that "for the linguistic unity of France, the Breton language must disappear."

But even in 1972, president Georges Pompidou declared that "there is no place for minority languages in a France destined to make its mark on Europe.

However, the law mandates the use of the French language in all broadcast audiovisual programs, with exceptions for musical works and "original version" films.

[10] Broadcast musical works are subject to quota rules under a related law whereby a minimum percentage of the songs on radio and television must be in the French language.

[13] In 2008, a revision of the French constitution creating official recognition of regional languages was implemented by the Parliament in Congress at Versailles.

However, its articles on immersion education in public schools and on use of regional languages' diacritics in civil records were vetoed by the Constitutional Council.

[14] In 1999 the Socialist government of Lionel Jospin signed the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but it was not ratified.

More recently, in a letter to several deputies dated 4 June 2015, François Hollande announced the upcoming filing of a constitutional bill for the ratification of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages.

Other regional languages have generally followed the same pattern; Alsatian and Corsican have resisted better, while Occitan has followed an even worse trend.

Since the rejection of ratification of the European Charter, French governments have offered token support to regional languages within the limits of the law.

[21] Despite being considered a symbolic gesture, the prefect of the Department, arguing that the political rights of French speakers will be violated, appealed to justice to repeal these initiatives.

However, the French Minister of Education, opposed to the teaching in minority languages, asked the Conseil Constitutionnel to declare it unconstitutional.

These are now increasingly common in Brittany, because of the help given by the Ofis ar Brezhoneg in bilingualizing many road, town hall and other official signs.

In Corsica, the 1991 "Joxe Statute", in setting up the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, also provided for the Corsican Assembly, and charged it with developing a plan for the optional teaching of Corsu.