French vs. English

1
French vs. English!

• The Dynamics of French and English as Global
  Languages

2
The Players

• Jennifer Burkey French Language History
• Olivia Lysakowski French Language Today
• Peter Trezise English Language History
• Maria Pruszynska English Language Today
• Patrick Stephenson Future of Global Language,
  Consequences, Conclusions
  

3
French Beginnings

• A Romance Language that has Gaulish roots with
  Germanic influences
  
• First there were the Gauls, then there were
  Germanic invasions, Frankish invasions, and the
  spread of Latin and Christianity
  
• Charlemagne wanted to restore Latins former
  glory the Carolingian Renaissance
  
• Norman invasion had little effect on the
  language
  
• French triumphs over Latin! 1539 decree of
  Villers-Cotterets
  
• 1635 founding of the French Academy

4
Where is French Spoken?

• France
• Europe
• Africa
• Haiti and the West Indies
• Polynesia
• North America
• South America
• Middle East

5
How did it get there?

• Colonization in North America
• Quebec
• The Acadians arrived in 1604, because of the
  Great Upheaval in 1755, many resettled to
  Louisiana
  
• Colonization elsewhere
• Africa Intolerant of local dialects, emphasized
  superiority of French, Francophone countries take
  up about half the land area of Africa
  

6
How did it get there?

• French Immigration to North Africa
• Up until WWI, many French settled in Algeria,
  Tunisia and Morocco

7
The Francophone Movement

• Really got underway in the 1960s
• Emphasized Cultural and Linguistic ties
• A reaction to the decline of French in academic
  and political circles
  
• Foundation of conferences of francophone states
  1967 AIPLF (Assemblee internationale des
  parlementaires de langue francaise), 1969 ACCT
  (Association de cooperation culturelle et
  technique)

8
Current Status of French

• 77 million first language speakers
• 51 million second language speakers
• 11th most common first language
• 2nd most commonly taught language
• 113 million speak French fluently and use it
  daily
  
• Spoken as a native language on 5 continents
  (along with English)
  
• Spoken in 53 countries other than France

9
Current Status of French

• Official working language of organizations such
  as Amnesty Int., EU, Interpol, International
  Olympic Committee, NAFTA, NATO, OECD
  (Organization for Economic Cooperation and
  Development), Red Cross and Red Crescent, UN,
  WHO, and WTO

10
Decline in Use of French

• Threatened by countries that require only one
  foreign language to be taught in schools
  
• In 2002, 30 of European Commission(EU) documents
  published in French, compared to 58 in 1986
  
• Also in 2002, 28 of European Council(EU)
  documents published in French, compared to 59 in
  English (in 1997 they were equal with 42 each)
  
• Only 4.6 of all websites are in French and only
  33 of students across EU choose to study French
  
  

11
Decline in Use of French

• Globalization along with the increasing
  popularity of American pop culture have caused
  this decline. English has been made to appear
  cool and its use is a skill desired by those
  hoping to leave France.

12
What is France Doing About it?

• 1994 legislation loi Toubon threatened jail
  time to anyone who used the words like le
  weekend and le parking
  
• There are protective laws, decrees and
  directives. Legislation stemmed from loi
  Toubon
  
• Today companies can be prosecuted for using such
  words in their ads
  
• Recently 3 French officials demanded that French
  be the judicial language of Europe
  

13
What is France Doing About it?

• Radio stations are required to mostly play songs
  with French lyrics
  
• Advertisements in English are outlawed if they do
  not provide a translation
  
• President Chirac has asked Frances media
  companies to create a French-language world news
  channel similar to CNN
  
• Academie Francaise 400 year old institution
  whose goal is to keep bad French out
  
• French government body that creates French
  equivalents for English words (ex. banned
  e-mail)

14
Controversy in Schools

• Recently a commission led by an education expert
  recommended the mandatory teaching of English in
  all French schools
  
• President Chirac was outraged and does not
  support
  
• Teachers, unions, and legislators have been
  publicly against this and are trying to prevent
  it
  
• French students have the lowest level of
  knowledge of English. They regressed between
  1996 and 2002.

15
English Beginnings

• A Germanic language
• First there were West Germanic Invaders, then
  Norse Invasions, William the Conqueror brought a
  form of Old French to the British Isles in 1066
  ad
• The English spoken by the peasantry became more
  important than the French spoken by the
  Nobility.
  
• Advent of the printing press
• Dialect of London chosen for standard English,
  Grammar and spelling became fixed in 1604
  
• King James Bible published in 1611 and English
  more important than Latin

16
How did English Spread?

• History of Accepting other languages
• Most words in English not from the Germanic roots
  of the language
  
• Industrial Revolution
• Colonization
• Africa Tolerant of local dialects
• America

17
English Takeover

• America as a world power
• Technology
• Desire to be like cool like America

18
Where is it?

• English is the official language or has special
  status in at least 75 countries.
  
• Spoken all around the globe
• Native Language of more than 375 million
• Nearly twice as many non-native speakers

19
English Speaking Countries
20
English as a Global Language

• Unlike the French Academie Francaise there is no
  such instrument in the English language
  
• Instead a term and journal World Englishes is
  used to describe English on an international
  scale.

21
World Englishes?

• At the beginning of the 1990s, the population of
  Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia would all be described
  as speaking varieties of Serbo-Croatian. Today
  the situation has polarized with efforts being
  made to maximize the regional differences between
  them.
• English has not polarized in the same way.
  Australians do not say they speak British English
  and vice-versa but there is no conflict between
  them.
• The lack of a Standard English allows dialectal
  variations to occur more readily.

22
English Spread Technology

• 1895-first wireless telegraphy in English, the
  signals first reaching Australia in 1918.
  
• 1936-worlds first high-definition television
  service began provided by the BBC.
  
• 1915 though the World Wars-motion picture
  industry with roots in Europe and the US first
  sounds accompanying moving pictures were in
  English.
• 20th century-electronically transmitted
  information and the World Wide Web-90 of
  Internet hosts are based in English speaking
  countries.

23
English Spread Political Purpose

• Some African countries it has become the official
  language. In many it is the language of
  education and government.
  
• Americas hegemonic status perpetuates the use of
  English.
  
• First Language Speakers of English will soon form
  a minority group.
  
• Language Death?

24
The Future of English as a Global Language

• The Peak Of English as a Global Language
• Decrease in native English Speakers
• English as a Second Language
• The New Must-Learn Language
• Mandarin, Chinese
• Third World Languages

25
The Future of French as a Global Language

• Decline as a World Language
• Population growth
• European Union and Global Organizations
• NATO, EU, UN, etc
• Expansion and English Domination

26
Consequences

• Language Death and Birth
• Loss of Rural Languages
• New English Hybrids
• Sciences Lingua Franca
• English Expansion
• ESL and Educational Burdens

27
Conclusions

• While French was at one time the lingua franca
  of the educated world, thats no longer the case.
  
  
• English has been gaining in importance and
  dominance as a language for the past 150 years,
  and is now the most widely distributed and second
  most commonly spoken language on the planet.

28
Conclusions (contd)

• English is most likely just a temporary ruler
  as a global language. In the next 100 years, it
  could easily be overtaken by Mandarin, Chinese or
  Arabic, depending on how cultures and economies
  grow and spread.

29
Works Cited

• Ball, Rodney. The French Speaking World A
  practical introduction to sociolinguistic issues.
  London Routledge, 1997.
  
• Holmes, Urban T. and Alexander H. Shutz. A
  History of the French Language. New York Farrar
  Rinehart, 1938.
  
• Walter, Henriette. French Inside Out The
  worldwide development of the French language in
  the past, present and the future. Trans. Peter
  Fawcett. London Routledge, 1994.

30
Works Cited (contd)

• http//www.ethnologue.com
• http//www.forbes.com/columnists/fr4/1129/039.htm
  l
  
• http//french.about.com/library/bl-whatisfrench.ht
  m
  
• http//www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2003
  /0829auxarmes.htm
  
• http//www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0
  ,1300.html

31
Works Cited (contd)

• A World Empire by Other Means. Economist,
  12/22/2001, Vol. 361 Issue 8253, p65, 3p.
  
• http//www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/lan_eng_sta
• http//news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/02
  26_040226_language.htmlmain