12 8.5: Francophonie – Points culturels

The French Academy

L’Académie Française (The French Academy) is an institution whose purpose is to standardize the French language. This means that its 40 members are in charge of making sure the rules and proper use (le bon usage) of the language are taught and respected.

L’Académie is indeed comprised of 40 members, male or female, informally called the immortals (les immortels) because they are elected for life. They can be elected from any walk of life, regardless of their education.

L’Académie publishes an official dictionary of the French language, and it announces new words that make their way into the dictionary. One of the new words was smiley which entered the dictionary in 2019. The latest edition of the dictionary, the 9th edition, was published in 2012.

The French Academy was created in 1634 by a famous cardinal and minister to King Louis XIII, le cardinal Richelieu. In 1635, it became official by Kind Louis XIII.

Some famous immortels throughout history are Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Louis Pasteur.

Le français du Moyen Âge

What languages were spoken in France before the Académie Française came about? And did France have one dominant language before the 17^th century?

During the 5^th century B.C., there were three main languages were spoken in France, le grec (Greek), le ligure (Ligurian), and le latin (latin). Then, when the Franks invaded France, their language became intertwined with these three existing languages and that is what brought about the roman or gallo-roman, which was a form of vernacular Latin language.

The oldest document of written roman or Old French that has survived is called “The Oaths of Strasbourg” (les Serments de Strasbourg), written in 842 AD. It was a pledge of allegiance between Louis the German (Louis le Germanique), ruler of East Francia and his half-brother Charles the Bald (Charles le Chauve), ruler of West Francia against their brother Lothair I (Lothaire 1er). The two brothers spoke different languages, so the Oaths were written in Medieval Latin (le latin médiéval), Old French (le roman), and High German (le tudesque). It is said that this document gave birth to the French language.

In the Middle Ages, the educated spoken classical Latin while the rest of the population a vernacular Latin. During the 10^th century, the king Hugues Capet was the first to officially use the French language, called le francien at the time, and to begin nationalizing the French language. But during the Middle Ages, and until the 16^th century, there were many very different dialects of the French language spoken all over France. In the northern region, the language was called la langue d’oïl, oïl meaning yes, and in the southern region the language was called la langue d’oc, oc also meaning yes. But there were many other regional languages that still exist today. It is said that the Troubadours (called Trouvères in the north) spread the Old French language throughout the region.

Here is a map that shows the different languages and dialects spoken throughout France. In 1539 the King François 1er (Francis I) decided to nationalize the francien or François language, also called le moyen français (Middle French), spoken in the Île de France region (near Paris).

Medieval French was drastically different from the French spoken in France today. It was rather similar to Latin, Spanish, and Italian.

Here is an example of a text written in Medieval French by author Marie de France. On the left side is the modern French translation and on the right side you can see how incomprehensible Old French can be to current French speakers.

On explore !