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The French And Their Minorities: The Legal 'Linguicide' Arsenal, Henri A. Jeanjean

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

French Government policies to exclude, silence or outlaw regional minority languages date back as far as the 16th century and are clearly manifest in the nation’s legislation. Despite this, marginal languages have continued to survive and in some cases have experienced notable revivals. Perhaps to combat this resistance, a stronger arsenal was developed by the dominant culture in the 1990s—in particular through an amendment of Article 2 of the Constitution and the Toubon Law—in order to ensure the eradication of regional languages.