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Francization

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Francization or Gallicization (and informally Frenchification) is a process of cultural assimilation that gives a French character to a word, an ethnicity or a person.

French Colonial Empire

Lycée Albert Sarraut, it was a French high school in Hanoi, Vietnam during the French colonial period. The school offered high standard academic programmes with the explicit purpose to create foreigners who thought in French and like Frenchmen. Many well-known Vietnamese scholars and leaders graduated from Lycée Albert Sarraut.
Main article: French colonial empire

Francization in the World

The number of Francophones (French language speakers) in the world has been risen substantially since the 1980s. In 1985 there were 106 million Francophones; that went up to 173.2 million in 1997 ,200 million in 2005,reached 220 million in 2010 (+10% from 2007)[1] and the forecasts expect the number of French speakers in African education to reach 400 million in 2025 and 700 million in 2050.[2] The French speaking population would be multiplied by 4 whereas the world population would only be multiplied by 1.5.[3] (This number doesn't include second-language French speakers - this number would easily reach 1.5 billion people by 2050.)[4][dubious – discuss]

Francization of ethnic minorities in France

Francization is also a designator applied to a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by French authorities from the French revolution to nowadays. These policies aimed at imposing or maintaining the dominance of French language and culture by encouraging or compelling people of other ethnic groups to adopt the French language and culture, and to develop a French identity.

National minorities

The term can be applied to the Francization of the German-speaking inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine after this region was reannexed by France following the First World War, to the Flemings in French Flanders, or to the Occitans in Occitania, as well as to Bretons, Catalans, Corsicans and Basques.

It began in fact with the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts under king Francis I of France, that prescribed the official use of the French language in all the documents. The other tongues like Occitan began to disappear as written languages.

Everything was francized step by step : surnames, place-names, etc. Nowadays it still continues but people can change their names to bretonize (replacement of 'Le' by 'Ar' for instance Le Bras becomes Ar Braz 'the tall') or occitanize it again. The city signs for example, must be spelled the French way, but the local authorities are now allowed to add the original way.

Foreign minorities

Francization in Quebec

The Government of Quebec has francization policies intended to establish French as the primary language of business and commerce. All businesses are required to provide written communications and schedules in French, and may not make knowledge of a language other than French a condition of hiring unless this is justified by the nature of the duties. Businesses with more than fifty employees are required to register with the Quebec Office of the French language in order to become eligible for a francization certificate, which is granted if the linguistic requirements are met. If not, employers are required to adopt a francization programme, which includes having employees, especially ones in managerial positions, who do not speak French or whose grasp of French is weak attend French-language training.[5]

As part of the francization programme, the Quebec government provides free language courses for recent immigrants (from other countries or other provinces) who do not speak French or whose command of French is weak. The government also provides financial assistance for those who are unable to find employment due to being unable to speak French.[6]

Another aspect of francization in Quebec regards the quality of the French used in Quebec. The Quebec Office of the French language has, since its formation, undertaken to discourage anglicisms and to promote high standards of French language education in schools.[7]

The francization programmes have been considered a great success, since 1977 (date of the vote on the Charter of the French Language.) the number of English speaker has decreased from 14% in 1970 to less than 6.7% in 2006, also in the 70's the French languages was understood by only native French speakers, (80%) of the population of Quebec, in 2001, French was understood by more than 94% of the population.[8] Also the number of immigrants choosing English schools for their children fell from 80% in 1970 to less than 4% in 2006.[citation needed]

French is also becoming increasingly attractive to foreigns speakers suggesting that the francization programmes have been successful.[citation needed]

Montreal is a particular case, because unlike the rest of Quebec, the French speaking proportion of the population diminished however this does not mean that the francization programmes failed, as the level of English speakers diminished too; it seems more likely that the decrease was caused by the fact that 93% of new immigrants choose to settle in Montreal,[9] with a corresponding rise in languages other than English and French. The government of Quebec estimate that the next 20 years will see the French-Speaker proportion of Montreal going back up.[10]

But those estimations seems to underestimate the Francization of Montreal for some experts because statistics shows that the proportion hass already risen from 55.6% (1996)to 56.4% (2001)[11]

The success of the Francization of Quebec can also be seen over the borders of its territory, in Ontario the proportion of English speakers dropped from 70.5% in 2001 to 68% in 2006[12][13] whilst the proportion of French speakers went up from 4.06% (488 815) in 2006 to 4.80%(580 000) in 2009.

The policy has been even more successful in New-Brunswick, where entire cities became French speaking, for example: the city of Edmundston, which went from 89% of French speaker in 1996 to 93.4% in 2006, the city of Moncton (from 30,4% in 1996 to 33% in 2006), Dalhousie (from 42,5% to 49,5%) and Dieppe (from 71.1% in 1996 to 74.2% en 2006). Some cities even passed over the 50% of French speaker between 1991 to 2006 like Bathurst, which passed from 44,6% of French speaker in 1996 to 50,5% in 2006, or Campbellton, (from 47% in 1996 to 55% in 2006).[14][15][16]

The Charter of the French Language has been a complete success according to Hervé Lavenir de Buffon (general secretary of the « Comité international pour le français, langue européenne »), who said in 2006 : "Before the bill 101 Montreal looked like an American city, now Montreal look like a French-speaking city ,that proves how well the bill 101 worked!"[17]

Rates of francization may be established for any group by comparing the number of people who usually speak French to the total number of people in the minority language group. See Calvin Veltman's Language Shift in the United States (1983) for a discussion.

Francization of Brussels and the Flemish periphery

Main article: Frenchification of Brussels

In the last two centuries, Brussels transformed from an exclusively Dutch-speaking city to a bilingual city with French as the majority language and lingua franca. The language shift began in the 18th century and accelerated as Belgium became independent and Brussels expanded beyond its original city boundaries.[18][19] From 1880 on, more and more Dutch-speaking people became bilingual, resulting in a rise of monolingual French-speakers after 1910. Halfway through the 20th century the number of monolingual French-speakers carried the day over the (mostly) bilingual Flemish inhabitants.[20] Only since the 1960s, after the fixation of the Belgian language border and the socio-economic development of Flanders was in full effect, could Dutch stem the tide of increasing French use.[21] The francisation of the Flemish periphery still continues because of the continued immigration of French-speakers, coming from Wallonia and Brussels.

Francization of the language

There are many examples of francization in history and popular culture:

The same exists for other languages, for example English, in which case objects or persons can be anglicized.

See also

Look up francisation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ^ Template:Fr http://www.rfi.fr/general/20101021-francophonie-progresse-pas-afrique
  2. ^ Template:Fr Cahiers québécois de démographie, vol. 31, n° 2, 2003, p. 273-294.
  3. ^ Template:Fr Cahiers québécois de démographie, vol. 32, n° 2, 2003, p. 273-294
  4. ^ Template:Fr Cahiers québécois de démographie, vol. 33, n° 2, 2003, p. 273-294.
  5. ^ Summary of the language of work and francization of business firms
  6. ^ Information from the Quebec government
  7. ^ Quebec Charter of the French language
  8. ^ souces
  9. ^ 94% of immigrant choos Montreal (French)
  10. ^ http://www.olf.gouv.qc.ca/ressources/sociolinguistique/2005/f1_indic_115_graph_b.pdf
  11. ^ "OQLF_FasLin-01-d.indd" (PDF). Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  12. ^ "Profils des communautés de 2001" (in Template:Fr icon). 2.statcan.gc.ca. 12 March 2002. Retrieved 10 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  13. ^ "Profils des communautés de 2006 - Province/Territoire" (in Template:Fr icon). 2.statcan.gc.ca. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 10 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  14. ^ "Profils des communautés de 2006 - Région métropolitaine de recensement/Agglomération de recensement" (in Template:Fr icon). 2.statcan.gc.ca. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 10 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  15. ^ "Profils des communautés de 2001" (in Template:Fr icon). 2.statcan.gc.ca. 12 March 2002. Retrieved 10 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  16. ^ "Profils des communautés de 2006 - Subdivision de recensement" (in Template:Fr icon). 2.statcan.gc.ca. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 10 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  17. ^ "L'avenir du français en Europe". Canalacademie.com. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  18. ^ Template:Fr[1] "Wallonie - Bruxelles", Le Service de la langue française, 19 May 1997
  19. ^ Template:Fr[2] "Villes, identités et médias francophones: regards croisés Belgique, Suisse, Canada.", Université Laval, Québec
  20. ^ Template:Nl"Thuis in gescheiden werelden" — De migratoire en sociale aspecten van verfransing te Brussel in het midden van de 19e eeuw", BTNG-RBHC, XXI, 1990, 3-4, pp. 383-412, Machteld de Metsenaere, Eerst aanwezend assistent en docent Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  21. ^ J. Fleerackers, Chief of staff of the Belgian Minister for Dutch culture and Flemish affairs (1973). "De historische kracht van de Vlaamse beweging in België: de doelstellingen van gister, de verwezenlijkingen vandaag en de culturele aspiraties voor morgen". Digitale bibliotheek voor Nederlandse Letteren (in Dutch).

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