CHALLENGES FOR THE ACADEMIE FRANCAISE.

CHALLENGES FOR THE ACADEMIE FRANCAISE. The Academie francaise was founded in 1635. This wikipedia article quotes the letters patent from Louis XIII; the goal of the Académie Française was “to labor with all the care and diligence possible, to give exact rules to our language, to render it capable of treating the arts and sciences”. The article says that “The Académie française has remained responsible for the regulation of French grammar, spelling, and literature.” Regulating the French language has required continuing struggle by the Academie francaise. I posted here four years ago that only about 11% of the population of France spoke French at the time of the French Revolution. There were some 55 major dialects and hundreds of subdialects. I should have pointed out that the 55 major dialects remained after the Academie had been at work for over 150 years. Although the French language has finally prevailed in France, the threats from new English words never end.