GLOTTOPHOBIE.

GLOTTOPHOBIE.I have posted a number of times on the French efforts to standardize their language. For example, I posted here about how it was not until the nineteenth century that France was able to establish a national language which prevailed over the 55 dialects and hundreds of subdialects which were spoken at the time of the French Revolution. I quoted a French official that “Language is what brought this country together.”

This article in the Economist (October 25, 2018) tells about how a French politician mocked a reporter who had an accent from south-west France. “’What does that mean?’ he snapped, imitating the journalist’s Occitan twang; “Has anyone got a question phrased in French, and which is more or less comprehensible?”

A french linguist has invented the word “glottophobie” to apply to discrimination against those who speak French with a non-standard pronunciation. Legislation against glottophobie has been discussed.

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