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The development of French in Africa | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Haldor Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5616 days ago 103 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish Studies: French, Spanish | Message 113 of 135 19 November 2011 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, Canada is an example of a country having more than one language, but that's not working out. In Belgium neither, nt at all. I guess Switzerland is the only country I can think of, where multilingualism is indeed working. But then again, a lot of swiss romands feel a very close relationship to France, the same goes for the inhabitants of Ticino with Italy, I think. And in Africa, the speakers of French are not contained to one region or people, but to social classes, making it a good choice for cross cultural communication. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 114 of 135 19 November 2011 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I keep hearing the same argument. French is the only choice for these African countries because there is so much local linguistic diversity, and to to choose one local language is to discriminate against the others. (As for the situation of Spanish, I mentioned earlier than Spanish was spread through conquest and massive emigration to South America).
I am not arguing against French. What I'm saying is that as we look at the history of languages, nation building and nationalism, one sees systematically a need or desire to promote a language that a good part of the population can identify with. Why do we have many Scandinavian languages when in reality they are so close. It's because we have different national languages. We saw that the North African countries did not choose French as their official languages. We can find all sorts of reasons for that, but a fundamental reason was the desire of these countries to eliminate part of the colonial heritage. In the other parts of Africa, this did not happen. Some people would argue that this is because Africa was and still is in a neocolonial situation relative to France. Others argue that extreme indigenous language diversity and the modernism of the French language are the reasons for keeping French. I don't object to these reasons. What I find interesting is to see how this is playing out on the ground. As I have said, we tend not to talk about the African languages. Are they dying out? Some are, but others are not. What I find interesting, and all the observations point this out, is that we are seeing the development of what we can call native varieties of French that tend towards the more vernacular forms of French. Just as certain African languages are taking on a more prominent role, it is possible, and I think probable, that certain varieties of native African French, if we can call it that, will become more prominent. This I think we be a problem because of the sensitivity of this question of good vs bad French. This is why I have a problem with the use of the word "francophone" countries. This would suggest that other languages don't exist and that these countries speak French to the degree that Quebec and France speak French. Similarly, I wouldn't call Haiti a French-speaking country for exactly the same reasons. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 115 of 135 20 November 2011 at 12:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Just for sake of argument, let's look at what could--I'not saying would--happen if some African countries decide to choose an indigenous language as a truly official national language. Note that most of these countries already make a distinction between the official language and certain number of recognized "national" languages that have nearly no official functions other than some timid uses in primary education.
Obviously, the countries will choose a language that is widespread, often the lingua franca of the capital and the one usually associated with traditional power and prestige. This actually is what happened in all the European countries, and I would say everywhere. Obviously, other languages or dialects lose out. In China, Italy, France, Spain and Great Britain, to take a few examples, the national or dominant language is a variety that came to prominence through a political process. In a sense, the other languages or dialects were "discriminated" against. So, let's say that in the République Démocratique du Congo Lingala is declared the sole official national language. Who will be the most pissed off? The speakers of the other African languages in RDC? Maybe, but I would like to revisit that in a moment. I suggest that the most angry initially will be the expat Europeans and the governments of France and Québec particularly who see a large chunk of the Francophonie going native. Now, let's look at the reaction of the Congolese themselves. Let's assume that the implementation of the national language is done in a planned manner. First, let's not call the national language Lingala. We'll call it something like the Congolese language. A national planning commission along the lines of an Office de la langue congolaise is created with linguists and representatives of all the major languages of the Congo. Standardization and terminology committees are created to work on the written form and to incorporate terminology and material from the other languages. An implementation strategy is developed to make Congolese the common language of government, education and business over a 20 year period. Regulations are created for the language of public and commercial signage, the language of labels on products, the language of communications with the public and government, the language skills of all professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, engineers), the language of computer software, the language of public services, etc. Congolese is the language of education and all immigrants are required to attend schooling in Congolese. For those readers that are familiar with the situation in Quebec, this process is very similar to what took place in Quebec following the implementation of the Charter of the French Language in 1976 that was designed to eliminate the domination of a minority language (English) in a majority French-speaking province. And it has worked marvelously. Now, what about the speakers of those minority African languages who could feel discriminated against? This will be a problem. But let's look at the advantages. Learning Congolese (Lingala) is much considerably easier than learning French. Most of the languages are actually related to each other as part of the Bantu family. And all of the major languages would have some input in the development of Congolese. Children will be educated in a language that has some relation to the language spoken around them. There will not longer be any comparing the "petit-nègre" French of Africans with the good French of France. French will remain an important second language although English will become more widespread as a foreign language. And think of the effects of requiring all business with the government to be conducted in Congolese. The expat community will feel squeezed of course. Many will leave rather than learn Congolese and will be replaced by Africans. Others will hold their noses and plunge into learning Congolese if they want to keep their jobs. The naysayers who have been saying that Congolese is not suitable for technical subjects will be proven wrong. Now that there will be a market for it, technical documentation in Congolese will develop. University departments in Congolese language will develop. Terminologists and translators will have field day. Think of a publishing industry in Congolese. A flourishing textbook, printed or electronic industry will develop to service the education world. Above all, there will develop a sense of pride in a truly national language and not some inferior variation of the former colonial language. The Africans will chuckle as they see all the Europeans struggling to learn Congolese. Business meetings will take place in the language of the majority and not in French just because one European is present. All those minority languages that have been discriminated against will continue to grumble but the advantages of a common indigenous national language are clear for all. The possibilities of social mobility in Congolese will be greater than in French because many of the French-speaking elite will have left. There will be no turning back. Is this going to happen. No. Certainly not in the foreseeable future. Can it happen? Yes. Edited by s_allard on 20 November 2011 at 6:09am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4778 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 116 of 135 20 November 2011 at 9:47am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Just how marvelously it has worked is debatable. It has made French the dominant language of the state, of public signage and of most education. But this was already the de facto case basically everywhere outside of Montreal, where basically only French-speaking people live. The real goal was to francisize Montréal. Unfortunately, the Charter has never fully achieved its goals of making French the de facto language of business and the common language of different cultural communities in the Montreal metropolis. This is a major problem, because about half of the Quebec population lives in Montreal. All it takes is a single unilingual anglo there and everyone swtitches to English. You walk into just about any store or restaurant on Ste-Catherine and the workers are speaking to each other in English, despite the fact that the Charter requires all internal business in companies employing more than 50 people to be in French. I was in Roots yesterday, a major Canadian clothing retailer as you know, and though the workers were able speak French (some not so perfectly), they spoke to each other and to the manager in English. This is the same in just about any store on that street and this is, as you know, the main shopping street in Montreal, la métropole québécoise. Also, in 1977 when the Charter was adopted, Francophones were more than 80% of the Québec population. I believe this helped things along quite a bit. This is not the situation of any language in the DRC. It might be difficult to make the comparison. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 117 of 135 20 November 2011 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I won't bother responding to this outlandish and inaccurate portrayal of the intent and workings of the Charter of the French Language. I suggest that readers do a bit of research themselves by googling "Charte de la langue française - Québec". And of course there is the website of the Office québécois de la langue française But while we're talking about using the model of the Charter of the French Language legislation in Quebec for language planning purposes in the Congo, I would like to suggest how some of the provisions of the Quebec language charter could be transposed to the Congo. First, all government institutions must function internally in Congolese. Unless specifically requested, all correspondence must be in Congolese. The public can be served in minority languages where necessary but all internal workings must be conducted in Congolese. Inspectors from the National Language Office will check that all signage in the office areas, signage on machines, software, internal documents, minutes of meetings, presentations, etc. are in Congolese unless justified otherwise. Second, all members of the recognized professions (doctors, lawyers, dentists, architects, nurses, accountants, etc.) are required to prove that they are sufficiently proficient to serve the public in Congolese. Those individuals who have not graduated from a Congolese-speaking institution will be required to pass an examination on written and spoken Congolese for their profession in order to obtain the right to practice. Individuals can have an exemption of up to two years before being required to pass the language exam. Third, all businesses employing more than 50 persons and having any business with any level of government are required to obtain a Certificate of Language Compliance that certifies that Congolese is the language of the workplace. This certificate will be given by the National Language Office following an inspection of the workplace. Fourth, all public and commercial signage must be in Congolese except for religious and specific ethnic institutions. This includes store signs, traffic signs and any information displayed in stores. Other languages may be used on commercial signs but the Congolese language must be most prominent Fifth, all goods with labels and meant for distribution in the RDC must have labels in Congolese. All of these provisions are included in some manner in the Charter of the French Language Act in Quebec. As one can well imagine, the impact has been enormous. English has virtually disappeared from public and commercial signs except for small businesses and certain heavily bilingual areas. And all those professional immigrants are busy studying French to get their license to practice. This is how a language can be implemented in a situation like the RDC. It's not about declaring Lingala the national language. It's more about putting in place specific actions and resources to make usage of the language a requirement not a pious wish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Haldor Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5616 days ago 103 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish Studies: French, Spanish | Message 118 of 135 20 November 2011 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
What do you mean by Congolese? Do you mean some Congolese language, or French? Which Congolese language would you promote? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4778 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 119 of 135 21 November 2011 at 4:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I would like to know just what is so "outlandish" about my observations. Every one of them is valid. I also don't see how the website of the OQLF is going to controvert any of them, especially considering that no government agency willingly admits to its own inadequacies on its own website. The history of the language debate in Québec has been heavily folklorised and most people just repeat the same old popular historical summaries they learned in grade school and on television, so I would encourage anybody to do more involved research than simply reading the Wikipedia article or reading the law. Check out : http://www.vigile.net/spip.php?page=sections&id_groupe=13 www.languedutravail.com This recent study (http://irfa.ca/n/sites/irfa.ca/files/analyse_irfa_JUIN2011A .pdf) confirms that a full third of workers in Montreal (and growing) work mostly in English despite the Charter's goal of making French the language of work and business, and this even though Anglophones make up less than a fifth of the Montréal population. What I've said about Montréal is true and it would be downright disingenuous for anyone to pretend that there is not an ongoing, raging debate in the Québec press about the state of French in the metropolis. Just search « recul du français à Montréal » and you'll get over half a million results. In the regions outside of Montréal, French reigns supreme as it basically always has. The Charter succeeded in eliminating what little linguistic injustice was present in and before 1977 in those 99%+ Francophone regions which, considering the numbers, is not as impressive as we typically make it out to be. It's within Montréal where the Charter has it's full purpose and meaning, and unfortunately we are witnessing a major setback there. I don't want to steer the topic further in that direction, but for these reasons I don't think the relative success (despite the inadequacies I have enumerated here) of the Charter in Québec can be transposed to the very different situation in the DRC. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 120 of 135 21 November 2011 at 6:01am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The situation of French in the city of Montreal is not the subject of this debate. I have tried to show how certain provisions of the Charter of the French Language can be possibly transposed to the situation of the implementation of a Congolese national language. I have given five specific areas of legislation of the Charter that could be of interest for the Congolese situation. Nobody has presented any evidence to show that the legislation is not having the effect intended in Quebec. Is it not true that members of all the professional orders have to demonstrate knowledge of French? Is it not true that all government institutions have to function in French? What is the language of the administration of the city of Montreal? Is it not true that businesses with over 50 employees have to obtain a Certificat de francisation? Is it not true that all products have to be labeled in at least French? Is it not true that all public and commercial signs have to be in French or with French more prominent than any other language? Is there any advertising solely in English in the public transportation system of Montreal? Indeed, is there any signage in English in the subway system? Are announcements made in English in the subway system?
The point of all of this is that if you want to implement an official national language policy, you have to think in terms of concrete steps and actions that will determine the success of the implementation. You have to address the issue of public signs, for example, rather than just hoping that it will all work out. You can't just declare a language to be the official language. Instead of saying that an official indigenous language cannot work because it would lead to ethnic warfare and isolation from modern civilization, I think it is worth thinking creatively and observing what has occurred in places like Quebec and Israel to see what can be learned. Edited by s_allard on 21 November 2011 at 6:08am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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