While the UK is one of the 23 member states who are fully signed up to the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, the Conseil Constitutionnel has famously blocked its ratification by France on the grounds that, according to the constitution, la langue de la France est le français. Anne Judge's comparative study of the fate of regional languages in the two countries is a timely addition to the literature, bringing together a wealth of information.
It is divided into three parts. The first traces the rise of French and English respectively and the consequent destruction of regional languages (RLs). The second examines the fate of RLs in modern metropolitan France under three headings: RLs which are official languages elsewhere and whose status may therefore be affected by factors across the border (Basque, Catalan, Flemish and Alsatian); those which are not (Breton, Corsican, Franco-Provençal, Occitan and the Langues d’Oïl); and attempts at revitalising RLs. The third section, on the RLs of Britain, is structured according to their geographical distribution: England and Wales (Welsh and Cornish), Scotland (Scottish Gaelic and Scots), and Northern Ireland (Irish and Ulster Scots). The criteria for inclusion broadly reflect the definition of RLs given in the Charter, which does not cover either dialects of the official language or the languages of migrants. Excluded too, unfortunately, are the languages of the DOM, which do fall under the Charter.
A study such as this (and indeed the European Charter) inevitably raises the question of what qualifies as a language. According to Judge and the Cerquiligni report of Reference Cerquiligni1999, the langues d’oïl (pp. 113 ss) do (though they are not discussed individually in the book), whereas the English dialects do not, because there has been ‘no major move to promote them in the public domain’ (pp. 149–50). This results in a full section on Ulster Scots (and the protection of the state under the Charter), but nothing on the no less vibrant Yorkshire dialect.
The author examines in detail the efforts made to support and revive the RLs in both France and the UK, and the complex roles played by factors such as religion, education and the media. As might be expected, the French state has played an active part, be it through laws and decrees in favour of RLs or a decision by the Conseil d’État in a dispute about the spelling of Occitan, while the UK government has probably achieved at least as much by less interventionist methods. There have been successes on both sides of the Channel, with Corsican, Breton, Occitan and Welsh clear winners, though Judge warns that unless there is strong intergenerational transmission, success may be fragile. The very change in name of the Délégation générale à la langue française to Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France is significant, and gives hope for the future.
The book is written in a lively style and assumes little prior knowledge of French or linguistics. I found very few misprints (the most notable being Asterisk et Obelisk on p. 94), though more detailed proofreading might have eliminated occasional idiosyncratic use of commas, loose constructions, repetitions or minor inaccuracies (e.g. the misplaced et in Conseil économique, social et régional on p. 139) and avoided some incomprehensible passages (what are ‘generally accepted nitons’, on p. 58?). More disturbing is the somewhat erratic referencing system: e.g. G. Tuaillon and Ken George are mentioned as sources of information about Franco-Provençal (p. 106) and Cornish (p. 181) respectively, but neither figures in the bibliography; whereas an article by M.C. Jones cited on p. 99 warrants both a reference in a footnote and a fuller entry in the bibliography.
Such minor blemishes apart, Judge's work is a valuable addition to the Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. It should be welcomed as a text for courses in European studies or language planning, and will no doubt be gratefully consulted by many specialist students of French and readers of JFLS.
