Summary
France really embarked on its colonial adventure in the 17th century, following the establishment of trading posts in North America and on the coast of Senegal. This marked the beginning of the spread of French throughout the world, as well as the beginning of its differential evolution. It was at this point that new colonial dialects (e.g., Quebec French or Louisiana French) and French Creoles (e.g., Ayisyen or Morissien) emerged. Since the 20th century, African French has also been spoken. These linguistic distinctions are the result of different types of colonization and the population contacts they generated : in the case of dialects, settlement colonization resulting in a majority European population ; in the case of Creoles, settlement colonization producing a non-European demographic majority isolated from European settlers ; and in the case of African French, exploitation colonization, which only began at the end of the 19th century. From then on, French coexisted in the colonies with indigenous and non-indigenous languages. While the latter two disappeared in the majority non-European settlements, they were threatened with extinction in the majority European colonies. As for the former exploited colonies in Africa, the indigenous languages are resilient ; it is French that could be threatened in certain cases.
The differential evolution of French is also influenced by the mode of transmission, whether scholastic (in the case of African French), or naturalistic and immersion-based (in the case of Creole and New World dialects). We will re-examine the very emergence of the French language in Europe from the point of view of colonization (particularly the Roman Empire) and language contact. Don'tterms like " Old French " and " Middle French " prevent us from better understanding the speciation of Latin in Romance Europe under the influence of indigenous substratic languages ? And isn't the undermining of regional languages the consequence of the same dynamics of competition and selection we observe today between languages in (former) European colonies ?
The formation of the Francophonie at the time of independence in Africa and Asia raises questions about the coexistence of languages, particularly in an era of global economic globalization. Can languages be " partners " against a common competitor ? Or should it not rather be the member states who should be partners in their fight against the global hegemony of English ? Does this coalition of nations imply that we should grant a privileged, not to say hegemonic, status to French ? Doesn't such a system contribute to disadvantaging citizens who lack (sufficient) competence in French ? Ultimately, how does " globalization " influence language practices in the " French-speaking worlds " ?
