Политики на Франция спрямо регионалните и малцинствени езици на Републиката
Policies of the French Republic on Regional and Minority Languages

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the origin, evolution and present-day situation of policies of France on regional and minority languages spoken in both metropolitan France and the Overseas territories of the French Republic (départements-régions d’outre-mer and collectivités d’outre-mer). The data are taken from publications, sites of institutions and from an un-published personal research led by the author in South-West France in January-March 2006. The presentation distinguishes the role played by different levels of government institutions: the central Government (the State), the Region, the Department and the newly-created level of “intermunicipality” (intercommunalité) as well as structures called GIP that are a new kind of legal entity that is allowed to develop cross-border cooperation according to the French legislation. A survey of the debate on policies within French soci-ety since the signature of the European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages is made including initiatives that attempt to prompt the French parliament to ratify this Council of Europe’s document. At the same time the refusal to ratify the Charter does not exclude implementation of the different actions the government has committed to under-take by signing it. This is demonstrated with recent data on teaching the different regional and minority languages in France.

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