Read more In 1549, du Bellay published the founding manifesto of a French language in the making and to be enriched. In 2023, a collective of French-speaking linguists, from Anne Abeillé to Laélia Véron, launched a salutary appeal: "French is doing very well, thank you". The misconceptions that declinists spread about the French language prevent us from "understanding its immense vitality, its fascinating and perpetual ability to adapt to change" and even forbid us "from believing in its future". On an internet platform and in a "Gallimard tract", 10 themes are thus the subject of analyses that are at once expert, enlightening and stimulating.
The refutation of the fake news that politicians, the media, and local cafés readily convey about our common and diverse language leads to invigorating proposals, particularly for teaching French. Some examples: revealing how different Molière's language was from ours, promoting multilingual education, "learning the meaning of words, the grammar of constructions rather than hundreds of spelling traps", "allowing spell checkers in exams like calculators in maths or physics", supporting the democratization of writing that digital technology fortunately represents, working on "oral grammar", encouraging "everyone to record themselves to learn to observe their own usage", observing variations rather than condemning "barbarisms", valuing "language creativity, whether literary or not", teaching proximity agreement "alongside agreement in the masculine plural", educating on "why" rather than instilling "how"...
The collective invites you to sign its appeal. There is no doubt that the "terrified linguists", well-informed and rightly committed, will be joined by literature teachers, who are particularly exhausted by the injunction to dictation and labeling grammar. The patrimonialist and prescriptive programs invite them to transform the classroom into a museum of the French language. They sometimes prevent them from authentically putting the language into action and reflection. This book and this enterprise will help them build in students the right and the power to seize French so that it continues to live. Jean-Michel Le Baut
The call platform
On the publishing house's website
Maria Candéa and Laélia Véron in the Café
Anne Abeillé in the Café
Arnaud Hoedt in the Café
Christophe Benzitoun in the Café
In 1549, du Bellay published the founding manifesto of a French language in the making and to be enriched. In 2023, a collective of French-speaking linguists, from Anne Abeillé to Laélia Véron, launched a salutary appeal: "French is doing very well, thank you". The misconceptions that declinists spread about the French language prevent us from "understanding its immense vitality, its fascinating and perpetual ability to adapt to change" and even forbid us "from believing in its future". On an internet platform and in a "Gallimard tract", 10 themes are thus the subject of analyses that are at once expert, enlightening and stimulating.
The refutation of the fake news that politicians, the media, and local cafés readily convey about our common and diverse language leads to invigorating proposals, particularly for teaching French. Some examples: revealing how different Molière's language was from ours, promoting multilingual education, "learning the meaning of words, the grammar of constructions rather than hundreds of spelling traps", "allowing spell checkers in exams like calculators in maths or physics", supporting the democratization of writing that digital technology fortunately represents, working on "oral grammar", encouraging "everyone to record themselves to learn to observe their own usage", observing variations rather than condemning "barbarisms", valuing "language creativity, whether literary or not", teaching proximity agreement "alongside agreement in the masculine plural", educating on "why" rather than instilling "how"...
The collective invites you to sign its appeal. There is no doubt that the "terrified linguists", well-informed and rightly committed, will be joined by literature teachers, who are particularly exhausted by the injunction to dictation and labeling grammar. The patrimonialist and prescriptive programs invite them to transform the classroom into a museum of the French language. They sometimes prevent them from authentically putting the language into action and reflection. This work and this enterprise will help them build in students the right and the power to seize French so that it continues to live.
Jean-Michel Le Baut
On the publishing house's website
Maria Candéa and Laélia Véron in the Café
Christophe Benzitoun in the Café
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