Every time I write on the language issue, I receive a number of emails from people who see no point in protecting French at all.
“As long as I am able to meet my needs, I don’t see the problem”, “English is the language of money, the international language, it is the law of the strongest”, “The important is to be understood, it’s just a means of communication”, “Languages evolve, disappear, and then what? “, etc.
These are very valid opinions.
Allow me all the same to try to shake up these certainties a little.
I will do this by answering a single question: what is a language1 ?
A language is, in particular, three things: the vehicle of a vision of the world, the vehicle of a culture and, most importantly, the instrument of thought. These are three essential functions, functions which alone justify legislation for the consolidation of national languages.
The vehicle of a vision of the world
Language carries our way of seeing the world.
In the Breton language, the region at the western end of Brittany is called “Penn-Ar-Bed”. It means “the beginning of the world”. The same place also has a French name: Finistère, from the Latin finnis terrae, “the end of the earth”. “Jokamiehenoikeus”, a Finnish word, means the right of access to nature for all, a right which takes precedence over the right of property. The words carry a vision of the territory.
The Aymara, a tribe living in South America, consider that the past is ahead and the future behind. The word “eye” designates the past and “back” represents the future. Words relate to time.
When the Anishinaabe sees, in the distance, a creature coming forward and he says “Awiiyak”, he does not say “here is an animal” or “here is a man”, he says “someone is there”, this someone can be man or beast, the beast having, in a way, a soul. On the other hand, the Japanese kanji used to write “animal” means “thing that moves”. No soul. Words relate to nature.
In Africa, there are so-called “class” languages. They name the objects by arranging them by category: long, edible, round, etc. Words also carry a way of ordering the universe.
It is thanks to this diversity of outlooks on the world that human beings build original societies, distinct masterpieces, distinct nations. The flourishing of languages should be the obsession of people who believe in the importance of diversity: languages are the source of it.
The vehicle of a culture
In Innu-aimun, the language of the Innu, “Petekat” simultaneously expresses “take your time” and “pay attention”. In the first sense, the word means “to set foot quietly in winter so as not to fall”. Our origins are found in our words. Language carries our experiences.
In fact, it is the very identity of a human community that is found in a language. Our languages are born of our history (Lac-à-l’oreille), our environment (blowing snow), our humor (given birth that we baptize!), our heroes (having the head in Papineau), our encounters (moccasins, anorak, rabaska). “Entire generations have left the mark of their lives here,” said the Hungarian writer Dezső Kosztolányi.
To lose part of one’s language is to lose part of one’s universe.
The instrument of thought
Languages are instruments of thought, instruments of analysis and abstraction. Thinking without words is impossible. Poor language equals poor thought. If everyone has the same words, the same language, the probability of innovation is reduced. Conversely, an exact, precise, rich language is a language that stimulates all the creative capacity of the mind.
Former Premier Bernard Landry often repeated a phrase that sums up all the importance of language preservation. I don’t know if I’m quoting him exactly, I’m going from memory. “The diversity of languages and cultures is to the vitality of human thought what biodiversity is to that of nature. Without this diversity, thought atrophies. »
Yes, we must welcome the existence of one or more international languages. Yes, individual multilingualism is a good thing. That is not the question. What is at stake is the development of national languages. Twenty-five languages die every year. Others don’t die, but become impoverished, like ours. A century from now, humanity will have lost half of its linguistic heritage, it will have lost half of its ability to invent a better world.
1. To read on the subject: Stop the death of languagesClaude Hagège, at Odile Jacob