The regional languages in France and the limit of the protection of an intangible cultural heritage, International conference on intangible cultural heritage

Pierre-Alain Collot (1)

1 IMH - Institut Maurice Hauriou

The concept of regional and minority languages shall be defined in accordance with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1992. This definition resulting from the 1st article of this convention specifies that “regional or minority languages means languages that are traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population; and different from the official language(s) of that State;it does not include either dialects of the official language(s) of the State or the languages of migrants”. Concerning the second element – that is the relation to a given territory of a State–, the explanatory report of this charter states that the adjective "regional" denotes languages spoken in a limited part of the territory of a State, within which they may be spoken by the majority of the citizens. The term "minority" refers to situations in which the language is spoken by persons who are not concentrated in a specific part of the territory of a State, or by a group of persons, which is concentrated in a part of the territory of the State but is smaller than the population in this region which speaks the majority language of the State. It is important to stress that the French domestic law (as well as the Framework Convention – of the European Council – for the Protection of National Minorities of 1995) does not define the concept of minority or regional language. Furthermore, the French domestic law has 2 particularities: firstly, it ensures the protection of regional language as an intangible cultural heritage. Secondly, it excludes any minorities or any people other than the French people, except in New-Caledonia ; as a consequence, it refuses to recognize any minority language as well as, more precisely, any regional language as a minority or group right.

Domaines: Droit

Pierre-Alain Collot. The regional languages in France and the limit of the protection of an intangible cultural heritage, International conference on intangible cultural heritage. International Policies Regulations for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Angle Publishing Co. Ltd, Taipei, pp.45-60, 2017, 9789862558577. ⟨hal-03217675⟩