Cécile Canut, “Order-of-language/forms of life”, lecture

L'ordre-de-la-langue refers to the set of processes that lead to the delimitation and essentialization of language practices, erected as norms and imposed in the name of intrinsic values. The case of French is historically exemplary of this process of capturing language life. Beyond its invention and standardization, numerous discourses have concretized a linguistic order to influence the perceptions of its speakers. The myth of the universality of the French language is part of a whole range of discourses and social practices. From Antoine de Rivarol's text to Francophonie activities, via linguistic colonialism, the aim is to understand the effects of the ordre-de-la-langue on bodies and minds, particularly during the colonization of Africa. Anchored in a plurality of axes of differentiation, the invention of French cannot be dissociated from the forms of domination that made up the political history of the French nation.