Why did French suppress other languages like Occitan to become the national language?
In: Culture
Napoleon really formalized the language with the reinstatement of the Académie Français, which has existed for centuries and regulates the French language to this day. No other language has such a well established regulatory governing body. If you originally had a group of scholars of non-Occitan speaking French, they will reform the official language to the vocabulary and grammar they are using/speaking, and eventually things became standardized.
Edit: it is stated that in 2008 the Académie Français opposed the French Government‘s attempt to recognize Occitan and the regional dialects as the languages of France. So there is a bit of snooty-ness there.
Edit2: Francais*
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_française
Latest Answers