‘La France est un des pays d’Europe qui offre la plus grande diversité linguistique’. (Dglflf: 2008). Discuss.

When speaking about the linguistic diversity of a country we refer to the existence of a variety of languages within that country (Oxford English Dictionary, 2006) .France is made up of both the central “hexagon” and thirteen overseas territories ,departments and collectives ( commonly known as DOM TOM’s). In this essay, I will show that the large geographical scope of France, its multi-cultural population and strong emerging youth-culture make it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in Europe. I will approach the discussion from the outside in, firstly focusing on the languages of the DOM TOM’s, then moving to mainland France and discussing the non-territorial languages. I will then move onto the regional languages of the metropole, their endangered language status and the extent of governments attempt to preserve them. I will focus primarily on the Breton language in this discussion. Finally, I will briefly mention the language of youth and how its deviation from standard French can be viewed as language diversity, all the while commenting on the gradual regression of speakers of minority languages and asking is the idea of France as one of the most linguistically diverse countries in Europe in jeopardy?
Despite the numerous living languages In France, the country is officially classed as a monolingual state: French being the only official language .This is stated in act II of the country’s constitution “La langue de la République est Le Français” (Constitution, 1958). Following a campaign to have regional languages recognised in Frances constitution the government amended the constitution in 2008 by adding one line to the document stating that the state recognised the regional languages were part of France’s heritage but gave them no