Chapter 8

Abstract

In this examination of language policy on Corsica, it has become clear that we are analysing more than the gallicisation of a Mediterranean island or the subsequent attempts to revitalise a heritage language and reverse a language shift to French. In fact, this case study is a tale of two language policies or, more accurately, a language policy for two different languages. The first of these language policies is the now well-trodden path which indicates how, from a marginalized position, French came to achieve its position and status as a prestigious national standard language. Whilst little has appeared in print on the assimilation of Corsica into the Frenchspeaking world, there is a large body of published information that examines the royal and republican language management strategies designed to sideline France’s heritage languages and establish French as lingua franca across the State (see, for example, Judge, 2007). Much, for example, has been written on Brittany and the vast area where Occitan is spoken, with coverage also given to Alsace, the Basque country and French Catalonia. Corsica, however, remains the poor relation when it comes to assessments of the spread of French since the emergence of the nation-state.