De l'« universalité » européenne du français au XVIIIe siècle: Retour sur les représentations et les réalités

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to revise the commonly received opinion that the French language was a dominant language in Europe during the Age of the Enlightenment. This view, which has been widely developed in France by historians and journalists needs to be, if not completely corrected, at least strongly qualified. A further look at the texts submitted to the 1783 Berlin Academy competition reveals that this it took place in a context of near-francophobia in Prussia. In a brief survey of the situation of the French language in various countries throughout Europe, we show that diastratic and diaphasic variation need to be examined. Finally, we suggest that, in contrast to the usual representation of vehicular languages as hegemonic, we can profitably apply to the 18th century the contemporary new notion of multiculturality.