Guillaume duc du Normandie passed a law banning the use of ENGLISH soon after his conquest of England in 1066 and only permitting the use of the Norman-French language. Even the churches in England were forced under pain of death to comply with this LAW. He sent Norman archers into monasteries in England to make sure that even Saxon Catholic monks were not using English during VESPERS in Church; any monks caught flouting the Language Law were soon dispatched by an arrow from a Norman archer.
But Guillaume duc du Normandie went one step further, in that with the collusion of the Papacy he removed Saxon Bishops in England and replaced them with Norman bishops.
King Francois 1 of France passed the Ordinance Villers-Cotterets in August 1539, banning the use of all other languages including LATIN and declaring French the sole Official Language of FRANCE. On the conquest of Brittany by France in 1636, the Ordinance Villers-Cotterets was extended to the newly conquered territory.
Now France outlawed the use of Brezhoneg a Celtic language of the Bretons and forced upon them the French language. France had hoped to completely erase the Brezhoneg language, its dialects and culture by rigidly enforcing the Ordinance Villers-Cotterets throughout Brittany. In this move the Roman Catholic Church was also a willing party to the persecution of the Bretons, their culture and their language, in the hopes that it would eventually die out. But the Celtic Brezhoneg language and culture of Brittany has survived the onslaught on their language and culture by the French government and the collusion of the Roman Catholic Church. Till the present time the Brezhoneg language of Brittany has not been given recognition by the French government
The Rene Levesque government of the province of Quebec passed Loi (Bill) 101 or as it is called "La charte de la langue joual (French patois)" on August 26, 1977
French Culture Minister Jacques Toubon had the French National Assembly pass La loi No. 94-665 of August 4, 1994, which declared French to be the sole official language of FRANCE.
Kenneth T. Tellis
Canada
