Protection for France's minority languages

The daily Latvijas Avīze takes up the French debate on the protection of minority languages like Breton or Basque as part of the national cultural heritage: "The French Academy was founded on the initiative of Cardinal Richelieu in 1635 to set language standards but also to ward off threats to national identity. The argument was that such threats were based not only on ideas and values but also on language. One may of course argue about the use of the term "threat," since this is certainly not posed by the regional languages or dialects. Moreover, France has not even signed the European Charter on the protection of minority languages and does not intend to do so either."

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