12 INA videos illustrating the evolution of the French language

We dove into the archives of the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) and discovered a wealth of fascinating videos proving that the French language has adapted, shifted and transformed over the decades to keep pace with the world around it. Don’t miss the “Voyage en Francophonie” (a journey through Francophonie) video series on the art of speaking French!

A journey through Francophonie and time

A series of 12 short videos published weekly on social media by @francophonie.24, INA and the Francophonie Festival takes aim at the clichés surrounding the evolution of a language spoken across the world. In just 60 seconds, each video in this collection of snapshots and anecdotes is an opportunity to get acquainted – or reacquainted – with the great defenders of the language, and those who lovingly disrupt it. It is also an opportunity to revisit, with humour or with reverence, recordings that highlight the vibrancy of the language of Molière, Aya Nakamura and Dany Laferrière that thrives from Montréal to Dakar and Hanoi.

Gastronomy, anglicisms and Olympiads

The first episode in the series, Californisme, discusses the invasion of “Franglais”, with imported words like shopping, marketing, feedback, best‑seller, business and fake news. But if French continues to hold out in a world where anglicisms are taking over, that is also because it is emblematic of an art de vivre and vibrant cultures.

After all, isn’t French the language of fashion and gastronomy, employed in kitchens from New York to Buenos Aires and Copenhagen through the jargon of gratins, consommés, veloutés, purees and mise en place?

What is also striking in these moments captured by INA is that French also acts as the voice of a fraternal humanism. It is precisely to promote and embody this ideal that Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the Olympic Games, made French the official language of the modern Olympiads and a symbol of the values of friendship and respect.

When language transforms society

But these archives are also a reminder that our language can be a tool for transformation, as demonstrated in the episode on the feminization of words – a phenomenon that came late to France, while other Francophone regions have long had feminine forms for many professions.

These journeys through Francophonie also illustrate that words should not be engraved in dusty tomes in perpetuity. French is a living and changing language, as shown by the video on the new words that emerge every year, such as écoanxiété, complosphère and multivers: it reflects our time and the concerns, battles, joys and desires of the day.

Follow the Voyage en Francophonie series with INA all summer long on the Festival’s social media

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