"Neither 'globish' nor nationalism," said philosopher and philologist Barbara Cassin in Paris on Thursday, becoming the ninth woman to be officially welcomed at the French Academy since its creation in 1635. "We want to help to make a resistant Europe, which refuses to stick to this non-language of pure communication that is the global english , whose main works are the files of grant applications, these 'submissions' that will classify' experts at high level '' said Barbara Cassin when she joined the French Academy.
"We refuse that our languages, those we speak, French, English itself (that of William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson or Winston Churchill), become simple dialects, to speak at home," continued the author of The Praise of Translation in the speech of praise to his predecessor, the musicologist and musician Philippe Beaussant.
"More than one language"
"We are equally opposed to the hierarchy of languages and their self-proclaimed claim to a superior genius," said the philosopher, who chose for motto, engraved on his high-tech sword, a phrase borrowed from Jacques Derrida : "More than one language".
"The singularity of a language, the strength of its genius, the richness of its works do not lead to the closure of this language or the people who speak it, it would be the bed of the worst kind of nationalism. to support with Umberto Eco that: 'The language of Europe - and perhaps the language of the world - is the translation' ", insisted the philosopher, who will turn 72 in a few days.
Government criticism
Passionate about the diversity of languages, Barbara Cassin hailed "the importance, for France and for French, of the languages spoken in France, all". She criticized the government, which had decided to increase tuition fees for foreign students. "Because of the differential increase in tuition fees," foreign students "will, willy-nilly, speak English in China," she lamented, before rejoicing in the recent decision of the Constitutional Council, who relied on that decision.