The Story of French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow presents the history of the origin, development, and spread of the French language in France and beyond. One thing I found interesting in this reading is that, according to the authors, the French language did not arise naturally in France, but was imparted to the French through the mass education system. For other languages, similar tendencies could have been characteristic in earlier times or epochs. For example, the English men did not always use the English language, especially the Norman and Celtic groups. Noteworthy, there are analogs of the isolation of national languages from peoples today, like in Austria, where many people speak German.
Another exciting aspect was the authors’ attention to the spread of the language outside of France since the linguistical attention to actual and former colonies is not always obvious. However, the existence of the French colonies, which probably also became the goal of mass education and purism tendencies, led to the creation of Francophonie – an organization that unites states where the French language is widespread.
Even though today the French language is inferior to English in terms of prevalence and has been displaced from use in official international and legal practice, it is the second most widespread language in the world. The authors examine the phenomena associated with the popularity and structure of the French language in a lively manner, citing many eventful examples. For example, it was interesting to reflect on the use of the French language and the surge of interest for it in Quebec, as well as attention to the rigor of grammatical structures as a prerequisite for international use, including for the drafting of agreements and contracts.