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Protecting the French language

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Article 2 of the Constitution, which stipulates that "the language of the Republic is French", is the culmination of a long story. In 1539, with the Ordinance of Villers Cotterets (1539), Francis I decided  that French would be the only language spoken in the kingdom, the language of public documents and the civil state. Then in 1635 Richelieu founded the Académie Française and gave it the mission of monitoring the language and its use. It is still fulfilling this mission today, and is assisted in this by the legal framework which governs its use.

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