Frenchification/internationalisation

Language shift process

In the Belgian context, the process of Frenchification (1) mainly takes place in and around Belgium’s capital, Brussels. In the nineteenth century, the nineteen municipalities which today make up the Brussels Capital Region still had a predominantly Dutch-speaking population. The language census of 1846 revealed that over 67% of this population spoke Dutch for the most part. But these municipalities experienced a language-sociological revolution in the 100 years that followed. By 1947 the number of monolingual Dutch speakers, according to the language census, had dropped to only 9.4%. At the time 45% of the population declared that they spoke both Dutch and French. Although the results of this language census are disputed because of the language pressure exerted through the phrasing of the questions and due to the general climate, whereby the Flemish population thought that they were doing the survey takers a favour by saying that they were French-speaking, the evolution is still spectacular.

In 1846, 98% of the population in the current 19 municipalities of the Flemish periphery or Vlaamse Rand around Brussels spoke Dutch. Here too a language shift had taken place by 1947. The number of inhabitants who spoke French exclusively at the time only amounted to 7% in the 19 municipalities of the periphery. But 14% declared that they spoke French mostly or exclusively. In the six municipalities which would go on to become municipalities with language facilities, the results varied between 25% (Sint-Genesius-Rode) and 46% (Kraainem).

Mechanisms of Frenchification

The process of Frenchification was largely caused by the authorities’(2) choice (especially from the French period onwards (1794-1814)) of French as the official language for administration, justice and education. In 1830, the new Belgian elite also chose French based on the assumption that one language would help consolidate the development of a Belgian identity and the idea of unity in the new country. At the same time this also signified a rejection of the Dutch period (1815-1830), during which Willem I had introduced Dutch as an official language in the administrations, in addition to French.

The language assimilation of the Flemish population was facilitated by an active policy of Frenchification by the authorities, but at the same time the population also experienced strong social and psychological pressure to adopt French. French was the language of the elite, of culture, and of the media while Dutch was considered a language of the lower classes, with a lower status.If one wanted to rise socially then one sent one’s children to French-speaking schools. The new bilingual inhabitants of Brussels, in turn, spoke French exclusively with their children.

Several mechanisms, which tended to enhance one another, underpinned this process of linguistic change. On top of the Frenchification of the population of Brussels the massive population growth in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries also caused an influx of French citizens and people from Wallonia (south of Belgium). This population pressure in turn gave rise to the urbanization and the Frenchification of the municipalities around the capital, the so-called oil slick effect. It affected the industrial municipalities first, and subsequently also the residential neighbourhoods. In other words, Frenchification and suburbanization took place simultaneously.

Language struggle and language legislation

At the end of the nineteenth century the first reactions against the subordination of Dutch were heard. The Flemish Movement demanded that both languages be treated equally and suggested that Belgium become bilingual. But this was deemed non-negotiable by the French-speaking rulers who were of the opinion that knowing Dutch did not provide any added value and who wished to preserve a monolingual Wallonia. The territoriality principle was enshrined in the language laws of 1921 and 1932 and the Brussels region followed from this. In 1961 the language census, which for decades had meant that one suburb after the other was added to the bilingual Brussels agglomeration, was abolished. Until the early 1960s, a municipality could change the definition of the language divide and the demarcation of the bilingual status every time the results of the language census indicated that 30% of the municipality’s population spoke another language.

The first language laws and the recognition of Dutch as an official language in education brought about a change. In 1971 the freedom of the head of the household to choose the language in which his/her child was educated was reintroduced, following pressure by the French speakers. Previously the language spoken at home determined the language in which one was educated in the Brussels municipalities. This free language choice initially had a negative impact on the registrations in Dutch-speaking schools but from the end of the 1970s the trend changed in favour of Dutch. Naturally the favourable economic climate in Flanders had something to do with this. Moreover campaigns promoting Dutch-language education in Brussels attracted a lot of French-speaking children and children speaking another language than French to Dutch-language schools in Brussels.This did not lead to Dutchification, however, because the power strategies were not the same and because French continues to be the dominant language in Brussels.

A diversified image of language

Since the abolition of the language census in 1961 we no longer have any official figures about the language ratio in Brussels, but several sources indicate that the language landscape in the Periphery or Rand is highly diversified. Dutch and French increasingly have become a second or even third language for a growing number of inhabitants, next to their mother tongue. The demographic growth in the 19 Flemish municipalities is largely due to the young ‘newcomers’ from outside of the EU and to the so-called Eurocrats or expats, who move here because of Brussels’ international role and the economic appeal of the region. Recently the language landscape in Brussels and in the Periphery has become more internationalised, whereby the current 'lingua franca' French increasingly has to compete with another language, English. In the Flemish Periphery or Vlaamse Rand these trends develop simultaneously with the ‘historical’ strong exodus from Brussels of the middle classes, who speak French or another language. Today there is hardly any language assimilation of Dutch speakers, but newcomers and immigrants who speak another language often prefer French as a language of cultural status, like the Flemings before them.

In the Periphery the Government of Flanders is implementing a policy, in collaboration with the Province of Flemish Brabant and the non-profit organisation ‘de Rand’, aimed at preserving and strengthening the Dutch-speaking character of the Periphery. This includes a wide range of language classes and activities for individuals wishing to learn Dutch, promotional campaigns and the imposition of language conditions to promote integration in the local community. At the same time the government also implements a positive reception policy aimed at welcoming newcomers who speak another language.

FOOTNOTES

1 Frenchification (like Dutchification or Anglification) points to the process of linguistic change.It relates to a population which originally did not speak French and which starts to speak French or to a region where a linguistic shift in favour of French takes place.

2 Under Burgundian rule (from 1406 onwards) French became the language of administration and education throughout their large kingdom.Their successors, the Habsburgers, also ruled the Netherlands in French.In light of subsequent developments it is interesting that resistance against this choice was so widespread in Brussels: until the end of the eighteenth century the local government’s language of administration was Dutch. It is worth noting that French was also the language of culture throughout Europe at the time.