TheAcadémie Française[a] (French pronunciation:[akademifʁɑ̃sɛːz]), also known as theFrench Academy, is the principalFrench council for matters pertaining to theFrench language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 byCardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to KingLouis XIII.[1] Suppressed in 1793 during theFrench Revolution, it was restored as a division of theInstitut de France in 1803 byNapoleon Bonaparte.[1] It is the oldest of the fiveacadémies of the institute. The body has the duty of acting as an official authority on the language; it is tasked with publishing an official dictionary of the language.
The Académie had its origins in an informal literary group deriving from thesalons held at theHôtel de Rambouillet during the late 1620s and early 1630s. The group began meeting atValentin Conrart's house, seeking informality. There were then nine members.Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of France, made himself protector of the group, and in anticipation of the formal creation of the academy, new members were appointed in 1634. On 22 February 1635, at Richelieu's urging, King Louis XIII grantedletters patent formally establishing the council; according to the letters patent registered at theParlement de Paris on 10 July 1637,[1] theAcadémie Française was "to labor with all the care and diligence possible, to give exact rules to our language, to render it capable of treating the arts and sciences". TheAcadémie Française has remained responsible for the regulation of French grammar, spelling, and literature.
Richelieu's model, the first academy devoted to eliminating the "impurities" of a language, was theAccademia della Crusca, founded in Florence in 1582, which formalized the already dominant position of theTuscan dialect of Florence as the model forItalian; the Florentine academy had published itsVocabolario in 1612.[4]
During theFrench Revolution, theNational Convention suppressed all royal academies, including theAcadémie Française. In 1792, the election of new members to replace those who died was prohibited; in 1793, the academies were themselves abolished. They were all replaced in 1795 by a single body called theInstitut de France.Napoleon Bonaparte, asFirst Consul, decided to restore the former academies, but only as "classes" or divisions of theInstitut de France. The second class of the Institut was responsible for the French language, and corresponded to the formerAcadémie Française. WhenKing Louis XVIII came to the throne in 1816, each class regained the title of "Académie"; accordingly, the second class of the Institut became theAcadémie Française. Since 1816, the existence of theAcadémie Française has been uninterrupted.[citation needed]
ThePresident of France is the "protector" or patron of the Académie. Cardinal Richelieu originally adopted this role; upon his death in 1642,Pierre Séguier, theChancellor of France, succeeded him.King Louis XIV adopted the function when Séguier died in 1672; since then, the French head of state has always served as the Académie's protector. From 1672 to 1805, the official meetings of the Académie were in theLouvre; since 1805, theAcadémie Française has met in theCollège des Quatre-Nations (known now as the Palais de l'Institut). The remaining academies of theInstitut de France also meet in the Palais de l'Institut.
TheAcadémie Française has forty seats, each of which is assigned a separate number. Candidates make their applications for a specific seat, not to the Académie in general: if several seats are vacant, a candidate may apply separately for each. Since a newly elected member is required to eulogize their predecessor in the installation ceremony, it is not uncommon that potential candidates refuse to apply for particular seats because they dislike the predecessors.[citation needed]
Members are known as"les immortels" ("the Immortals") in reference to the Académie'smotto,À l'immortalité ("To Immortality"), which is inscribed on the official seal of the charter granted by Cardinal Richelieu.[2]
One of theimmortels is chosen by their colleagues to be the Académie's Perpetual Secretary. The Secretary is called "Perpetual", as the holder serves for life, but holds the ability to resign; they may thereafter be styled as "Honorary Perpetual Secretary", with three post-World War II Perpetual Secretaries having previously resigned due to old age. The Perpetual Secretary acts as a chairperson and chief representative of the Académie. The two other officers, a Director and a Chancellor, are elected for three-month terms. The most senior member, by date of election, is the Dean of the Académie.
New members are elected by the Académie itself; the original members were appointed. When a seat becomes vacant, a person may apply to the Secretary if they wish to become a candidate. Alternatively, existing members may nominate other candidates. A candidate is elected by a majority of votes from voting members. Aquorum is twenty members. If no candidate receives an absolute majority, another election must be performed at a later date. The election is valid only if the protector of the Académie, the President of France, grants their approval. The President's approbation is only a formality.[b]
Raymond Poincaré was one of the five French heads of state who became members of theAcadémie Française. He is depicted wearing thehabit vert, or green habit, of the Académie.
The new member is then installed at a meeting of the Académie. The new member must deliver a speech to the Académie, which includes aeulogy for the member being replaced. This is followed by a speech made by one of the members. Eight days thereafter, a public reception is held, during which the new member makes a speech thanking their colleagues for their election. On one occasion, one newly installed member,Georges de Porto-Riche, was not accorded a reception, as the eulogy he made of his predecessor was considered unsatisfactory, and he refused to rewrite it.Georges Clemenceau refused to be received, as he feared being received by his enemy,Raymond Poincaré.
Members remain in the Académie for life. The council may dismiss an academician for grave misconduct. The first dismissal occurred in 1638, whenAuger de Moléon de Granier was expelled for theft. The most recent dismissals occurred at the end ofWorld War II:Philippe Pétain,Abel Bonnard,Abel Hermant, andCharles Maurras were all excluded for their association with theVichy regime. In total, 20 members have been expelled from the Académie.
The official uniform of a member is known asl'habit vert, or green clothing.[6] Thehabit vert, worn at the Académie's formal ceremonies, was first adopted during Napoleon Bonaparte's reorganization of theInstitut de France. It consists of a long black coat and black-featheredbicorne,[6] both richly embroidered with green leafy motifs, together with black trousers or skirt. Further, members other thanclergy carry aceremonial sword (l'épée).[6]
The members bear the cost of their uniforms themselves. The robes cost around $50,000, andAmin Maalouf said that his induction cost him some $230,000 overall.[7] The swords can be particularly expensive as they are individually designed. Some new members have had funds for them raised by committees.[8]
The Académie publishes a dictionary of the French language, known as theDictionnaire de l'Académie française, which is regarded as official in France. A special commission composed of several (but not all) of the members of the Académie compiles the work.[1]
The Académie has published thirteen editions of the dictionary, of which three were preliminary, eight were complete, and two were supplements for specialised words.[9] These are:
Preliminary editions:
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (fromA toAversion), pre-edition,Frankfurt am Main, 1687
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (fromA toConfiture), pre-edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1687
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (fromA toNeuf), pre-edition, Paris, 1687
Complete editions:
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française dedié au Roy ("1st edition"), Paris, 1694
Nouveau Dictionnaire de l'Académie française dedié au Roy ("2nd edition"), Paris, 1718
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française ("3rd edition"), Paris, 1740
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française ("4th edition"), Paris, 1762
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française ("5th edition"), Paris, 1798
Dictionnaire de l'Académie française ("6th edition"), Paris, 1835
Dictionnaire de l'Académie française ("7th edition"), Paris, 1879
Dictionnaire de l'Académie française ("8th edition"), Paris, 1932–1935
Supplementary editions for the sciences, arts, and technology:
Corneille, Thomas,Le Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences, Paris, 1694
Barré, Louis,Complément du Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, Paris, 1842
The Académie is continuing work on the ninth edition, of which the first volume (A toEnzyme) appeared in 1992,[1]Éocène toMappemonde was published in 2000, andMaquereau toQuotité in 2011. In 1778, the Académie attempted to compile a "historical dictionary" of the French language; this idea was later abandoned, the work never progressing past the letter A.
As the use ofEnglish terms by media increased over the years, the Académie has tried to prevent theAnglicization of the French language. For example, the Académie has recommended the avoidance ofloanwords from modern English (such aswalkman,computer,software ande-mail), in favour of neologisms, i.e. newly coined French words derived from existing ones (baladeur,ordinateur,logiciel, andcourriel respectively).
The Académie has also noted that anglicisms have been present in the French language since the 1700s, and has criticized the view that anglicisms present an "invasion" on the French language. It distinguishes anglicisms into three categories: some that are useful to the French language and introduced vocabulary which did not have a French equivalent at the time (the Académie cites the word "confortable" as an example, from the English "comfortable"); others that are detrimental and only establish more confusion as the original meaning of the word is distorted in translation; and others still that are useless or avoidable, a category of anglicisms used by "snobs" who use words from an English provenance to demarcate themselves from society and appear "in vogue". For the last category of anglicisms, the Académie writes that those words are typically short-lived in French parlance.[10] TheAcadémie Française has informed government officials to stop using English gaming terms like "e-sports", it should be "jeu video de competition". Likewise "streamer" should be "joueur-animateur en direct".[11]
The Académie, despite working on the modernization of theFrench orthography, has sometimes been criticized by many linguists for allegedly behaving in an overly conservative manner. For instance, in 1997,Lionel Jospin's government began using the feminine noun "la ministre" to refer to a female minister, following the official practice ofCanada,Belgium andSwitzerland and a frequent, though until then unofficial, practice in France. The Académie insisted, in accordance with French grammar rules on the traditional use of the masculine noun, on the use of "le ministre" for a minister of either gender. In 2017, 77 linguists retaliated with an opinion column to denounce the "incompetence and anachronism of the Académie".[12][non-primary source needed] Use of either form remains highly controversial.
TheAcadémie Française is responsible for awarding several different prizes in various fields (including literature, painting, poetry, theatre, cinema, history, and translation). Almost all of the prizes were created during the twentieth century, and only two prizes were awarded before 1780. In total, the Académie awards more than sixty prizes, most of them annually.
The most important prize is theGrand prix de la francophonie, which was instituted in 1986, and is funded by the governments of France, Canada, Monaco, and Morocco. Other important prizes include theGrand prix de littérature (for a literary work), thegrand prix du roman (for a novel), theGrand prix de poésie de l'Académie française (for poetry), theGrand prix de philosophie (for a philosophical work), theGrand prix du cinéma (for film), and thegrand prix Gobert (for a work on French history).
^This is the anglicized version of the name, with a capital "F". In French, it is generally written with a lowercase "f".
^There was a controversy about the candidacy ofPaul Morand, whomCharles de Gaulle opposed in 1958. Morand was finally elected ten years later, and he was received without the customary visit, at the time of investiture, to the PalaceÉlysée.
