French language guardians upset over English on France's new identity cards
The academy charged with defending the French language is threatening to take the government to court over the use of English on the country's new identity card.
The latest versions of the laminated cards that were introduced last year have included English translations of the different data fields, with "surname", "date of birth" and "expiry date" appearing next to their French equivalent in a slightly smaller, italic font.
Every French citizen is required to have a national identity card which they can also use as their main travel document when heading to another European Union country.
The addition of the English translations, therefore, appears to be a move to facilitate passage across international borders for French citizens.
But the venerable Académie Française, founded in 1635 under King Louis XIII to guard "pure" French, has taken offence and is threatening to mount a constitutional challenge over it.
"Who has decided to place French and English on an equal footing in this document?" asked Helene Carrere d'Encausse, the academy's permanent secretary.
"An essential principle is being jeopardised," she told the conservative newspaper Le Figaro, recalling that the modern French constitution provides in Article 2 that "The language of the Republic shall be French".
There is a European regulation requiring the words "Identity Card" to be translated into at least one other EU language, but Brussels leaves translating the rest of the document up to member states.
German national ID cards include translations into both English and French, while even passports issued by Britain — which quit the EU in 2020 — offer French translations.
Complaining that the academy's voice is no longer heard in public debate, the body has hired
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