LA POLITIQUE LINGUISTIQUE EN POLYNÉSIE FRANÇAISE. Comment influence-t-elle la société plurilingue?

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the language policy of French Polynesia and the status of the French language in comparison with the Polynesians languages. French Polynesia is a French overseas-collectivity and a part of the French republic as a result of its colonisation in the 19th century. This dissertation aims to treat different aspects which can be found in a multilingual society such as the officiality and teaching of languages. On the basis of four qualitative interviews with linguists and teachers in French Polynesia we examine the language policy and its consequences for the Polynesian society. One of our major results is that the influence of the language policy is so powerful that it can lead to a loss of the status of the Polynesian languages. The corpus of this dissertation is too small to consider the study representative. However, we would like to present an overview of different important aspects of this current topic.