ISECS 2015 – SIEDS 2015 14th International Congress for Eighteenth-Century Studies, (call for papers)

The 18th c. was a period of intense economic and cultural exchange and a time when new forms of sociability and corporate culture emerged everywhere in Europe. The linguistic situation in many countries and many social and professional milieux was characterised by multilingualism, various languages being usually used in different contexts and having different functions. The linguistic needs of social, religious and professional groups had an impact on education, and language learning underwent serious changes throughout the century. In this field different didactical traditions often clashed. In Northern Europe, the need to speak the vernacular language(s), particularly for trade purposes, often contrasted with the tradition of studying Latin. While in the 18th c. French had become a European lingua franca, German, English, Italian and a few other languages were also extensively used by non-native speakers in various parts of Europe and in various contexts. In some cases the choice of a language was a sign of emerging economic interest, in others it could be explained by the circulation of knowledge and existing networks or other reasons. Multilingual countries such as the Habsburg monarchy and the Russian Empire or indeed the Netherlands with their complex linguistic situation are particularly interesting from the point of view of language choice.

In this panel we will discuss more specifically language choices in two interrelated domains - education and sociability. We shall present case studies of language choices in social, professional or religious groups, families, etc. combined with an analysis of discourses assessing particular languages and describing their merits. Many documents, including unpublished ones, contain such views which are probably best exemplified by Antoine de Rivarol in his treatise "Discours sur l'universalité de la langue française" (1784).