When it comes to South and Central America, the following stereotypes come into play in terms of language. This region has a strong associative connection with Spanish and Portuguese. This is logical, since they are the most widespread, although not the only ones, if you look at the map of official languages of the countries of South America (Slide No. 2). Their expansion not only in South America, but more widely throughout the Western Hemisphere is largely the result of the colonial struggle of European countries, which they waged throughout the 15th-19th centuries.

 Indicative here, in particular, is the wide spread of the Portuguese language in South America as a result of a successful diplomatic move persistently promoted by the Portuguese king João II in the negotiations with the Spanish in Tordesillas on the division of the world in 1594. According to the proposal made by the Pope 100 years before the negotiations, the division between the influential maritime powers of the time was to take place along a line running along the meridian at a distance of more than 500 km west of the Cape Verde Islands or the Azores. All non-European lands to the west of the line were to go to Spain, to the east to Portugal. João II insisted that the line be run at a distance of more than 2000 km from the Cape Verde Islands. It was precisely this distance that was necessary to include in the Portuguese zone of possession the Brazilian coastline, which would be discovered and colonized by Portugal a few years later. Thus, the territory of modern Brazil became a Portuguese-speaking area.

In addition to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking area, there is a small piece of Francophonie in South America. On the continent, it is represented by a territory that does not have sovereignty, but is an overseas department of the French Republic and is called Guyana (Slide No. 1). In order not to confuse it with the independent Co-operative Republic of Guyana (former British colony, now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations) and Suriname (former Dutch colony), we will call this overseas department French Guiana.

Thanks to data from the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies / Institute national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE), we can assess competition in four different language markets in French Guiana in 2019/2020: social life, watching TV channels, reading books, and, in fact, learning languages (Slide No. 3). Of the markets presented, the most competitive and variable is social life (the closer the index value is to zero, the stronger the competition). Apparently, this market includes communication between residents of the department at home, with family, with friends, on the street with passers-by, and other types of informal communication, where the choice of language is the widest and is limited only by the linguistic capital and capabilities of the interlocutors. This is the only one of the four markets where the leading position of the French language is not a monopoly and other languages provide it with noticeable competition (Slide No. 4). Among them are two Creole languages (Haitian and Gaian), as well as Portuguese (probably due to the proximity to Brazil). This may indicate that either French Guiana is attractive for migration to the regions of Brazil bordering it, or for local residents, connections with the border regions of Brazil represent additional opportunities for economic activity, for which knowledge of Portuguese is necessary.

The most monopolized are the markets of languages of watching TV and reading books. The dominance of French here is monopolistic and unconditional. It is explained by the involvement in the economic system of the French Republic (French Guiana is one of the centers of French cosmonautics, a cosmodrome is located here). In this regard, the majority of economic activity in French Guiana is tied directly or indirectly to the space industry, which, like nuclear energy, each country has its own standards, including language ones.

The language learning market is also interesting, as a kind of popularity rating. The monopoly position of French is understandable - from a migration point of view, it is the way to any French-speaking country (not only to Europe, but also to the French-speaking provinces of Canada, for example), and also, in fact, for economic activity for the above-mentioned reasons in this overseas department. It is noteworthy that the share of English is higher here compared to other language markets. This may indicate the presence of a migration strategy to one of the English-speaking countries through the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, as well as a focus on establishing various connections between the two Guyanas (not only through English, but also local Creole languages). The share of Portuguese, relatively stable, in all four markets confirms the above thesis about the presence of connections with the border regions of Brazil - Portuguese is not only used for communication, but also for consuming information through TV and books, therefore, we are talking about the inclusion of a part of the population of French Guiana in the information space of Brazil. Apparently, they need it for more efficient economic activity. The small share of Dutch and its presence only in the markets of languages of public life and language learning most likely indicates that people adding it to their capital are either immigrants from Suriname (with a higher probability), actively mastering other languages (French, English, Portuguese), or, on the contrary, seeking to leave French Guiana via Suriname towards the Netherlands (with a lower probability).

Thus, modern French Guiana is an “island” of Francophonie in South and Central America with a fairly high level of multilingualism, where French is spoken alongside two or more local Creole languages, as well as Portuguese and/or English.

Leading Analyst of the IPER, Airapetian A.S.

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