Still, You've Got To Love It

I've been ploughing through a number of heavy books about the history of linguistic policies in France (and yes, it's almost as riveting as it sounds) for one of my dissertations, a word that should never exist in the plural. I came across this paragraph, which I'd like to share with you:

"As always, the French sought institutional answers to the problem [of the threat of English] with the creation over the years of a number of governmental institutions to defend the integrity of French... The first governmental institution to be founded was the Haut Comité de défense et d'expansion de la langue française, created by decree in March 1966... In 1973 this body was replaced by the Haut Comité de la langue française, the change of name reflecting a name in orientation, the term 'expansion' being seen as too 'colonial' and the term 'defence' too negative. In 1984 it was replaced by two bodies, the Comité consultatif de la langue française and the Commissariat Général de la langue française. Finally, in June 1989, they were replaced respectively by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française and the Délégation générale à la langue française."

This paragraph neatly demonstrates everything that is wrong about France.