France gTLDs linguistic diversity study

France gTLDs linguistic diversity study

As second part of the project funded by DGLFLF, MECILDI was applied in the following geographic/linguistic gTLDs with the goal to collect indicators of multilingualism and language’s proportion : .alsace, .bzh (Bretagne), .corsica, .eus (basque), .gp (Guadeloupe), .nc (Nouvelle Calédonie) and also .quebec and .paris.

Some 20 different indicators were collected such as percentage of multilingual web, rate of multilingualism, average number of languages per multilingual site, percentage of IDN use, different types of errors, etc.

Synthesis of the results

With the exception of Basque (.eus), the gTLDs examined have not, as of yet, provided a significant platform for the development of the languages of France on the web.

Corsican (3.6%) and Breton (2.9%) stand out, perhaps offering a starting point for a more proactive policy that should encourage bilingualism between French and the local language.

The cases of Basque and Catalan (which is not part of this study but has been studied before – see previous studies) could serve as models for such policies.

For the time being, what logically characterizes the gTLDs associated with the languages of France is a geographic gTLD presence whose web ecosystem is driven primarily by tourism considerations. Guadeloupe stands out in this regard due to its strong multilingualism geared toward international tourists, marked by an exceptionally high average number of languages per multilingual website.

The .paris domain effectively reflects the capital’s international character on the web, with a high level of multilingualism and a higher percentage of language versions than in other cases. The .quebec domain exhibits a very high level of French-English bilingualism and the highest percentage of use of internationalized domain names.