Linguistic legitimacy among pluricentric languages. The case of Belgian French

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the social legitimacy of the non-dominant variety of French that is used in Belgium (henceforth ‘Belgian French’). As will be detailed, Francophone Belgians’ attitudes have shifted from early 19th c. – late 20th c. purism and subsequent linguistic subjection to France to more recent acceptation of endogenous traits and increasing distance from the Hexagonal model. Nevertheless, these attitudes remain characterized by a “double distance” from both Hexagonal and Belgian French. The idea that French is viewed by Francophone Belgians as a polycentric/polynomic language will thus be questioned: do they really consider that there is a legitimate Belgian variety of French? What is the relevance of the national criterion in the way they define linguistic norms? What other criteria lie behind the definition and legitimization of their linguistic norms