Addressing first budding researchers, French: from Academy to Zouzer looks at the language's history from its embryonic period until the present day, examining 26 major internal and external facts related to the language's gestation, birth, survival, maintenance, expansion, and future. The selected subjects are presented and discussed on the basis of classic and contemporary works of reference from both the human and social sciences. To observe the extent of subjective attitudes to languages, and the deep reverence felt for the French language, particularly in mainland France, where linguistic prescriptivism and linguistic purism have developed deep roots and become part of French culture, most of the analysis goes beyond academic point of views since they take into account opinions expressed in the media, both national and international.