Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (; ), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French Grand Etablissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, America, and

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

. With 104 languages taught as of 2024, this institution is currently the world's largest provider of language training courses. It is also informally called ''Langues’O'' () in French, an abbreviation for ''Langues orientales''. The INALCO logo is made up of the school's acronym, each part of which is translated into languages written in non-Latin characters, corresponding to Inalco's fields of teaching and research.

History

* 1669 Jean-Baptiste Colbert founds the ''École des jeunes de langues'' language school * 1795 The ''École spéciale des langues orientales'' (Special School for Oriental Languages) is established * 1873 The two schools merge * 1914 The school is renamed the ''École nationale des langues orientales vivantes'' (ENLOV) * 1971 The school is renamed the ''Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales'' or Inalco (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations) * 1984 Inalco is recognized as a '' Grand établissement'' * 2010 Inalco becomes a founding member of Sorbonne Paris Cité * 2011 Inalco centralizes all of its taught courses under one roof at ''65 rue des Grands Moulins in Paris''

Teaching

Organization

Inalco is structured partly into departments, whose perimeter corresponds to a region of the world, and partly into professionally-oriented courses or sectors. Departments may be monolingual or group together several language sections. Inalco's courses prepare students for careers in intercultural communication and training, international trade, teaching French as a foreign language, advanced international studies, and Natural Language Processing.

List of departments and sections (and their languages)

* Africa and Indian Ocean ( Amharic, Bambara, Chleuh, Comorian, Fulani, Hausa, Kabyle, Malagasy, Mandingo, Soninke, Swahili, Tuareg, Wolof, Yoruba) * South Asia Himalayas ( Bengali,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, Nepali,

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, Rromani,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan) * Southeast Asia and the Pacific ( Bisaya, Burmese, Bislama, Cham, Drehu, Tagalog, Ilocano, Indonesian Malay, Khmer, Lao, Môn, Thai, Tahitian, Taï lü, Vietnamese) * Arabic Studies (

Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages al ...

Classical Arabic Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...

, Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, Syrian-Lebanese) * Chinese Studies (

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...

, Min,

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

) * Korean Studies ( Korean) * Hebrew and Jewish Studies (

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

, Rabbinic,

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Arabic (; ; ) sometimes referred as Sharh, are a group of different ethnolects within the branches of the Arabic language used by jewish communities. Although Jewish use of Arabic, which predates Islam, has been in some ways distinct ...

, Judeo-Spanish,

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

) * Japanese Studies ( Japanese) * Russian Studies ( Russian, Belarusian) * Eurasia (

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

, Azeri, Georgian, Kurdish, Mongolian, Ossetian, Uyghur, Uzbek,

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

, Persian, Kazakh, Tatar, Turkish) * Europe ( Polish, Czech, Sorbian, Slovak, Slovene,

Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutuall ...

, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Udmurt, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian,

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

, Albanian) * Languages and cultures of the Americas ( Inuktitut languages,

Mayan languages The Mayan languages In linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and a ...

Quechuan languages Quechua (, ), also called (, 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral " Proto-Quechua" ...

, Guarani,

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

)

List of sectors

* International trade * Intercultural communication and training * Language didactics * International relations * Text, Computing, and Mutlilingualism (NLP) The Institute offers initial training at Bachelor's, Master's and PhD levels, as well as continuing education open to external students and professionals. Foreign students can take French as a foreign language courses. Short, à la carte courses, evening classes and “practical certificates” are also popular.

Research

Overview

Research at Inalco combines

area studies Area studies, also known as regional studies, is an interdisciplinary field of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what a ...

and academic fields. Researchers study languages and civilizations that are increasingly in the spotlight – Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and as far as the Arctic – and are central to the major issues of the 21st century. Fourteen research teams, often partnered with other research organizations, PhD programs, and a publishing service form the backbone of research at Inalco. Inalco also has a project management and knowledge transfer service. The research teams, administration offices, and doctoral school are housed in a building dedicated entirely to research, with access to a full range of support functions: assistance in preparing research proposals and grant applications, organizing scientific events, looking for partnerships and funding, publication support, internal funding, and communication. * 14 research teams (see below) * 270 faculty members * 300 PhD students * 100 scientific events per year

Research Teams

Local units: * CERLOM (Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur les Littératures et les Oralités du Monde) * CERMOM (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche Moyen-Orient, Méditerranée) * CREE (Centre de Recherche Europes-Eurasie) * ERTIM (Équipe de Recherche Textes, Informatique, Multilinguisme) * LACNAD (Langues et Cultures du Nord de l’Afrique et Diasporas) * PLIDAM (Pluralité des Langues et des Identités: Didactique – Acquisition – Médiations) Joint research units ( UMR): * CASE (Centre Asie du Sud-Est) - with EHESS and CNRS * CeRMI (Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien) - with Sorbonne nouvelle, EPHE, and CNRS * CESSMA (Centre d’études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques) - with UPC and IRD * CRLAO (Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale) - with EHESS and CNRS * IFRAE (Institut français de recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est) - with UPC and CNRS * LACITO (Langues et Civilisations à Tradition orale) - with Sorbonne Nouvelle and CNRS * LLACAN (Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique) - with EPHE and CNRS * SeDyL (Structure et Dynamique des Langues) - with IRD and CNRS

Presidents

From 1914 to 1969, presidents were called administrators.

International

Inalco conducts research projects in more than one hundred countries and offers joint programs with foreign universities. This enables Inalco students and their international counterparts to enhance their studies through immersive experiences. Inalco also provides distance learning courses through videoconferencing and online resources, offering instruction in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Burmese, Estonian,

Inuktitut Inuktitut ( ; , Inuktitut syllabics, syllabics ), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of ...

, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Quechua, Sinhalese, Slovak, and Swahili. Inalco is an active member of Sorbonne Paris Cité, with 120,000 students, 8,500 faculty members, and 6,000 technical and administrative staff. Branches have been opened in Singapore, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. Inalco is in 2007 a founding member of the Consortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS), with the School of Oriental and African Studies ( UK), the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

(

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

), and the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

. Since, they have been joined by

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

( USA), the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

), and Shanghai International Studies University (

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

). The foundation strives to develop the preservation, study, transmission, development and interaction of languages and cultures in France and around the world with projects involving the institute's expertise: education, research, advancing knowledge and skills in a globalized world. More than 120 nationalities are represented by Inalco faculty and students. The institute, along with its teachers, students and partners, organizes over a hundred cultural events a year. Inalco also participates in several international film festivals (such as the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema) and makes every effort to share its knowledge and expertise with society.

Notable professors and alumni

* Ivan Aguéli * Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi * Doris Bensimon * Augustin Berque * Boris Boillon * Luce Boulnois * Rémi Brague * Louis-Jacques Bresnier * Marianne Bastid-Bruguière * Auguste Carrière * Gérard Chaliand * Jean-François Champollion * Henry Corbin * Léon Damas * Luc-Willy Deheuvels * Jean-Luc Domenach * Mathias Énard * Philippe Étienne * Bernard Faure * Edgar Faure * Princess Fawzia-Latifa of Egypt * François Godement * Bruno Gollnisch * Maurice Gourdault-Montagne * Marcel Granet * Marcel Griaule * Claude Hagège * Prince Henrik of Denmark * Isabelle Huppert * Guillaume Jacques * Georges Kersaudy * Ysabelle Lacamp * Jonathan Lacôte, French Ambassador to Armenia * Hervé Ladsous * Gilbert Lazard * Iaroslav Lebedynsky * Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer * Jacques Legrand * Jean-David Levitte * Nathalie Loiseau * André Malraux * Pierre Messmer * Souad Kassim Mohamed * Pierre Mornand * Louise Peltzer * Patrick Poivre d'Arvor * Princess Maria Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este * Pierre Messmer * Jean-Jacques Origas * Trinidad Pardo de Tavera * Louis Réau * Clotilde Reiss * Dagpo Rinpoche * Olivier Roy * Laurent Sagart * André Santini * Léopold de Saussure * Aurélien Sauvageot * Johann Gustav Stickel * Hissein Brahim Taha * Nahal Tajadod * Serge Telle * Virginie Thévenet * Germaine Tillion * Nicole Vandier-Nicolas * Arnold Van Gennep * Jacques Vergès * Jean-Christophe Victor * Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch *

Olivier Weber Olivier Weber (born 1958) is a French writer, novelist and reporter at large, known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been a war correspondent for twenty-five years, especially in Central Asia, Africa, Middle ...

Notes

a. Institute: ተቋም mharic NAtional: национален ulgarian Languages: שפה ebrew Civilizations: 文化 hinese Oriental: شرقية rabic

References

External links

General

Inalco official websiteAlumni website

Research teams

CASE website

CeRMI website

CESSMA website

CREE blog

CRLAO website

ERTIM website

IFRAE website

LACITO website

LLACAN website

SeDYL website

Anthrop’O
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