Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales

The Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (; ), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French grand établissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of Central Europe, Africa, Asia, America, and Oceania. 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 (ESLO; 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 ParisSee map.

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, Nepali, Urdu, Rromani, Sanskrit, 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, Classical Arabic, Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, Syrian-Lebanese) Chinese Studies (Standard Chinese, Min, Classical Chinese) Korean Studies (Korean) Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Biblical, Rabbinic, Medieval and Modern Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish) Japanese Studies (Japanese) Russian Studies (Russian, Belarusian) Eurasia (Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, Kurdish, Mongolian, Ossetian, Uyghur, Uzbek, Pashto, Persian, Kazakh, Tatar, Turkish) Europe (Polish, Czech, Sorbian, Slovak, Slovene, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Udmurt, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Modern Greek, Albanian) Languages and cultures of the Americas (Inuktitut languages, Mayan languages, Quechuan languages, Guarani, Nahuatl)

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 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. Dates Name Discipline Comments 1796–1824 Louis-Mathieu Langlès Persian language Died in 1824 1824–1838 Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy Arabic Died in 1838 1838–1847 Pierre Amédée Jaubert Turkish language military interpreter during the Egyptian campaign 1798 1847–1864 Carl Benedict Hase modern Greek Died in 1864 1864–1867 Joseph Toussaint Reinaud Arabic Died in 1867 1867–1898 Charles Schefer Persian Died in 1898 1898–1908 Charles Barbier de Meynard Turkish, Persian Died in 1908 1908–1936 Paul Boyer Russian language Died in 1949 1936–1937 Mario Roques Romanian language Died in 1961 1937–1948 Jean Deny Turkish Died in 1963 1948–1958 Henri Massé Persian Died in 1969 1958–1969 André Mirambel modern Greek Died in 1970 1969–1971 André Guimbretière Hindi Died in 2014 1971–1976 René Sieffert Japanese language Died in 2004 1976–1986 Henri Martin de La Bastide d’Hust Middle East civilisation Died in 1986 1986–1993 François Champagne de Labriolle Russian Vice-president from 1971 to 1986 1993–2001 André Bourgey Middle East civilisation 2001–2005 Gilles Delouche Thai language (Siamese) Died in 2020 2005–2013 Jacques Legrand Mongolian language 2013-2019 Manuelle Franck Geography of Southeast Asia Vice-president from 2007 to 2013 Since 2019 Jean-François Huchet Economy of Eastern Asia Vice-president from 2013 to 2019

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, Armenian, Burmese, Estonian, Modern Hebrew, Inuktitut, 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), Leiden University (Netherlands), and the National University of Singapore. Since, they have been joined by Columbia University (USA), the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (South Korea), and Shanghai International Studies University (China).

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 William Popper 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

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales

Bron en licentie