Book excerpt: French Today is a profile of the French language in its social context. British and French linguists examine trends in French throughout the French-speaking world, and address issues around prescriptivism, gender and language, and regional languages and dialects. The collection includes overviews of work done in particular areas and deeper analyses of sociolinguistic questions. One theme is how to represent and interpret data relating to language varieties that have been marginalised. Another concerns the ways in which French is adapting to the future, whether as a language of new technology, or as a vehicular language on the continent. All chapters of this book are in English, with examples and quotations in French, and a mixture of references given in both languages. At the end of each chapter, there are also texts in French, serving as illustration and as pointers to further reading.