I find it a bit strange, there are many contradicting informations out there. See for instance:
So, when did French become the official language of France? The answer is not as straightforward as it seems. The French language has been the de facto language of France for centuries, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that it was officially recognized as the national language.
In 1830, the French government passed a law making French the official language of France. This law was reinforced in 1849, when the French Constitution declared French to be the official language of the country.
And still the 1992 date you quoted keeps creeping up. The constitution I quoted is also there, from 1958 (see the PDF document in English (!)), and it says nothing of later amendments of the second article, but many others are mentioned in the preamble as coming into force later or under special circumnstances.
Perhaps a French jurist can help? And what about Canada?
ETA:
And this states that
The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 made French the administrative language of the kingdom of France for legal documents and laws. Previously, official documents were written in medieval Latin, which was the language used by the Roman Catholic Church.
[…]
The French government allowed in 1964 for the first time one and a half minutes of Breton on regional television. But even in 1972, president Georges Pompidou declared that “there is no place for minority languages in a France destined to make its mark on Europe.”[6]
[…]
In 1992 the constitution was amended to state explicitly that “the language of the Republic is French.”
Like many other European countries, historically France was a region of many cultures each with its own language, some few of which might still be spoken natively. The purpose of making French the official language was to (charitably) unify the country or to (uncharitably) impose the will of the rulers upon disparate and fractious peoples by the forcible imposition of a national language.
I long ago read a novel with this as its plot once, from the point of view of a woman from Languedoc. It’s where I learned that Languedoc translated as ‘the tongue of yes’, meaning where people said Oc to mean yes. There are or were other tongues of yes.
I think you’re missing the pattern. The word “galaxy” literally means milky. The word “sahara” literally means desert. The word “guerilla” literally means war.
The word “guerilla” does not literally mean “war,” which is “guerra.” It means “skirmish.” So a guerilla war is a war of the sort that consists of skirmishes rather than big battles between full armies.
Standard French is from Langues d’oil. French as originally spoken in the south was Langues d’oc (among other things).
There is a province named Languedoc in the south.
The “oil” and “oc” are how the two dialects said “yes.” “Oil” eventually became “oui.”
It means little war, as “-illa” (like “-ita” and “-iña”) is a feminine diminutive ending. Thus guerrilla war would be a war of little wars. Skirmish is OK, just nitpicking.
Concerning the repeated meaning, the brown bear is called in scientific nomenclature Ursus arctos, which means bear bear in Latin and Greek, respectively. The grizzly subspecies is Ursus arctos horribilis, that is the horrible bear bear. I like that.
I was going with the primary RAE definition rather than the etymology, but my Spanish is sub-fluent so I won’t argue! (Edit: I also spelled guerrilla wrong, twice, which you were kind enough not to draw attention to!)
I learned today that if you are out camping in the freezing temps and don’t want your water bottle to freeze, bury it in the snow! The air bubbles trapped in the snow insulate the bottle. Crazy but true!
How surprising! I always thought of Warhol as the quintessential NYC pop artist, not least because he started out with advertising art which was a very New York thing at the time. The Brillo boxes weren’t very representative of what L.A. artists were doing in the early '60s.