Olympic Ceremony Put a Changing France on Full Display

Aya Nakamura, center, at the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris on Friday. The choice for her to perform prompted fierce debates over identity and language.A new France was consecrated Friday evening during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. When Aya Nakamura, a French Malian singer, came sashaying in a short fringed golden dress out of the august Académie Française, she redefined Frenchness.

Adieu the stern edicts of the Académie, whose role has been to protect the French language from what one of its members once called “brainless Globish.” Bonjour to a France whose language is increasingly infused with expressions from its former African colonies that form the lyrical texture of…