At the time of the projected Blum—Viollette reforms, a pied noir financier remarked to Viollette: "Monsieur le Gouverneur-Général, you reason in the French of France, but we reason in the French of Algeria." It was not at all the same language, as was to become tragically plain later, and in order to understand events from 1954 onwards it is necessary to accept the existence of three totally distinct peoples — the French of France, the French of Algeria, and the Muslims of Algeria.

DEFINE: Clarifies that 'French of Algeria' (pieds noirs) were conceptually and linguistically distinct from metropolitan French, a distinction essential to understanding Algerian history.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 159