French Language Threat

For John, BLUF:  It's all Greek to me.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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French Language Under Assault From English

From The Wanderer, by Monsieur John J Metzler, 15 August 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

PARIS — A long linguistic battle between French and English appears to have been settled: English won.  Some twenty-five years after passage of legislation to specifically defend use of the French language, and protect its patrimony throughout the land, what’s known as the Toubon law has become a quaint footnote.

The respected French daily newspaper Le Figaro headlines, “Advertising, Business, and Politics:  Franglais is gaining territory.” Franglais, which is a mix of French heavily mixed with English words and terms, has evolved since WWII.  It does not have its roots in British English but in American English, which like the Latin of old, has become the lingua franca of our modern age.

This is a language driven by entertainment, commerce, and computers more than by the pages of Hemingway.

But the reality is less that of Shakespeare and Longfellow surpassing Molière and Proust, but rather the language of Google and Facebook setting the linguistic parameters in an Anglo information universe. Long before globalization put English on the fast track, it was American music, television, and movie that brought English into the homes and cinemas of France, making it the cultural soundtrack for a generation.

Now, for example, the slogan of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics is Made for Sharing!

Even Air France, the national airline, uses the advertising and branding slogan, France is in the Air!

Though the Toubon linguistic legislation was passed in August 1994 to reaffirm French as the official language of the Republic, practically speaking English has been gaining rapidly in usage especially among the young and the business classes.  Back then the all-knowing State assembled an informal dictionary of 3,000 English words to supplant with French words.  This quickly fell by the wayside as the new expanding Internet injected English phrases into usage on steroids.

Today phrases like start-up, meeting, marketing, and benchmarks proliferate in the French commercial sector.

Part of this, in my opinion, has less to do with the words being English per se, but more to do with being more direct, short, and precise in their meaning and intent than their French counterparts.

For example, I’m looking at a catalogue for the cellphone/cable/WiFi provider Orange.  Here we see Livebox Fibre, 4G Home, Packs Open Up offerings from which to choose.

French radio is swamped by American music.  This is nothing new.  Stations play a steady stream of entertainment from Top 40, to Jazz and Hip Hop.  It’s the same at the movies.  Despite a strong and highly state-subsidized French cinema, the most popular films across France are usually American.  This summer, Lion King has captivated French moviegoers.  Usually about half the major films playing in France are made in the USA.

In a way, it is sad.  But, I remember the introduction of the Toulon Law.  Some of the proposed Français versions of Anglais terms were a little over the top.

Personally, I blame President Trump.

Regards  —  Cliff