The Guardian has an article about France’s rearguard battle against the invasion of English:
“What is at stake is the survival of our culture. It is a life or death matter,” said Jacques Viot, head of the Alliance Française, which promotes French abroad, warned last month. Hélène Carrère d’Encausse of the Académie Française was equally apocalyptic: “The defence of our language must be the major national cause of the new century.”
Within France, the language benefits from a veritable battery of protective laws, decrees and directives. Radio stations must play mostly music with French lyrics, and advertisements in English are, with few exceptions, outlawed unless accompanied by a translation.
Most of the legislation stems from the 1994 “loi Toubon”, which briefly threatened jail for anyone using words like “le weekend” or “le parking”. Even today, companies are occasionally prosecuted – although not as often as organisations such as the Committee for the Defence of the French Language, one of a myriad of similar militant bodies, would like – for using anglicisms in ads and brochures.
“The time has come for concrete and targeted action,” said Michel Herbillon, a campaigning conservative MP who recently completed a report on France’s language problems within the EU. “The union recognises the principle of equality for all official languages, and that principle is manifestly being flouted. It is wholly unacceptable.”
The situation is serious enough for President Jacques Chirac – who speaks excellent English but avoids using it as a matter of principle – to intervene. Earlier this year, he asked France’s media companies to come up with plans for a French-language global news channel, a kind of “CNN à la française”, to ensure France’s voice continues to be heard in the world.
What can we say to that? C’est la vie…
China has English as a compulsory subject in schools. India’s lingua franca is English. The French are in deep merde.
That they are so defensive and linguistically protectionist is indicative of the weakness of their position and their mindset.
Yes, c’est la vie.
Or, more precisely, it’s market forces plus natural selection. The effective demand for English has spiralled upward and the demand for French has plummeted. I’m a translator at the European Commission and have witnessed the change from year to year. There was a time when 80% of our work was from French originals (i.e. French was de facto the Commission’s working language). Today, a French original is almost a collectors’ item, English having swept French out almost entirely. The reason for this is that English is the first foreign language in almost all recent and new Member States.
Of course, the French are going up the wall but there is absolutely nothing can be done about it — you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube.
La vie est une chienne, n’est ce pas?
Here go the Frogs tilting at windmills again. I would have thought that if they are genuinely concerned to protect their culture then the EU and Islamic migration are a far more serious threat than ‘le weekend’, ‘le parking’ or ‘OK’.
…or “E-Mail”.
Practically every television commercial in France has an English language pop song as background music, sometimes hysterically inappropriately. For example, some snack food or yoghurt or something for all the hysterically happy family has The Mamas And The Papas’ ‘Monday, Monday’. Then there’s Neilsen’s ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ At Me’ for something or other and loads of others. French radio stations try to play their quota of French pop songs between around 2 to 6 a.m.
Charles Copeland writes:
“I’m a translator at the European Commission”
For heaven’s sake man have some self respect! Selling yourself as a rent-boy would at least be honourable.
Oo la merde…or is that Oo le merde…or mebbe Oo l’merde…whatever. Anyone for a rousing game of deck chair shuffling before the ship of state goes down?
They’ve been letting die many minoritary languages and cultures (Occitane, Corsu, Briton,…) which still resist but only very marginlally. Now they complain.
Diversity is a value by itself, not only when one’s grandeur is in danger!!
Yeah pretty soon the only people speaking French will be the French and a bunch of murderous Africans.
Yes, Andrew, but it will be a pure French.
“and a bunch of murderous Africans.”
Excuse moi? What are you trying to say, Monsieur “Andrew Ian Dodge”? Je ne comprend pas …
One point that is never raised when the French complain about English is that:
English is the bastard child of French.
Have the French forgotten that English came into being because of the French invasion of England (1066), leading to the destruction of the native language of England, not to mention the destruction of the English political system and its replacement by a more repressive form of feudalism?
And, BTW, this currrent English invasion is nothing compared to the hundreds of years of war fought in France when the newly minted French ‘English kings’ insisted on maintaining their claims to their holdings in France, as well as in England, leading to hardship for all.
Screw the French.
Joel
Andrew Ian Dodge, you are dreaming my friend!
Québec have never let itself be assimilated and if it is never to happen, it will take much more time than for the Africans… We resisted assimilation for centuries so don’t thing that we will disapear very soon.
Naturally our language is influenced a lot by english and is transforming, but that doesn’t mean he his dying at all. After all, the contrary have been true at a certain time, especially when the normands conquered england.
I’d also add that law to protect a language are stupid and will absolutely fail… it is only the population as a whole that will decide ultimately if they want to be assimilate or not. We didn’t get any help from the government to preserve our culture and language(quite the contrary in fact) but we menaged to do it anyway.
Perhaps this is an explaination for the terrible treatment English recieves in Quebec. It’s cultural internationalism!
Of all the things the French could be describing as calamitous (out-of-control social entitlements, rigid labor markets, the heat wave) this doesn’t even deserve a Weekly World News mention.
Let’s not forget that the Normans weren’t French – they were a bunch of ex-pat Vikings.
There’s also a diagonal line from Suffolk to Carlisle (the “Danelaw”), the land north of which was overrun by native Vikings.
There’s very little native French influence at all in England – the Romans were the only Romance nation to have really affected Britain.
Terrible treatment? We hate english so much that soon it will be teached from the very beginning of the elementary school to our children. We treated english in Québec in a much better way than french have been treated in the rest of Canada or in the USA(don’t forget that 10millions americans descend from us…)What do you consider terrible treatment? When the government in Manitoba decided to ban french school it was supposed to be nice? Compared to that our laws are pretty gentle(I don’t approve them thought…) The idea that english receive ”terrible treatment” in Québec is completely ridiculous… when was your last visit in Montreal?
Also, it’s not very kind of you Patrick of speaking of us as ”frog”… square head!=)
Joel, it’s really a waste of time to enumerate the bad things that France did as reason to hate them because, well, England wasn’t much better later on… For exemple, we never asked them to conquer us… it wasn’t kind at all you know but since I’m not completely stupid, I understand that England of that time and the actual England are too completely different thing, so I forgive them.
Anti-americanism is stupid, but francophobie is as stupid also.
The Normans weren’t true french, but they were speaking french, so french have deeply influenced english. I know this can be frustrating as anything french is bad in essence for some of you but it’s and historical truth… don’t trust me, just look at the number of words in this single message that are very much alike their french equivalent…
No one is talking about francophobia. Lots of people dislike the French, but not many are afraid of them. Anyway, it’s the French who are lashing out at other languages and cultures, not the other way around.
Incidentally, I’ve always wondered why, if the French could see 20-30 years ago that their economy would have a lot of jobs Frenchmen wouldn’t want, the government in Paris didn’t join with French business to encourage guestworkers and immigrants from Latin America to come to France. They would have been easier to assimilate, surely, than Africans and Muslims; the language isn’t that different; and the churches for them — very nice ones too — would already have been built. The failure to think along these lines represents a great lack of foresight.
The imported spanish speakers would only partially assimilate. They would also bring in a lot of spanish influences and corrupt the purity of french.
Yeah, I admit the term isn’t good, France aren’t feared by anyone those days=)
The problem is that
1-Many muslim spoke french so if they want to emmigrate, France is the first place they are thinking about
2-Same thing for Africans
3-France is not that far away from them so it must cost less
4-People in Latin America are a lot more interested in USA and to some point in Canada than in France, why would they do such a long travel if they can get better in their own continent=)
If France wants to lead a united Europe, shouldn’t they learn the language first?
Regarding the close similarity of English and French.
I saw a great quote from a Turkish diplomat (off the record I am sure.)
“In Turkey, we have always considered English and French to be the same language, just pronounced differently.”
Joel
People like Viot (stagnating at the dinausorian Alliance Française) & Carrère d’Encausse (a terrible “writer” who’d be perfect at the Nonsense Academy) do have an obvious interest in acting as doomsayers: get money or attention. More serious language-focussed writers, as Henriette Walter for instance, would tell you that worn-out rationale about the poor French language invaded by English is the most stupid thing ever fabricated. It is indeed.
Equally stupid is the twerpish bit about the jail sentence for anyone using “week-end” & “parking”…
Even more stupid is the “CNN à la française” story (and why not FoxNews à la française…). This stuff is just an attempt to feed parasites like Viot, Carrère & co with golden, secure, dormant jobs where they could bark their nonsense. If there would be a channel to be imitated, this would rather be a Francophony-financed Deutsche Welle à la française, not a pathetic, tacky, French-financed ChiracTV.
Paul: “That they are so defensive and linguistically protectionist is indicative of the weakness of their position and their mindset” >>> you’re referring to professional hysterics, not to real people.
Charles: ”The reason for this is that English is the first foreign language in almost all recent and new Member States” >>> that’s right & this isn’t a problem. What some populist politicians & cynical “pundits” all feign not to understand is that French in Europe (especially in Bruxellois offices) & French in the World are two different matters.
Catalan: you’re right; French officials are all the less entitled to sell their cheap, boring melodrama as they absolutely don’t care about traditional foreign languages spoken in France. Hopefully French people are a bit more subtle than that & the current linguistic situation is far better than it was 50 years ago.
Joel Hammer: Hastings, 1066, English’s Frenchification >>> you’re absolutely right. For that reason alone (& for many other ones too), professional doomsayers are utterly ridiculous.
Ghaleon: you are 500% right >>> the French language is strong enough to resist by itself; it doesn’t need any support from anybody, except from people using it. There’s absolutely no risk that French is facing its 1066 as English did. After all, English became what it is thanks to French. French IS French. Québec linguistic situation (something like 6 million unaided people plunged in an Anglophone ocean of 320 managed to save, expand & export their language, even in France).
Ron: “Let’s not forget that the Normans weren’t French – they were a bunch of ex-pat Vikings”. Except French Vikings didn’t bring too many Norse words into French: they dropped their Scandinavian language for French, quite rapidly (one generation). That wasn’t precisely the case of Danelaw guys who reshaped Anglic English profoundly.
Joel: “In Turkey, we have always considered English and French to be the same language, just pronounced differently” >>> some even think that English a French dialect…
I can’t believe it – I just read an entire Kodiak post, and agreed with every word.
That’s twice now. I think I need to lie down.
paul greenberg has the column for this at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/paulgreenberg/pg20030830.shtml
my favorite part:
“Note the contrast with wholesomely unregulated English, which is a laissez-faire language. English has never been declared a government monopoly, which may explain why English was multicultural even before multicultural was a word.”
Look at the whole anglophone world, it hardly ever plays a non-english song or movie, therefore there is a huge “domestic market” and many artists can be financed, it creates a huge diversity and this or that style will emerge that is radically new and will “enthousiasmer” all people over the world (rock, rap…).
That sucess comes from the hability of being intolerant (and i don’t mean that as a slander).
French started to be endangered when people in it’s sphere of influence started to listen to english lyrics which they didn’t and still don’t understand: which drives more people to learn english. it is a virtuous/vicious circle.
Therefore it seems to me that the only way to jumpstart french would be to agree with all french speaking countries to pass quotas and recreate the lost market. which is why i am totally for the french cnn-type channel and the 50 percent radio quotas.
as a matter of fact i think the quota should be around 70 or 80 percent and on tv programms and cinema as well as radio.
it is the only way of ressuscitating french as a world language.
This and having a strong pan-francophone economic and cultural politic, which is not the case.
Aside from that
The normans are 100 percent french, ALL french are the fruit of immigration, i doubt that a single french is of more or less proto-gaulois blood.
France consists of Normans, bretons, basques, francs, ostrogoth, wisigoths, berbers, celts, ibers of all kinds, etruscs, romans, good old gaulois, a few huns, non-franc germans, etc… the list is long. it’s geographical position made it propice 4 that.
and about the muslim question, my answer to that would be to let come (if they want) many subsaharans in france, as well as hindu indians
and old french-speaking non-muslim colony members: christian lebanese (if some are left), combodians, vietnamese, malgaches, as well as arab christians (copts, which are persecuted in egypt, 4 example) so that it even’s out the weight of muslims.
i don’t want france to become islamic: i’m a militant atheist, or pantheist, be it what u like, it’s the same!!
Zarhras : « Anyway, it’s the French who are lashing out at other languages and cultures, not the other way around » >>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
I think you forget the role of English as a ruthless predator against all foreign languages. I’m not well versed in Canadian history but one thing is sure: from Acadian deportation up to antiFrench linguistic laws lately removed (early or mid XXth century), Anglophones ferociously sought –in vain- to eradicate the use of the first official Canadian language, French. They failed completely; but they tried to.
“They (LATIN AMERICANS) would have been easier to assimilate, surely, than Africans and Muslims (…)” >>> first American Francophones are Latin Americans (French is a Latin language, as Portuguese is). On a purely linguistical point of view, Africans & Muslims (Arabs, you meant: some Gallic French are Muslim & some Arabs are Christian) don’t have to assimilate to anything: they ARE speaking French already, just like me. Spanish is really different from French (no mutual intelligibility except if you’re used to hear both languages rather frequently). Some French people of Arab descent speak a French I couldn’t even dream of.
“(…) and the churches for them — very nice ones too — would already have been built” >>> ???????????????????? WHAT DID YOU MEAN ???
“The failure to think along these lines represents a great lack of foresight” >>> I think you don’t know neither French nor France.
R C Dean: yes, do have a rest because we probably hugely disagree on every other aspect of language enforcement. For instance: some French globalised companies (registered in the French Republic, though) impose English as working language at senior circles. I think this is wrong and should be forbidden (not for linguistical reasons, but for political reasons). The French Republic has got French for sole official language; unless decided otherwise –which may be possible- the use of English or Danish or Bantou in public matters (& running a private company is definitely pertaining to public matters, at least in part: social laws, safety regulations, human rights etc) is not legal. It is possible, but it is not legal, the use of French only is >>> hence the debate between the doomsayers like Viot, Carrère & co (who are mixing a legal debate with a linguistic debate) & a part of the business community (who too are mixing, but rather the other way round). In two words: obliging French citizens to use a non-official language is illegal. That the non-official language in question is Arabic or Aleoutian is a non-issue.
wt: “English has never been declared a government monopoly (…)” >>> you’re right: it was even a forbidden language in England up to late Middle Ages, at least within higher classes.
“(…) which may explain why English was multicultural even before multicultural was a word” >>> I disagree. Multiculturality -propensity to borrow from others- has nothing to do with official status or lack of it.
ashurbanipal: “it is the only way of ressuscitating french as a world language” >>> it’s not dead: it’s thriving & vigorously expanding.
“French started to be endangered when people in it’s sphere of influence started to listen to english lyrics which they didn’t and still don’t understand (…)” >>> you can listen to Italian or German operas or Yiddish folksongs without wanting to speak neither Italian, nor German nor Yiddish. The US influence on local cultures (ie: songs in English) is rather a consequence of economical & military power than a cause of them.
It’s also not English as such that’s at stake. English is a normal, nice, interesting, pleasant language & all that. It’s more its users & the way they see the World.
Abby: “If France wants to lead a united Europe, shouldn’t they learn the language first?”
I nominate this for Quote Of The Week. ROFL!
me too. lol
and i agree with you kodiak!!
but i’m still more pessimistic than u.
ashurbanippal: how come ?
Andrew Ian Dodge: “Yeah pretty soon the only people speaking French will be the French and a bunch of murderous Africans”
Non-Murderous African: ” “and a bunch of murderous Africans.” Excuse moi? What are you trying to say, Monsieur “Andrew Ian Dodge”? Je ne comprend pas …”
Man, I forgot that one !!!
Salut Non-Murderous African. On va tenter d’éclaircir les propos nauséabonds de M. Dodge. On remarque d’emblée qu’il n’a toujours pas répondu à ta question. On valui rafraîchir la mémoire.
HEEEEEEEEEEEELLO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DOOOOOOOOODGE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mr Non-Murderous African & I do ask you a question.
WHAT DID YOU MEAN EXACTLY, PLEASE?
If you can’t read English:
PRECISE TA PENSEE, STP MERCI.
I thought he was saying that since a majority of South Americans tend to be Catholic already, they would have no problem going to French Catholic Christian cathedrals, and so would blend in with the populace?