PARIS, France (AP) -- Goodbye "e-mail", the French government says, and hello "courriel" -- the term that linguistically sensitive France is now using to refer to electronic mail in official documents.
The Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the use of "e-mail" in all government ministries, documents, publications or Web sites, the latest step to stem an incursion of English words into the French lexicon.
The ministry's General Commission on Terminology and Neology insists Internet surfers in France are broadly using the term "courrier electronique" (electronic mail) instead of e-mail -- a claim some industry experts dispute. "Courriel" is a fusion of the two words.
"Evocative, with a very French sound, the word 'courriel' is broadly used in the press and competes advantageously with the borrowed 'mail' in English," the commission has ruled.
Calling it artificial
The move to ban "e-mail" was announced last week after the decision was published in the official government register on June 20. Courriel is a term that has often been used in French-speaking Quebec, the commission said.
The 7-year-old commission has links to the Academie Francaise, the prestigious institution that has been one of the top opponents of allowing English terms to seep into French.
Some Internet industry experts say the decision is artificial and doesn't reflect reality.
"The word 'courriel' is not at all actively used," Marie-Christine Levet, president of French Internet service provider Club Internet, said Friday. "E-mail has sunk in to our values."
She said Club Internet wasn't changing the words it uses.
"Protecting the language is normal, but e-mail's so assimilated now that no one thinks of it as American," she said. "Courriel would just be a new word to launch."
Those wacky French, don;t they see how irrelevant their culture is becoming?
Wherever you go, there you are.
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Are you kidding? They've been doing this shit for years, but as soon as we do something (on a much lesser scale, nonetheless), we're jingoists. The hypocrisy is astounding.
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I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
Damn Stravo, that was a quick lock. Only if I went online 29 minutes earlier. . I guess the French are finally realizing that their culture is no longer top shit anymore.
I have to wonder why you Yanks are so happy about this, it doesn't make the Freedom Fries but any less moronic and nor does it tell us anything new about the frogs sense of smug superiority.
Americans don't have a problem with the foreign-sounding words in their vocabulary, why should the French be concerned about English words in their vocabulary?
It's not a surprise. The government always try to enforce the native language in official matters. Here, the official name for email is "correio electrónico", and should be used in government activities. But, since nobody will verify this kind of stuff, they continue to use email in most publications, since it's somewhat more convenient.
Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Americans don't have a problem with the foreign-sounding words in their vocabulary, why should the French be concerned about English words in their vocabulary?
Because they fear that their own superior culture will be overwhelmed by the inferior Anglo ones, same reason they have a law dictating French TV must have a certain percentage of French speaking material (40%) and then on top of that (20%) European programming, same with Radio as well and Cinemas.
Of course other countries have such systems but they are far more relaxed whereas the French pursue them with a great zeal.
Well, actually this is part of a long running program by a group independant of the French Government that has control over the French language. It is their mandate to maintain the French language and the replacement of the word: "e-mail" has been coming since roughly 1997 when it became widespread in France.
To compare this with Freedom Fries is a travesty, it has nothing at all to do with the French Government and its foreign policies.
weemadando wrote:Well, actually this is part of a long running program by a group independant of the French Government that has control over the French language. It is their mandate to maintain the French language and the replacement of the word: "e-mail" has been coming since roughly 1997 when it became widespread in France.
To compare this with Freedom Fries is a travesty, it has nothing at all to do with the French Government and its foreign policies.
not to mention that French Fries aren't even French. And just a side note. Could you imagine if, like the French crusade againt "Franglais" the US government lauched a campaign against "Spanglish"? There would be riots in the streets denouncing the "racist crackdown" or some nonsense to that effect.
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.” -Tom Clancy
This is nothing new from the French, and besides, everyone else in Europe is laughing at them for being so ridiculous about the language. In fact, we've been laughing for a good long while...
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. I guess the French are finally realizing that their culture is no longer top shit anymore.
