Linguistic purity. “Wir haben die standard let down procedure gemacht.” – What a Lufthansa co-pilot would tell his pilot just before landing his aircraft, in perfectly acceptable German. English is a bastardization of Romance languages (mostly French – from the Norman Conquests, 1066 and all that), German and a whole lot of obscure Celtic words. Linguistic purity is not on our list of priorities, but ever since the U.S. became the global economic power and the bastion of forward thinking research and technological invention, we have been naming stuff, to the consternation of many, in English. And some cultures take this linguistic invasion very personally. Like France.
The French “Académie” is dedicated to eliminating foreign words and finding suitable French replacements, words that are supposed to be used in every French governmental report issued (but not always), even if the rest of the French population uses the common and often English-based original description. And in the days of mobile aps and the Internet, this is a particularly difficult challenge. The Académie created “logiciel” for software and “ordinateur” for computer. How about “entartement” for a pie-in-the-face attack?!
Wikipedia tells us where this French obsession came from: “L'Académie française… also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was restored in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the oldest of the five académies of the Institut de France...The Académie consists of forty members, known as immortels (immortals)[average age in their 70s]. New members are elected by the members of the Académie itself. Académicians hold office for life, but they may be removed for misconduct. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language; it is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language.” Zutalors!
France and China have more in common than cultures that will eat just about anything. China too feels the nasty encroachment of English just as they are trying to establish themselves as the most powerful economy on earth, projected to occur on or before 2030. Here’s the state of linguistic xenophobia in the Peoples Republic: “Chinese newspapers, books and websites will no longer be allowed to use English words and phrases, the country's publishing body has announced, saying the ‘purity’ of the Chinese language is in peril… The General Administration of Press and Publication, which announced the new rule on [December 20th], said the increasing use of English words and abbreviations in Chinese texts had caused confusion and was a means of ‘abusing the language.’
“Such practices ‘severely damaged the standard and purity of the Chinese language and disrupted the harmonious and healthy language and cultural environment, causing negative social impacts,’ the body said on its website… ‘It is banned to mix at will foreign language phrases such as English words or abbreviations with Chinese publications, creating words of vague meaning that are not exactly Chinese or of any foreign language,’ it said… GAPP said companies which violated the regulation would face ‘administrative punishment’ without offering specifics. ” Breitbart.com (December 22nd). And I thought the nuclear deterrent was America’s greatest weapon… who woulda thunk, it’s English!
Posts
1 comment:
Actually, the word "ordinateur," as a replacement for English "computer," results from the actions of a consultant for IBM. It existed before that as an adjective associated with "a god who creates order."
...So yeah, l'Académie française was not responsible for that one. Also, they're dedicated to tasks other than hunting down anglicisms; they also bestow prizes (monetary and otherwise) to various causes.
Post a Comment