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<DIV><FONT size=2>>>Actually, in my experience of visiting France several
times over the past few years, I believe the feelings of the French are
>>ambivalent, not counting the silent majority that seems indifferent to
the issues. It is mostly the leadership of la Francophonie >>that shows
concern. To understand this, it also helps to factor in the conerns of the
Academie Francaise about the endangered >>purity of French. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Your mention of the silent majority is very pertinent here. My
PhD research was about the attitudes of French speakers, both in France and
abroad, to anglicisms and the English language in general. I began with the
feeling that the French were very concerned about the issue, that they would all
be up in arms about it. After all, that is the impression that one gets from the
French media and French intellectuals (far more than the Académie Française,
whose role is negligeable, if highly symbolic). It's most certainly not true of
the French people in general, who, by an overwhelming majority, are simply
indifferent to the encroaching anglicisation of their speech. Anglicisms are not
seen as a threat, but neither are they enriching for the language. They simply
are. This does not prevent scores of newspaper articles, pamphlets and books
being written to decry the effects of English on French, and more generally to
bemoan the current state of French. Some French speakers do, however, regard
anglicisms as a threat, but they are not French French speakers, but African
francophones (my study was conducted in Senegal, Benin, Cameroon and
Madagascar), for reasons too complex to be stated simply here. The difference
between African francophones and European francophones (the study included
French-speaking Switzerland) is very striking indeed.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>When I first came to live in France, I was not sympathetic to
French concerns, or rather what I perceived to be as such. But this has changed.
The real problem is not so much the corpus of the language, the so-called purity
of the language. Yes, it *is* intensely irritating to hear French business
people refer to "le monthly report" when "le rapport mensuel" would do, but
irritating is all it is. It's not a grave matter for the future of French,
because the influence doesn't go much beyond the lexical. What I do find more
difficult, and where I sympathise with French concerns more (and where,
incidentally, more French people *do* show concern) is in the status of the
language, by which I mean its use, or non-use, in many domains. Sure,
English is used in practically all scientific conferences, to quote an example
that has been used in this discussion. That is good news for American, British
etc. scientists. It is *not* good news for French scientists, who will never
acquire the same level of linguistic competence and will inevitably find it more
difficult to convey their ideas. Not to mention the unfairness of a British
scientist being able to concentrate in the laboratory, and a French scientist
having to take time out to brush up on his or her English. This is not good for
science. People who believe otherwise have not spent huge chunks of their time
helping French scientists colleagues prepare anxiously for a forthcoming
presentation, in English, in France, to the conference of a French association,
with French sponsorship. Sure, you can find plenty of English-speakers in the
streets of Paris - </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>I fail to understand the
advantage of that. OK if you're looking for the public toilets or a shop to buy
a roll of film,<STRONG> </STRONG>I suppose. One last example, because I have
bored you long enough already, and I'm not really sure how this falls within the
remit of the ADS, anyway. The French government had to move heaven and earth to
ensure that French would be used during the opening ceremony of the Olympic
Games. I can't remember whether it was the mayor of Sydney or the Chairman of
the Organising Committee, it was reported here that whoever it was pretexted
that they spoke no French and were not prepared to give any part of their speech
in one of the two official languages of the Olympics (and until recently, THE
official language). A few years ago, I would have thought the French were daft
to kick up such a fuss. I now agree wholeheartedly - it would have been wrong to
give English all the stage in Sydney. We anglophones have it too good as it
is.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Regards</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Jim</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>**************</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Dr. Jim Walker<BR>Departement d'anglais<BR>Universite Lumiere
- Lyon 2<BR>86 rue Pasteur<BR>69365 Lyon Cedex 07<BR>FRANCE</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><A
href="mailto:Jim.Walker@univ-lyon2.fr">Jim.Walker@univ-lyon2.fr</A><BR><A
href="mailto:Jim.Walker@wanadoo.fr">Jim.Walker@wanadoo.fr</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Tel/fax (pers.) +44 4 74 62 08 48</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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