"Anglophone"

[Harold Koch]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Lyle
Supplementary to other commentators--
I concur that anglophone has long been common in Canada.
A quick check in a comprehensive French dictionary, Le Grand Robert (1986 
edition), reveals that anglophone is attested as a substantive since 1894 
and as an adjective (region francophone) since 1915. [Allophone is also 
given as one whose mother language is a foreign language in the country 
they currently live in.]
The Grand Larousse dates anglophone to the mid-20th century.
I suspect that Anglophone has been adopted into English from French 
(perhaps also from other Romance languages), and wonder whether its usage 
has spread to the US and NZ largely from modern usage in bilingual Canada.
Cheers
Harold Koch

At 05:57 AM 15/05/2002 -0400, Lyle Campbell wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
>
>A terminological question:  What about "anglophone"?
>
>I ask because I find myself reacting against the term when I see it in
>contexts where I would expect something like "English speakers", as for
>example in something like, "
 there where X number of anglophones in New
>Zealand in the 1850s", meaning presumably "English speakers" and used so
>as not to confuse Maori speakers in the number.  I see the term, I
>believe, mostly in writings from English Anglicists, and I wonder how
>general usages are such as, for example, "
 among the anglophone
>dialects of the British Isles 
", where, if the goal is to include only
>English and exclude Welsh, Irish, Scots Gaelic, and so on, I would
>expect to see just "among English dialects 
" or "among dialects of
>English speakers" or some such thing.   The term feels too much like a
>French loan that would only be useful in writing about French topics
>where English speakers might come to be mentioned, but even in that
>context I personally would probably avoid it.
>
>My question then is, what is the reaction of others?  Are there
>conventions or information that I am missing?
>
>Lyle

Dr Harold Koch
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
Convenor, Graduate Progam in Linguistics
School of Language Studies
Faculty of Arts
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia

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