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<DIV class=storyheadline>France adopts Quebec term for e-mail</DIV>
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<TD><FONT class=storypub size=2>Canadian Press</FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<DIV class=storydate><BR>Thursday, July 10, 2003</DIV>
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<P>France has taken a French lesson from its Quebec cousins, announcing
electronic mail will be known as a "courriel" - a term coined by a Montreal
professor. </P>
<P>La Commission generale de terminologie et de néologie, overseer of the French
language in France, has adopted the term seven years after it was first used by
University of Montreal literature professor Jean-Claude Guédon. </P>
<P>The word "courriel" recently appeared in the language commission's official
publication, and use of the term will be mandatory throughout the French
government. </P>
<P>The commission had high praise for the word courriel, which first appeared in
Guédon's 1996 book, La Planète cyber (The Cyber Planet). </P>
<P>"Evocative, with a very French sound, the word courriel is widely used in the
media and is preferable to the English term `mail,'" said the commission. </P>
<P>Guédon created the word courriel by contracting the words "courrier
électronique," the French term for electronic mail. </P>
<P>The new word soon caught on in Quebec and throughout the French-speaking
world - except in France, where the word mail remained the preferred term for
e-mail. </P>
<P>Courriel gradually began popping up on business cards across France in the
late 1990s. But it was still seen as a Québécois novelty until 2000, when it
appeared in world's foremost French-language dictionary, Le Petit Larousse. </P>
<P>Guédon's influence on French technical jargon has earned him a degree of
notoriety in his home province. </P>
<P>L'Office de la langue française, overseer of the French language in Quebec,
honoured Guédon this spring for his "exceptional (contribution) to the
francization of cyberspace." </P></DIV>
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