<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">There's a new post on the <a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage">Web of Language:</a><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre;">Txtng blamed for decline of French</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; white-space: normal; "><p class="blog">French President Nicolas Sarkozy blames texting, or, as they say in French, <i>les textos,</i> for the decline of the French language. <span> </span>French teenagers, like their counterparts in the states and everywhere else, abbreviate to save space, or perhaps just to annoy adults, using forms like A2M1 (<i>à demain,</i> the French equivalent of TTYL), <i>JTM, </i>(<i>je t’aime, </i>‘SWAK’), EDR (Écroulé de rire, ‘lol,’ or, more accurately, ‘rotfl’), or A+ (<i>À plus,</i> ‘L8R’).</p><p class="blog">As is the case with English, French textos are starting to appear outside of text messages, including prominent and controversial ads for Citroen, which used “C CHIC,” <i>c’est chic,</i> to tout its new line of C-cars, and the Banque Nationale Populaire Paribas, which adopted the slogan “TA + KENTRER” (<i>T'as plus qu'entrer,</i> ‘you only have to come in’) to attract investors looking for a bank that’s hip as well as stable, though that is often a contradiction in terms. <span> </span></p></span></span></font></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "><p class="blog" style="text-align: left; ">According to <a mce_href="http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11412629" href="http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11412629">a report last week in the <i>Economist</i></a><i>,</i> last winter, President Sarkozy, whom the French call Sarko even when they're not texting, complained, “Look at what text-messaging is doing to the French language.<span> </span>If we let things go, in a few years we will have trouble understanding each other.”<span> </span></p><p class="blog">And he should know about texts and misunderstanding.<span> </span>Last March, Sarkozy, an avid <i>texteur</i>, was<a mce_href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/25/do2504.xml" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/25/do2504.xml">caught messaging while awaiting an audience with the Pope</a>, and <a mce_href="http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,778,sarkozy-takes-etiquette-lessons-to-meet-queen,21722" href="http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,778,sarkozy-takes-etiquette-lessons-to-meet-queen,21722">later in a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao</a>.<span> </span>His advisors were apparently so concerned with Sarko's disregard for protocol that they warned him to curtail his habit in preparation for a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, herself an avid mobile phone user.<span> </span></p><p class="blog"><br></p><p class="blog">..but that's not all -- read the rest of the post, and Sarko's most amazing (alleged) texting indiscretion, on<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; "> the <a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage">Web of Language</a></span></p></span></div><div><br></div><div>DB</div><div><br></div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>____________________</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Dennis Baron</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Professor of English and Linguistics</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Department of English<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">University of Illinois<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">608 S. Wright St.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Urbana, IL 61801 </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">office: 217-244-0568</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">fax: 217-333-4321</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></div></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron</font></span></a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">read the Web of Language:</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage">www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage</a></font></span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000EE" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></font></div></span></div><div><div><br></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>