<div dir="ltr"><h1 class=""><span>France</span> <span>Revolting</span> <span>Over</span> <span>English</span> <span>Takeover</span> <span>of</span> <span>Brussels</span></h1><div class=""><span><a>
©
Flickr/ Adrien Séné</a></span></div><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><a class="" href="http://sputniknews.com/europe/">Europe</a><div class="">19:06 08.04.2015(updated 20:44 08.04.2015) <span id="getShortUrl" class="">Get short URL</span></div><div class=""><span class="">952</span><span class="">14</span><span class="">0</span></div></div><strong class="">Despite
the UK being in the throes of an election battle centering on its
possible exit from the European Union, France is in turmoil over the
supremacy of the English language in the EU, pushing French out of place
as the most-used official language of the institution.</strong><div class=""><p>France
has been vehement in the guardianship of its native tongue, to the
point of having its own institution — l'Académie française — which acts
as a policeman (or gendarme) for its national language (or lingua
franca).</p>
<p>The Académie was established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief
minister to King Louis XIII and comprises forty members, known as les
immortels (immortals) who are the official authority on the usages,
vocabulary, and grammar of the French language. </p>
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<p>The body has railed against the use of Anglicism in the language,
such as 'le weekend', 'le picnic', 'le sandwich' and 'le binge
drinking', despite widespread use on the internet.</p>
<p><strong>Sacre Bleu!</strong></p>
<p><strong></strong></p>
<p>When the European Union was set up the first official language policy
identified French, German, Dutch, and Italian as the official working
languages of the EU. However, since the accession of more and more
states, English has become the preferred language, putting French noses
out of joint.</p>
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<p>Jean Quatremer, who writes the best blog about EU affairs — Les
Coulisses de Bruxelles — laments the passing of French as one of the
principal languages of the EU. "The virtual disappearance of French, one
of the three working languages of the EU institutions with English
and German, is a process that began in 1995, with the enlargement
including Sweden, Finland and Austria.</p>
<div class=""><div class=""><img src="http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/101655/52/1016555253.jpg" alt="Vilnius TV Tower" title="Vilnius TV Tower" itemprop="associatedMedia" height="375" width="705"></div><div class=""><a href="https://flic.kr/p/6qhg5G">
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Flickr/ Socialism Expo.</a></div><div class=""><a href="http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150130/1017536382.html">EU May Create Russian-Language TV Channel in Europe</a></div></div>
<p>"The Commission now works almost exclusively in English, even
in areas where there is no native English speaker," he wrote on his
blog.</p>
<p>However, Quatremer suggests the use of English as the common EU
language has led to a lack of clarity among all its member states. </p>
<p>"Now, people who have mastered English imperfectly produce a low
quality of texts (legal professionals are complaining more and more),
which sometimes appear simply incomprehensible and therefore
intransposable to domestic law in each member state.</p>
<p class="">"Clearly, Europe is shooting itself in the foot by doing a cultural policy of fait accompli in the name of efficiency."</p>
<p>The creeping use of English in the EU and the stealth and furtive
inclusions of Anglicism into the French language have gone to the top
of l'Académie française.</p>
<p>"We know that it rains a lot in England and in France it rains a lot
of Anglicism. We refuse to use them, or use them out of laziness or
snobbery, or lack of a better word. There are also stealth Anglicisms,
which are more dangerous, since they evade the radar," said the immortal
Sir Michael Edwards, who is English.</p></div></div></div></div><div style="overflow:hidden;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-align:left;text-decoration:none;border:medium none"><br>Read more: <a style="color:rgb(0,51,153)" href="http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150408/1020624651.html#ixzz3WpKsVfNV">http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150408/1020624651.html#ixzz3WpKsVfNV</a><br><br></div><a href="http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150408/1020624651.html">http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150408/1020624651.html</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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