LL-L "Lexicon" 2003.10.20 (07) [E/French]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: jean-luc.detilleux at skynet.be <jean-luc.detilleux at skynet.be>
Subject: Phonology (or Borrowings?)

Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2003.10.16 (16) [E)

>Ben J. Bloomgren <godsquad at cox.net> wrote:

>The French have taken week-end as a very annoying borrowing that they use
instead of
>fin de semaine. As you know, I can't stand those blatant substitution for
>English words when French has words for such things as les week-ends et les
>business. It is weird to my native English-speaking ears, but I don't put
it
>above the Brits.

>R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>The thing with what I call "voluntary loanwords" (i.e., those that do not
>come with actual colonization) is very coplex, it seems. I believe it has
>something to do with a mix of pretention (i.e., initially showing off one's
>"with-it-ness" and education) and a type of "laziness" or reluctance to
>find, invent and use a native term. In the case of imported foreign items
>and concepts, loaning is natural. In cases such as "weekend" and "happy
>end" I don't think it came as a new concept.

Hello everybody,

Sadly enough, Ben and Ron, I can but agree with you when you write that
those
unnecessary borrowings of English words by French speaking people is
annoying.

The motivation is probably a mixture of lack of knowledge of their (also
mine!)
own tongue topped with a good slosh of showing off, as they (we?) pretend to
be
so deeply immersed in Anglo-Saxon culture that they forget their mother
language.

A commonly laughed-at case of this is Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was born
in Brussels, but pretends to have forgotten even the most basic notions of
his native French. In every sentence uttered in French, he reminds us that,
in life, il faut être *aware*!! A book has even been published, entitled
"Parlez-vous le Jean Claude? Aware!" by Dominique Duforest, Editions Hors
Collection.

Further examples of this are: As-tu regardé les news ce soir? (les
niouzes!) -
Ma fille est avec son boy-friend. - La photo de Madonna est en cover. (sic!)
To name but a few of those stupid fads.

See you plus tard! :-)

Regards,
Jean-Luc Detilleux

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Salut et hi, Jean-Luc !  Vraiment grand entendre de t'encore, buddy !  ;-)

Le plus vieux je deviens le plus relaxed je deviens about such things, et le
plus aware je deviens que le sanity lies somewhere between maccaronic
affectation (of the type you described and I am overdoing here) on the one
hand and linguistic purity policing on the other hand.  Sure, some people
will always follow whatever is considered chic for a hot second, but most
fads disappear soon enough and with them most of the fashionable loans.  I
feel that we tend to give the average speaker too little credit.  He or she
is quite aware (oups ! il y a ce mot encore !) what ought to be discarded
eventually and what is worth keeping.  At the end of the day, speakers will
reject both extremes, and the language keeps developing in a "reasonable"
way.

Nous devrions être aware que not too long ago English and other European
languages, including Dutch and Lowlands Saxon (and German), were at the
receiving end of enormous French linguistic importation.  Especially in the
18th century it was super-chic to speak French (albeit usually done quite
poorly) and to insert as many French words and phrases into one's native
language as possible.  Sure, you see this a lot in the literature of the
day.  But don't forget that the language that found its way into print
tended to be upper-class language, less so the language of "real" or
ordinary folk.  So ordinary folk did sometimes try to sound as
"sophisticated" as "la société élevée," but their peers soon enough pulled
them back down to earth.  In the end only a relatively small percentage of
once fashionable French loans survived.  Hardly anyone finds them disturbing
or strange these days, and many of them may now even be considered native.
So now it is the turn of the French language to be at the receiving end of
this (et de l'anglais ... Mon dieu, quelle horreur !).  I wouldn't worry
about it too much.  It'll all sort itself out in the end.  As far as I am
concerned it's all part and parcel of the world's people coming together ...
which needn't mean that we will do away with linguistic diversity.

Take care!  Je te verrai plus tard.
Reinhard/Ron

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