France Makes Bold Prescriptivist Strike

[Bruce Dykes]

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=69033

French ban anglo phrase 'e-mail'
Monday, 6 March 2000 9:52 (ET)

French ban anglo phrase 'e-mail'


 PARIS, March 6 (UPI) -- The French Ministry of Finance announced Monday it
has banned from official French civil service use many common English
language business words such as "start-up" and "e-mail."

 The goal, according to a detailed ministry statement issued Monday is to
limit the spread of the English language throughout the Internet.

 The ministry last year established seven different committees to search
out and substitute with French translations as many widely accepted anglo
computer terms as possible.

 The ministry disclosed Monday that government documents and civil servants
have been directed to use the phrase a "jeune pousse" (a young plant) for
"start-up" and use the phrase "courrier electronique" for "e-mail," in all
official government communications.

 The announcement comes as two French newspapers -- Liberation and Le Monde
-- noted last week that French President Chirac often used anglo computer or
finance terms.

 Last week he referred to some companies as "les start-ups" and to their
managers as "les start-upistes."

 Chirac had been touring a building in Paris known as Republic Alley, where
many young French Internet firms are located.
Explaining the project to turn the anglo computer phrases into French, the
head of the ministry's terminology committee, Jean Saint-Geours, told French
radio Monday: "Of course it is not possible for the State to dictate phrases
for other persons. But, for the entire nation, it is important everyone
should talk the same language."

 There are an estimated 4.5 million French people who use the Internet, a
figure expected to rise to 23 million in 2002.

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