English rocks French

[Damien Hall]

I post below a thread from the American Dialect Society e-mail list yesterday
(Friday 18 April).  In the second message, Joel Berson refers to an article
about French President Sarkozy's tastes and culture and the feeling in France
that they aren't quite elevated enough for his office;  it's available on the
_New York Times_ website if you search for the title (which Joel gives).

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania

=======================

Date:    Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:10:31 -0500
From:    Dennis Baron <debaron at UIUC.EDU>
Subject: English rocks French

There's a new post on the Web of Language:

English rocks French

The French government spends millions of Euros every year to promote =20
French and discourage English in every corner of French life. And =20
French Pr=E9sident Nicolas Sarkozy is one of the French language=92s =20
biggest fans, when he isn't being distracted by his new bride, the =20
Italian singer/songwriter/model Carla Bruni.

But apparently the government-run television network France 3 didn=92t =20=

get the memo calling for all French, all the time, and so five weeks =20
ago it selected an English-language song, S=E9bastien Tellier=92s =20
=93Divine,=94 to represent the nation in the annual Eurovision song =
contest.

Sarko=92s Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, who is responsible =20
for ensuring that French TV complies with France=92s national language =20=

policy, confessed this week that she had no idea that France 3 had =20
done such an unpatriotic thing. Perhaps she didn=92t get the memo =20
either. . . .  When the news of the latest French capitulation to the =20=

English juggernaut (a Hindi word meaning 'juggernaut') came to light, =20=

the response was predictable: an uproar in Parliament and a protest =20
from Marc Favre d'Echallens, director of the organization Defense of =20
the French Language,


read the rest on The Web of Language


www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage


Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English                                   =09
University of Illinois=09

608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage=

------------------------------

========================

Date:    Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:26:27 -0400
From:    "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
Subject: Re: English rocks French

Dennis, may I recommend to your attention an
article from the NYTimes of April 15, "Abroad: A
Lowbrow in High Office Ruffles France", by
Michael Kimmelman.  Perhaps Christine Albanel
should be referred to as Sarko’s Minister of UnCulture.

Joel

========================

Date:    Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:28:53 -0500
From:    Dan Goodman <dsgood at IPHOUSE.COM>
Subject: Re: English rocks French

Dennis Baron wrote:
>
> There's a new post on the Web of Language:
>
> English rocks French
>
> www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage

Yes; the language of "redingote" and "biftek" must be protected from
foreign words.

If this goes on, "choucroute" might be renamed to something German.

--
Dan Goodman
"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
Journal http://dsgood.livejournal.com <http://dsgood.livejournal.com/>
Futures http://clerkfuturist.wordpress.com
Mirror Journal http://dsgood.insanejournal.com
Mirror 2 http://dsgood.wordpress.com
Links http://del.icio.us/dsgood

=======================

Date:    Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:16:58 -0400
From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: English rocks French

Some years ago, the French Ministry of Culture under Jack Lang - note
his stereotypically-French name - passed a law to the effect that
there could be no singing before the public of a song not in French,
i.e. in English, unless there was an interpreter (or should that be
"translator'?) onstage to render the foreign language into French.

As a consequence, a French magazine shortly thereafter published a
cartoon in which a French rocker, before a French audience, is
singing, "Shake, baby! Shake! Shake! Shake!" Stage right stands the
interpreter, singing into his own mike (or should that be "mic"?),
"Cheique, bébi! Cheique! Cheique! Cheique!"

-Wilson