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Franglais Spoken Here: The French Appetite for American Words
| Article
# : |
19761 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1991 |
3,931 Words |
| Author
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Jean-Max Guieu
Jean-Max Guieu, associate professor of French at Georgetown
University's School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C., is
the author of several books and articles dealing with French
literature. He is a member of the American Council for French
Social and Cultural Studies. He regularly conducts workshops
on proper understanding and use of the French language. |
"Je suis tres stresse! Je mene une vie speedee. Mais c'est okay: Je vais prendre un break," my friend Pierre tells me about his new life in Paris. Formerly a professor of French literature in Provence, he has been promoted to teach at the Sorbonne.
Is the use of "Frenglish," or Franglais, as the French call it, so common that it has permeated even the intellectual spheres of French cultural tradition? Well, not so fast.
It is true that the post-de Gaulle policy of protecting by decree the purity of the language has apparently failed, and English words, more than ever, are used in the streets. One can learn them from TV, now that the state monopoly on the airwaves has collapsed; anchorpeople and talk-show hosts are no longer well-behaved civil servants. Dubbed sitcoms or series (Les Rues de San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Dynasty, Dallas), copycat game shows (La Roue de la Fortune, Jeopardy), video clips, and commercials now are part of the French television menu, as is an early morning edition of CBS News, with Dan Rather. People seem to crave English.
Of course, from time to time, lists of suggested equivalents for the new idioms are published by members of the French Academie or the Conseil Superieur de la Langue Francaise. But the tone is less authoritative than before: The hope is simply that French users will substitute balladeur for "Walkman," or debardeur for "T-shirt." Interestingly enough, the reason often given is no longer the idealistic defense of the language but rather the protection of customers. Why advertise for "discounts" when nobody knows what the word means, or, worse, if browsers think it's a new product: "Give me ½ kilo of 'discounts,' s'il vous plait"? And why should a doctor propose to a patient the surgical insertion of a "pacemaker" when stimulateur cardiaque might sound more reassuring?
Moreover, among the ever-political French, the attitude concerning "Frenglish" has mellowed: Today, the Left does not denounce its users as lackeys of capitalist imperialism, and conservatives no longer equate preserving their language unadulterated with patriotism and the independence of Eternal France. In fact, as everywhere else, the use of foreign words suggests experience, sophistication, routine traveling in exotic places, and knowledge of a somewhat attractive culture and its up-to-date slang.
At the same time, in recent years, the notion of Francophonie--the cultural regrouping of all French-speaking
...
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