As you may have heard, the lingua franca is under attack around the world. (Quick, what language is the phrase "lingua franca"? If you said french, wrong! If you said, english -- okay but no credit. The answer: latin.)
EU decides against French product label law. What law? The law that says all food products need to be labeled in French, not other languages (i.e. english). Hence, les ailes de poulet instead of "chicken wings".
The Germans have also opened an office to combat english words taking over.
Now here I present a speculation on this subject.
What they are worried about is the loss of their language, something they feel will happen in little creeping bits. That is, their language will become polluted with strange english words steadily...until...? Until what?
Until there are lots of foreign words in their language? Their language will somehow be less pure, I guess. What's the big deal about this? I venture to guess that neologisms are coined within the language far more rapidly than foreign words are borrowed, even if you let them say Buffalo Wings. Think about any language: in the last 5 years they have invented words/phrases for: mobile phone, internet, the twin towers, search engine, teen pop, boy band, wi-fi network, Frankenfood, etc. You get the idea. Language constantly changes its vocabulary -- adding, shedding, changing words. (Grammar too, but we'll come back to that.)
So, until what? Presumably until their whole language is gone. Maybe that is what they're worried about. If all the packages have english words on it...it'll soon just be easier to speak english. On this count, however, the fears are overblown. The vocabulary may change, but clearly the grammar stays the same. And the grammar is really the heart of it. That's why a dictionary will help you very little if you want to write a polite letter in french or give a speech to a french audience.
Two examples:
English word: shopping. French appropriation: "faire du shopping" -- to do some shopping. The structure is just like "faire des achats" or "faire des courses", which both just mean to do a little shopping. But you cannot say "Je voudrais shoper..." or whatever.
French phrase: "à la" as in "poulet au curry" or "torte à la mode". It literally translates as "something" + "to/at/like" + "another thing". English use: "pie a la mode". So that's: pie in the manner of the fashion. Okay, and I have also seen blah à la Jack or blah à la New York. But that's wrong! No "la". The phrase is just borrowed whole.
No danger, mon frère!
Posted by amol at August 3, 2002 08:01 PM