Newsgroups: can.francais
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!clarke
From: clarke@csri.toronto.edu (Jim Clarke)
Subject: franglais?  Ench?
Message-ID: <8901152123.AA05204@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
Distribution: can
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 89 16:23:21 EST


Here's an excerpt from an editorial in the Manchester Guardian Weekly,
taken without permission (as the burglar said) from the January 8 edition.

[A preliminary paragraph discussing official efforts in France to expunge
Anglicisms from the French language is omitted.]

  This concern with linguistic purity is clearly inspired by France's envy
  of Anglo-Saxon practice which, as is well known, sets its face like flint
  against all overseas importations.  Regular visitors to London report
  with awe on the capacity of the English of all social classes for keeping
  the language clean.  From the blase' habitue's of the London clubs --
  raconteurs, bon viveurs, hommes d'affaires -- with their penchant for
  bonhomie and camaraderie, through the soi-disant bien-pensants of the
  passe' liberal press to the demi-monde of the jeunesse dore'e, where
  inge'nues in risque' de'colletages dine a` deux, te^te a` te^te
      [sorry if I'm getting the accents wrong; I'm not used to them in English]
  and a` la carte with their louche nouveau riche fiance's in brasseries
  and estaminets, pure English is de rigueur, and the mildest infusion of
  French considered de trop, de'ja vu, cliche', devoid of all cachet; a
  linguistic me'lange or bouillabaisse, a cultural cul-de-sac.

[another paragraph in the same style omitted]

You may reasonably take this as mockery -- presumably gentle -- of the
French, and I think probably that's how the newspaper meant it.  But I'm
only repeating it here because it's amusing to see just how much undigested
French we actually accept as English, not because I think the French are
being silly, much less the Quebecois.

As I typed the passage, it occurred to me also that a few of the words are
not ones we in Canada would ordinarily accept as English.  Clearly the
British are still adopting French words, and presumably we here are doing
the same.  "Francophone", for a nearly self-referential example.
-- 
Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
              (416) 978-4058
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