France bans English videogame terms
It isn’t just Quebec. France is banning English videogame terms, hoping to replace “streamer” with “joueur-animateur en direct” and so on.
What can you do? English is almost always going to be snappier.
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Kate
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Thomas 09:19 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
Quote unquote banned in official government use. We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the Twitch streamers are safe from this terrible tyranny. Personally, I would expect the Government of France to use the French language for official communications.
Chris 10:07 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
It isn’t just French places either.
There was a row about Chinese-only signs in Richmond BC for example. Or the mounting pushback against the growing use of Spanish in the USA.
Quebec is hardly unique with all this.
Kate 10:51 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
The examples are different. French is in a particular position, its culture tends to assume its speakers are the most civilized people on the planet, yet they’re constantly being undermined by how much cooler and catchier English tends to be.
English speakers have their own kind of smugness that can turn nasty, yes. But the relative population of speakers of English is so much more dominant, it’s a different psychology.
JaneyB 11:50 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
I’m sure Francophones can invent snappier French terms; they really just have to decide to. ‘Pourriel’ and ‘courriel’ spring to mind. Of course, it was Quebecois who invented those winning ones. Maybe it’s a North American mentality.
Ephraim 11:57 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
Well, they could have gone with something like diffusier(e) or even diffjouer. I hereby claim that if you see this in future use in French that ***I*** have proof that I coined them first.
Robert H 13:54 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
Nobel attempt, mais trop tard, surtout avec les joueurs internationaux. Right, Kate. The cultural / lingustic chasms do create different psychologies or mentalities and the advantage goes to english over other languages because it’s so deeply embedded in everything current, hip, practical, popular and lucrative. Only Spanish can approach it in ubiquity and Chinese can surpass it in sheer numbers but those two lack the other factors that truly push a tongue to the status of everybody’s lingua franca. It’s not that french doesn’t have a chance, it does have its ocassional successes: “courriel” as JaneyB cited for example seems well established within Quebec standard, demotic usage. But timing is critical. A neologism must take root early enough to catch on among speakers in its linguistic group before the inevitable incursion of the equivalent term from an adjacent, dominant language. I remember when francophones referred to the weekend, as «La Fin de Semaine,» a term that has completely disappeared from usage. There’s a short commercial that’s been in heavy rotation on francophone TV for a new Honda four-door model. The genial spokesperson is touting the wide angle at which the rear seat doors open and says «Ça, c’est comme rentrer dans un grand walk-in.»
walkerp 13:56 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
Have to call you out with the weird assumption that “English is always going to be snappier”. That’s just not the case at all. Yes with official language, French tends to need to be more precise and longer, but for slang and terms created with technological changes, French has several snappier terms that work really well.
Robert H 13:56 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
Noble! Ah bon dieu!
Kevin 16:13 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
Gorram. My post about the group founded in part by the city of Paris to promote investment in France was gobbled.
Here’s their website https://financefortomorrow.com/
Poutine Pundit 19:20 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
“Débarbouillette” may be the snappiest word in any language, and it just happens to be in French.
Kate 19:53 on 2022-05-31 Permalink
I’m fond of “dégringolade” myself, since it sounds like somebody not only falling down, but all the change dropping out of their pockets at the same time.