English in Paris
The Journal’s Sophie Durocher gets bent out of shape about the growing use of English in Paris but she misses a step: “Ce qui me fait marrer, c’est quand les Français pensent parler anglais, mais utilisent des expressions fautives. « Take away » au lieu de « take-out ».” Actually, the British do call it takeaway, and it’s more proximate for Parisians to borrow British usage than North American.
Ephraim 09:57 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
Montreal is now the 4th largest French speaking city in the world… and it’s amazing how 9 of the other top 10 don’t seem to worry, like Henny Penny… it’s just become such an easy way to “Rally Round the Troops” and reality it’s simply Sayre’s Law
Kate 10:21 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
I did wonder about that in passing. Paris has permanent claim to the #1 position, but the second spot has been contested for years between Montreal and Kinshasa. What other city has pushed Montreal down to #4? One list suggests Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, at over seven million inhabitants. Kinshasa has more than nine million.
It isn’t clear how many of these people speak French ais a first language or even a usual language. Such numbers can be liberally interpreted. I’ve worked on some books about education in Haiti, for example, and while Port‑au‑Prince also figures on lists of French‑speaking cities, only a small percentage of the population actually speaks French daily. Everyone speaks Kreyol.
For that matter, only roughly half of Montreal’s residents commonly speak French at home.
John B 10:36 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
“quand les Français pensent parler anglais, mais utilisent des expressions fautives”
I bet she orders “un smoothies” when she wants a cold, blended, fruit drink…
Ephraim 10:41 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
Paris, Kinshasa, Abidjan, Montreal, Dakar, Port-Au-Prince, Yaoundé. Ouagadougou, Bamako, Antananarivo.
Kinshasa is over 17 million in the metro area. Paris is 13 million in the metro area. But they say that it’s about 2/3rd French speaking… so that’s 11.3 million French speakers. Abidjan is about 5.3 million in the metro area and French is the official language of Cote d’Ivoire. Montreal is about 4.6 million in the metro area and 71% are Francophone…
So Paris is really at risk of becoming the 2nd largest.. though by population it already is…. just not by number of French speakers.
Uatu 10:51 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
While we’re talking about anglicisms, I’m here at the Glen and they’ve just announced overcapacity in the adult ER. Where’s the column bitching about the ERs and the lack of doctors? Then again that ER waiting time is great to practise conjugating irregular verbs … I mean priorities, right?
mare 12:12 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
I love about the absurdity that a francophone (who apparently is good at English, she must have had more than 6 months of education) is complaining about other francophones speaking bad English.
Language topics never fail to generate clicks, as is proven by the number of comments on this topic here. (I’m guilty too.)
Ephraim 12:23 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
Uata – Verbe: Savoir – Subjunctif Imparfait…. the 12 year old in me wants to here it 🙂
Robert H 13:07 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
I also see Montreal so frequently described as the third or fourth most French-speaking city in the world behind Paris, Kinshasa or Abidjan. But definitions can be so murky: by French-speaking, are we refering to speakers for whom it is their first language, the one they learned as children and grew up speaking with family and friends, the one that occupies most of their daily life? Or is it a lingua franca, useful for communicating in a polyglot environment and with official entities? Specifically, I wonder if the great public of Abidjan and Kinshasa actually learn French as their first language among family and speak it in daily interactions outside the context of a classroom or government function. If we are simply refering to the ability to speak French, then I would find those rankings more credible. As Kate said, only about half of Montreal is francophone under that first criterion. If francophone means simply being able to speak French, would Ville Marie actually rank second?
I find Sophie Durocher’s complaint about the ubiquity of English in Paris a more interesting observation. Paris is one of the great, global migratory capitals with tides of humanity flowing in and out and large immigrant populations from around the world. It doesn’t surprise me that English, the world’s lingua franca and the most expansive of tongues would wash over the city and manifest itself in every corner. The unmatched creativity and vitality of American culture and wealth, generating innovation, trends and influence spreads around the globe. It takes on an allure and symbolizes everything hip, contemporary, lucrative, and international. The French seem to love the sound of “ing”: un smoking, le feeling. As Durocher mentions about a columnist being invited «en backstage» (why not «dans les coulisses»?), English is so attractive that it’s used even when a French word already exists. The seeming apathy or enthusiasm about English usage in France relative to Quebec probably reflects an attitude that comes from being a nation of 65 million on a multilingual continent instead of a province of 8.5 million sharing a nation (reluctantly or not) with 30 million English speakers and another 330 million of them just over the border to the south. That would cause a certain amount of existential anxiety, hence, language laws and crabby newspaper columns.
Robert H 13:31 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
Ephraim — Mais, la situation des urgences est dégoûtante. C’est incroyable qu’ils AIENT SU tout le temps!
Ephraim 15:10 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
@Robert H – que je susse, que tu susses, qu’il/elle/on sût, que nous sussions, que vous sussiez, qu’ils/elles sussent…. Best French very ever… suce…. 🙂
Robert H 17:19 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
Ha, ha, fun and games with homonyms, Ephraim!
CE 18:48 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
The 2022-2023 Bonjour Montréal tourist guide says Montreal is “the second-largest francophone city in the world after Paris.”
Ephraim 19:15 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
@CE – And it’s wrong. this fallacy has been going on for far too long. Even if we don’t count just Francophones, we are definitely third. And Paris is barely holding on to first, since Kinshasa is more populous than Paris.
In other news… London is second or third to New York City and LA. But then it gets murky… like is Hong Kong included, since it’s their second language. Singapore is 5.4M but 48% speak English at home, but it’s the lingua Franca. Of course Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka and Lagos all have very large populations that speak English as a second language. You also have J’burg, Washington/Baltimore, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, Toronto, Houston.
Kevin 20:51 on 2022-07-18 Permalink
Pauvre Sophie. She’s like a resident of Victoria who visits the UK and decides it’s not sufficiently British.