Word: guillermou
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1963-1963
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...national identity. French until recently was the world's diplomatic language. Only 65 million people now speak it as a first language; less than one-fourth of the U.N.'s 111 member nations still use it in debates. Franglais is spreading so fast, argues Parisian Linguist Alain Guillermou, that U.S. French teachers may soon have nothing to teach. Guillermou calls for a national commission to police Américanolatres on the ground that Franglais is not only a linguistic sin but is also "bad for morals...
...Guillermou has a certain point: words are themselves ideas that shape a people's self-image. French purists are thus aghast at the eat-and-run tone of le snack-bar as opposed to the civilized Gallic pace of le cafe. The Franglais word teen-ager is rebellious worlds apart from the dutiful jeune fille. The traitorous notion that "American is the only living language," cries Linguist Etiemble, will lead straight to what he calls, in ironic Franglais, "I' American way of life...
...avoid the worst, Etiemble is preparing a dictionary (Parlez-Vous Franglais?) of French equivalents for Anglicisms. Even where there is none whatever (for Jeep, say), he will insist on French spelling (Jipe). Guillermou is devising a linguistic decompression chamber: a new French glossary with three sections-white pages for acceptable words, red for inadmissible ones, and green pages that "will be a sort of Ellis Island of the French vocabulary. After suitable nationalization, the words may move into the white pages...
| 1 |