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FRENCH LANGUAGE PURISM - Scholars` Bank

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1. 81 France Francophonie Agence France Presse 28 Feb 1995 Online Nexis 28 Feb 1995 France Mind Your Language The Economist 23 Mar 1996 Online Nexis 22 Mar 1996 France Minister says Non to Le Marketing Speak The Guardian 30 Apr 1994 39 Online Nexis 1 May 1994 France The underside French ban Anglo Saxonisms The Guardian 28 July 1994 16 Online Nexis 28 July 1994 Gelman David Le Counterattack Newsweek 7 Mar 1983 47 Georges Pierre Web Conti Le Monde 6 Dec 1997 Online Nexis 8 Dec 1997 Giudicelli Arnaud Le c d rom nouveau est arriv Le Monde 10 June 1996 Online Nexis 17 June 1996 Gordon David C The French Language and National Identity 1930 1975 Great Britain Mouton Publishers 1978 Grigg Peter Toubon or Not Toubon The Influence of the English Language in Contemporary France English Studies A Journal of Language and Literature 78 1997 368 384 Groult Benoite M urs Cachez ce feminin Le Monde 11 June 1991 Online Nexis 8 Nov 1991 Kahn Annie La culture a port e d cran Le Monde 2 Feb 1998 Online Nexis 6 Feb 1998 Klebnikov Paul Minister Toubon meet General Gamelin Forbes 22 May 1995 292 Kuisel Richard F Seducing the French the dilemma of Americanisation Berkely University of California Press 1993 82 La BBC zapp e Le Monde 15 June 1994 Online Nexis 15 June
2. tranger peut tre invoqu contre ce dernier lt lt L employeur ne pourra se pr valoir l encontre du salari auquel elles feraient grief des clauses d un contrat de travail conclu en violation du pr sent article gt gt Art 9 L article L 122 35 du code du travail est compl t par un alin a r dig lt lt Le r glement int rieur est r dig en fran ais Dispositions d clar es non conformes la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 Il peut tre accompagn de traductions en une ou plusieurs langues trang res gt gt ll ll est ins r apr s l article L 122 39 du code du travail un article 122 39 1 ainsi r dig lt lt Art L 122 39 1 Tout document comportant des obligations pour le salari ou des dispositions dont la connaissance est n cessaire a celui ci pour l ex cution de son travail doit tre r dig en fran ais Dispositions d clar es non conformes la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 Il peut tre accompagn de traductions en une ou plusieurs langues trang res 73 lt lt Ces dispositions ne sont pas applicables aux documents re us de l tranger ou destin s des trangers III Aux permier et troisi me alin as de l article L 122 37 du code du travail les mots lt lt articles L 122 34 et L 122 35 gt gt sont remplac s pa
3. FRENCH LANGUAGE PURISM FRENCH LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT NATIONAL ATTITUDES by SONYA LYNN SCHEEL A Thesis Presented to the Department of Romance Languages and the Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts June 1998 mega eulbey ds d3AOHddV iit An Abstract of the Thesis of Sonya Lynn Scheel for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of Romance Languages to be taken June 1998 Title FRENCH LANGUAGE PURISM FRENCH LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT NATIONAL ATTITUDES Approved k Dr Regida Psaki An impulse to protect the French language and exclude foreign languages specifically English has become prominent throughout France in the last two decades This movement for linguistic purism rooted in historical encounters with foreign languages and cultures is motivated more by nationalistic sentiment and cultural pride than linguistic concerns By consulting numerous French articles and commentaries on the recent developments in France French language purism can be seen most prominently as a ancient cultural struggle to preserve French national identity A discussion of the passage of the loi Toubon in 1994 and the surrounding controversy illustrates the current national attitudes concerning French culture and the French language ACKNOWLEDGMENTS would like to express sincere appreciation to Pr
4. the French language is far from weak even though it may be both 34 supported and mocked in turn The French government has organized a great number of agencies to manage the language Grigg 370 There has been a marked increase in the number of these governmental organization which corresponds to the increase in English vocabulary borrowings Grigg 370 Ironically even as the French government and a fair percentage of the French population agitate for laws to limit the seemingly inordinate amount of franglais now found in French the statistics produce a slightly different picture As of 1981 foreign terms made up three to four percent of French words with English terms only 2 5 approximately 2 260 words of total French vocabulary in active use by French speakers Flaitz 60 Thody 33 The overall number of French words available to the French speaker may have grown with the addition of English and franglais terms but franglais has not affected French syntax Simply looking at the numerical data might lead to the conclusion that English has little influence in France however the prominent use of the 2 260 English words in France is what French language purists are worried about What incites so many to push for governmental control is the fact that English is so pervasive in the media where it is extremely prominent By the beginning of the 1980 s thirty six percent of the French advertising industry went to American c
5. 1994 Langue Fran aise l Acad mie Fran aise s est adress au president de la R publique au sujet de l appellation Mme la ministre Le Monde 10 Jan 1998 Online Nexis 10 Jan 1998 Le franglais et le tunnel sous la Manche Agence France Presse 4 May 1994 Online Nexis 6 May 1994 l Petit Illustr 1997 Dicti E sdi Paris France Larousse 1996 Les principales mesures Le Monde 12 May 1995 Online Nexis 12 May 1995 Les travaux de Parlement Le projet de loi sur l emploi du fran ais Une affaire d tat Le Monde 14 Apr 1994 Online Nexis 15 Apr 1994 Loi sur le fran ais obligatoire annulation de deux dispositions de la loi par le Conseil Constitutionnel Agence France Presse 30 July 1994 Online Nexis 31 July 1994 Lottman Herbert R France s Campaign to Protect La Langue Publisher s Weekly 17 Oct 1994 16 Michaud Paul France Letter from Paris Language Protection Hits Ads Marketing 17 Mar 1994 Online Nexis 17 Mar 1994 Mikoska Jana and Joelle Garrus special envoy of AFP Les deput s fran ais examinent un projet de loi contre le franglais Agence France Presse 4 May 1994 Online Nexis 5 May 1994 83 Mikoska Jana and Nicole Martiche byline Une loi controvers e contre le franglais definitivement adopt e en France Agence France Presse 1 July 1994 Online Nexis 2 July 1994 Mortaigne Veronique Des music
6. 2nd ed London United Kingdom Unwin Hyman Lid 1989 Rollat Alain Images Violences Le Monde 28 Mar 1994 Online Nexis 29 Mar 1994 de Saisset Bertrand Un projet de loi relatif a l emploi de la langue fran aise depos au Parlement a la mi novembre Agence France Presse 21 Oct 1993 Online Nexis 21 Oct 1993 Sepechil Jean Courrier Maladresse Le Monde 15 Nov 1993 Online Nexis 17 Nov 1993 Smith Alex Duval France Cruel Blow to French The Guardian 22 Jan 1996 9 Online Nexis 22 Jan 1996 Soft et hard les nouveaux mots anglais du Petit Larousse fran ais Agence France Presse 6 Sept 1994 Online Nexis 7 Sept 1994 Steen Edward Saving le Fran ais The crusade to preserve French sup rieurity World Press Review Mar 1986 33 Thody Philip Le Franglais Forbidden English Forbidden American Politi f nc E A Study i Loan Words and National Identity Atlantic Highlands New Jersey The Athlone Press 1995 Tilles Daniel France France Bars English from Ads Campaign 8 July 1994 16 Online Nexis 17 Aug 1994 Tramier Sylviane En marge de la Loi Toubon Sur l emploi de la langue fran aise Le Monde 4 May 1994 Online Nexis 5 May 1994 86 Traupman John C The New College Latin and English Dictionary New York NY Bantam Books 1966 Vion Marc Courrier Franglais Le bon exemple Le Monde 30 Oct 1993 Online Ne
7. The movement against the loi Toubon sprang from a number of diverse opinons ranging from objections to the limitations it would impose on the scientific community to cultural concerns The opposition was almost too varied to bond together and create a united front that might have halted the proceedings Moreover the majority did not object to the existence of such a law but to specific articles Comments in the press revealed concerns that the law was too regulatory and strict that the law had no provisions for encouraging the use of French outside of France that the law was really a crusade against English and Anglo American culture Another possible argument against the loi Toubon mentioned only by an outside observer was that the law itself might inhibit the natural linguistic evolution of the French language Thody 50 Frangoise Seligman a French senator argued against the loi Toubon in the Senate on the basis that it would cause a schism between French youth and the government as the law would alienate the younger generation by forbidding their slang words and manner of speech Thody 64 65 In the same vein another French woman Segolene Royal asked whether her young daughter would be imprisoned for using the word t shirt if the law passed Peroncel Hugoz 4 July 1994 These comments clearly illustrate that the French public and 52 some elected officials saw the law as aimed at more than linguistic infiltration
8. Universal Dictionary which was not quite so universal admonished the Acad mie Fran aise for having 16 admitted into its dictionaries too many terms which he considered to be foreign von Wartburg 186 There were also those who severely rejected the use of crude and indecent words von Wartburg 184 Others believed that even beautiful words if used by the working class populace could become inferior and crude von Wartburg 185 Perhaps the most interesting group which actively sought to remove such words and thereby to prevent the muddying of the elite form of French the language of the court was the Femmes Savants the Learned or Wise Women von Wartburg 184 Their goal was to create a society to remove ces syllabes sales Qui dans les plus beaux mots produisent des scandales those dirty syllables which in the most beautiful words produce scandals von Wartburg 184 They considered words such as ne ass vache cow cochon pig engendrer to beget as too close to the land and the working class and thus too vulgar to be included in French von Wartburg 184 Moli re a French playwright of the seventeenth century wrote in quite the opposite direction of the Femmes Savants his characters acted and spoke just as they would in reality von Wartburg 185 By the eighteenth century since numerous grammars and dictionaries had already made their appearance people began to Critique illogi
9. dating from around the 13th century A D one of its local dialects for the lle de France developped into the French of today LEXICOGRAPHIE LA LEXICOGRAPHY the act process art or work of writing or compiling a dictionary or dictionaries OCCITAN see langue d Oc general term for the French dialects of southern France PLEIADE LA a group of poets founded by Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay in the middle of the 16th century in order to enrich and promote the use of the French language in literature PORT ROYAL La logique ou L art de penser a treatise on language method and logique written by Pierre Nicole and Antoine Arnauld first published in 1662 Definitions are compiled from sources previously cited in the bibliography as well as Webster s New World Dictionary and Le Petit Larousse 1997 65 APPENDIX B DIALECT MAP OF THIRTEENTH CENTURY FRANCE a sia ae T ier A n k s ott A c E eS e Champenors La 5 lt 7 Be Ne UE poll p WG ndiau yA Mocs achon gurgundian e ae 3 i So eee rat CR oe PR X Limousin O gant co No cf x ovens J A E Auvergnat B ws S ie EN Beatie Fr LANGUE Do yanat Gascon C i Languedocien l j Provencal _ TERNAN g E E L nT a Merten wee Catalan Dialect map of France c a D 1200 Rickard 40 99 AN HL TAILL A 3 AHL eg ME NY AVE 401 3 1OLLEV INIZVIVIA 9 XIGN
10. r dig lt lt le respect de la langue fran aise et le rayonnement de la francophonie gt gt Il A l article 28 il est ins r apr s le 4 un 4 bis ainsi r dig lt lt 4 bis Les dispositions propres assurer le respect de la langue fran aise et le rayonnement de la francophonie gt gt lll A l article 33 il est ins r apre 2 un 2 bis ainsi r dig lt lt 2 bis Les dispositions propres assurer le respect de la langue fran aise et le rayonnement de la francophonie gt gt Arti 14 L emploi d une marque de fabrique de commerce ou de service soncitu e d une expression ou d un terme tranger est interdit aux personnes morales de droit public des lors qu il existe une expression ou un terme fran ais de m me sens approuv s dans les conditions pr vues par les dispositions r glementaires relatives l enrichissement de la langue fran aise Cette interdiction s applique aux personnes morales de droit priv charg es d une mission de service public dans l ex cution de celle ci ll Les dispositions du pr sent article ne sont pas applicables aux marques utlis es pour la premi re fois avant l entr e en vigueur de pr sente loi 76 Art 15 L octroi par les collectivit s et les tablissements publics de subventions de toute nature est subordonn au repsect par les b n ficiaires des dispositions de la pr sente loi Tout manquement ce respect peut
11. British Parliament in July of 1994 that would have prevented the use of French words in English Mikoska 1 July 1994 Un d put britannique 21 June 1994 Steen commented Les francais disent que les mots anglais rendent leur langue impure eh bien je suis d t rmin leur montrer combien ils sont idiots en interdisant dans notre pays tous leurs mots parl s ou crits Un d put britannique 21 June 1994 The French say that English words render their language impure well am determined to show them just how idiotic they are by forbidding all their words spoken or written in our country Naturally the law failed to pass the British Parliament but the fact that such a bill was actually proposed mocks the reasoning behind the loi Toubon The title of an article Com die Francaise in the July 9 1994 issue of The Economist is a commentary in itself and the article does indeed take the view that the loi Toubon will be ignored by the French public Com die fran aise 54 Other newspaper articles and editorials also begin with satirical and ironic titles Some examples include Le Counterattack a satirical poem written with French words that are prominently used in English from the March 7 1983 57 issue of Newsweek Saving le fran ais from the March 1986 edition of the World Press Review Why Should France Be Linguistically Laissez Faire from the April 14 1994 issue of The I
12. Diplomatique in August 50 1994 reported that eighty percent of those polled supported Jacques Toubon and the loi Toubon in order to control franglais Thody 3 However some felt that the law did not go far enough The French journal L action frangaise a royalist extreme right publication argued for the abolition of any and all foreign words including those in sports while calling for the re establishment of the French monarchy because it believed that without the monarchy France will never achieve a dynamic and conquering French civilization Thody 67 Most likely this journal does not represent more than a small percentage of the French population but these views highlight how intensely some of the French feel about their language and its relation to their nation and culture With such extensive public support the loi Toubon appears to be exactly what the French people need and want for their language Francisque Perrut a deputy from the Rh ne province reveals his belief that the loi Toubon is not a question of une chasse aux mots trangers an expulsion of foreign words but l enrichissement consenti d une langue vivante the consensual enrichment of a living language Plenel 4 May 1994 The law was passed and is enforced today yet those who opposed the loi Toubon were extremely vocal and although they did not prevent its passage did force a closer review of its particulars 51
13. July 1993 Online Nexis 21 July 1993 Peron el Hugoz Jean Pierre La defense de la science en fran ais Le Monde 25 Mar 1992 Online Nexis 26 Mar 1992 Peron el Hugoz Jean Pierre La politique de la langue fran aise va tre reprise en main par M Douste Blazy Ce secteur r l vait jusqu ici du premier ministre Le Monde 27 Mar 1996 Online Nexis 27 Mar 1996 Peroncel Hugoz Jean Pierre La premi re ann e de Mme Tasca a la francophonie Le Monde 15 July 1994 Online Nexis 16 July 1994 Peroncel Hugoz Jean Pierre Les travaux du Parlement Les deput s adoptent le projet de loi Toubon relatif a l emploi de la langue fran aise Le Monde 4 July 1994 Online Nexis 4 July 1994 Peron el Hugoz Jean Pierre Les vingt cinq ans de la francophonie Le Monde 20 Mar 1995 Online Nexis 20 Mar 1995 Peroncel Hugoz Jean Pierre Projet de loi sur l emploi du fran ais Avanc es et lacunes Le Monde 25 Feb 1994 Online Nexis 28 Feb 1994 Plenel Edwy Langue vivante puissance defunte Le Monde 4 May 1994 Online Nexis 5 May 1994 Poirot Delpech Bertrand Apr s l adoption de la loi Toubon en premi re lecture au Senat Defense et illustration du fran ais Le Monde 18 Apr 1994 Online Nexis 18 Apr 1994 85 Procyon Au jour le Jour Toubon s instinct Le Monde 21 Oct 1993 Online Nexis 27 Oct 1993 Rickard Peter A History of the French Language
14. apr s que l int ress a t mis m me de pr senter ses observations entra ner la restitution totale ou partielle de la subvention Art 16 Outre les officiers et agents de police judiciare agissant conform ment aux dispositions du code de proc dure p nale les agents numer s aux 1 3 et 4 de l article L 215 1 du code de la consommation sont habilit s rechercher et constater les infractions aux dispositions des textes pris pour l application de l article 2 de la pr sente loi A cet effet les agents peuvent p n trer de jour dans les lieux et v hicules numer s au premier alin a de l article L 213 4 du m me code et dans ceux o s exercent les activit s mentionn es l article L 216 1 l exception des lieux qui sont galement usage d habitation lls peuvent demander consulter les documents n cessaires l accomplissement de leur mission en prendre copie et recueillir sur convocation ou sur place les renseignements et justifications propres a l accomplissement de leur mission lis peuvent galement pr lever un exemplaire des biens ou produits mis en cause dans les conditions pr vues par d cret en Conseil d tat Art 17 Quiconque entrave de fa on directe ou indirecte l accomplissement des missions des agents mentionn es au premier alin a de l article 16 ou ne met pas leur disposition tous les moyens n cessaires cette fin est passible des peines pr vues au second alin a de l
15. article 433 5 du code p nal Art 18 Les infractions aux dispositions des textes pris pour l application de la pr sente loi sont constat es par des proc s verbaux qui font foi jusqu preuve du contraire Les proc s verbaux doivent sous peine de nullit tre adress s dans les cinq jours qui suivent leur cl ture au procureur de la R publique Une cope en est galement remise dans le m me delai l int ress 77 Art 19 Apr s l article 2 13 du code de proc dure p nale il est ins r un artilce 2 14 ainsi r dig lt lt Art 2 14 Toute association r guli rement d clar e se proposant par ses statuts la d fense de la langue fran aise et agr e dans les conditions fix es par d cret en Conseil d tat peut exercer les droits reconnus la partie civile en ce qui concerne les infractions aux dispositions des textes pris opur l application des article 2 3 4 6 7 et 10 de la loi n 94 665 du 4 ao t 1994 relative l emploi de la langue fran aise gt gt Art 20 La pr sente loi est d ordre public Elle s applique aux contrats conclus post rieurement son entr e en vigueur Art 21 Les dispositions de la pr sente loi s appliquent sans pr judice de la l gislation et de la r glementation relatives aux langues r gionales de France et ne so opposent pas leur usage Ar t 22 Chaque ann e le Gouvernement communique aux assembl es avant le 15 septembre un rapppo
16. creation of a French literary tradition was paramount in order to elevate French to the same level of linguistic and literary importance that Latin and Italian enjoyed The Pl iade certainly aided the growth of new vocabulary through its adoption of foreign words and regionalisms not to mention the terms they created for their poems Rickard 97 von Wartburg 153 154 The Pl iade also encouraged the use of French in domains normally reserved for Latin such as science Rickard 85 Anti ltalian sentiment began to grow during this period too The first comparison between French and Italian Jean Lemaire de Belges La Concorde des deux langaiges The Concord of the Two Languages appeared in the beginning of the sixteenth century Rickard 87 The rivalry eventually led to arguments over Italian influence on French and the equality or lack thereof of Italian to French Rickard 87 The Massacre of St Bartholomew on August 24 1572 aided the anti ltalian sentiment among Protestants who thought the queen of France Catherine de M dicis a Florentine was the motivating force behind the massacre Rickard 88 Estienne published several books or treaties 13 in the latter half of the century confirming the superiority of French and heavily criticizing the use of Italianisms by the court Rickard 88 Language purists were protesting not only a high influx of approximately 450 Italian terms as well as Spanish German and Dutch w
17. interfering in an official government investigation of a possible violation can be fined up to FF50 000 10 000 and sentenced to six months in prison Thody 62 The original plan of the Minister of Culture was to place dans chaque d partement un d l gu a la langue frangaise in each department a delegate of the French language as quoted by Agence France Presse de Saisset 21 Oct 1993 The loi Toubon is quite a different system of attack on the appearance of foreign words than previous endeavors perhaps this is why the law has created such a complex reaction from the French public represented by the French press and government officials and foreign countries most notably Great Britain and the United States The battle over the loi Toubon can be traced in the numerous articles discussing its validity which were published in the French newspapers and journals in the first half of 1994 The call for a renewal of the loi Bas Lauriol was replaced by the demand for the loi Toubon and its immediate enforcement People also expressed their 48 doubts whether the new language law would follow its predecessor or whether it would actually make a significant difference Many politicians and media personalities supported the law Jacques Toubon and other public officials reinforced the premise that control was needed and the government would provide such control In an article from Le Monde January 20 1994 the Pr
18. not remain static The human spirit is always marching forward or if one wishes in movement and the language with it Victor Hugo 1827 von Wartburg 220 An impulse to protect the French language and exclude foreign languages specifically English has become prominent throughout France in the last two decades This movement is motivated more by nationalistic sentiment and cultural pride than linguistic concerns By consulting independent social commentaries on and published reactions to the controversies surrounding recent government actions it is possible to explore why language purism has become so strong in France in recent years Following a summary of the development of the French language an analysis of the situation in the late twentieth century highlights the French reaction to the loss of French cultural and political prestige to the United States with a more in depth discussion of the 1994 loi Toubon and its import on the French language The origins and history of the French language and its influence in the world bear powerfully on the underlying motives for language purism in France today as conflicts and interactions with other languages influenced both the development of the language and attitudes toward the French language and other languages Over time the French language became regarded as the representative of French culture and also the country of France Arguments and interpretations from prominent scho
19. 23 those who violate the law since it became effective in 1977 Rickard 157 Overall the French language developed from a combination of Latin with local languages and dialects of Roman conquered Gaul into a quite distinct language with its own cultural background and identity It is the language of France and the French people French has spread around the world through international contact and use as well as colonialism Throughout the centuries a love for the French language has grown amongst its speakers who regard it as the representative of the French culture and civilisation as well Perhaps because of its long history as a prestigious language French people often view their language as superior to other languages in its syntax and vocabulary These attitudes are the foundation for French linguistic purism A language which has enjoyed fame and prestige French has recently begun to recede from the limelight as other languages such as English gain acceptance and are used internationally more than French This decline has triggered the most recent defense of French language and culture the loi Bas Lauriol and the loi Toubon 24 THE FRENCH RESPECT FOR THEIR LANGUAGE The French have a unique relationship with the language that they speak They do not regard it simply as a mode of communication necessary for everyday life For the people whose primary language is French it represents much more it encompasses their
20. AddV 1048 nw nosnr NSenvT HoH 30 SSSNLI3 Wwhseve AVAANON 37 NSYNV 1 Hd TVE YOs FS TOILYV INIZVOVIA a XIGNAaddV 23 Atrendv French vouth emulates Americans 1986 Courtesy William T Coulter APPENDIX E DRAWING OF FRENCH YOUTH Kuisel 224 68 69 APPENDIX F TEXT OF THE LOI TOUBON LOI n 94 665 du 4 ao t 1994 relative a l emploi de la langue fran aise 1 NOR MCCX9400007L L Assembl e nationale et le S nat ont adopt Vu la d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC en date du 29 juillet 1994 Le Pr sident de la R publique promulgue la loi dont la teneur suit Art 1er Langue de la R publique en vertu de la Constitution la langue francaise est un l ment fondamental de la personnalit et du patrimoine de la France Elle est la langue de l ensiegnement du travail des changes et des servies publics Elle est le lien privil gi des tats constituant la communaut de la francophonie Art 2 Dans la d signation l offre la pr sentation le mode d emploi ou d utilisation la description de l tandue et des conditions de garantie d un bien d un produit ou d un service ainsi que dans les factures et quittances l emploi de la langue fran aise est obligatoire Dispositions d clar es non conformes a la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 Les m mes dispositions s appliqu
21. In the 1970 s the anti Americanism that had bloomed after the second world war began to fade and the desire to mimic American ways grew Kuisel 213 219 Claude Hag ge a French linguist argues that Anglophobia rises out of jealousy of the United States as a superpower because of the way in which France was supplanted Thody 37 The decline of France on the international scene and the increase in cultural influences coming from the outside even if they do not emanate from the United States have created uncertainty about the French national identity French self consciousness has grown with the Americanization of the world Kuisel 4 As they have in the past the French are reacting to protect their language and the culture which it represents against the deluge of information attitudes and opinions coming from the United States via the English language Rejection of Anglo American language and culture is propelled to a certain extent by such jealousy but it is also driven by disapproval of Anglo American society Former President Mitterrand once said C est blesser un peuple au plus profond de lui m me que de l atteindre dans sa culture et sa langue To attack a people in its culture and its language is to wound that people in its very heart Flaitz 108 R n Etiemble in his book Parlez vous franglais states that by allowing English and franglais into the French language French people will begin to accept American attitudes
22. aite connaissance d une langue trang re serait une des conditions requises pour tenir l emploi propos Toutefois les directeurs de publications r dig es en tout ou partie en langue trang re peuvent en France recevoir des offres d emploi r dig es dans cette langue gt gt 74 Art 11 La langue de l enseignement des examens et concours ainsi que des theses et m moires dans les tablissements publics et priv s d enseignements est le fran ais sauf exceptions justifi es par les n cissit s de l enseignement des langues et cultures r gionales ou trang res ou lorsque les ensignants sont des professeurs associ s ou invit s trangers Les coles trang res ou sp cialement ouvertes pour accueillir des l ves de nationalit trang re ainsi que les tablissements dispensant un enseignement caract re international ne sont pas soumis cette obligation ll il est ins r apr s le deuxi me alin a de l article 1er de la loi n 89 486 du 10 juillet 1989 d orientation sur l ducation un alin a ainsi r dig lt lt La maitrise de la langue fran aise et la connaissance de deux autres langues font partie des objectifs fondamentaux de l enseignement gt gt Art 12 Avant le capitre ler du titre Il de la loi n 86 1067 du 30 septembre 1986 relative la libert de communication il est ins r un article 20 1 ainsi r dig lt lt Art 20 1 L em
23. al power as well as social and linguistic prestige two areas in which France has regarded itself as the teacher for the world has had a profound influence on how the French regard themselves their country and other countries in the world today The French have focused on the United States a country which in the minds of the French has not only usurped the place of France but has expanded its international influence In addition to the enormous flow of Anglo American culture and English vocabulary from the United States and England into France the French are also facing a 41 similar cultural and linguistic threat from within Immigrants mostly from North Africa have flooded into France in the last few decades seeking a better life These immigrants defy assimilation into French culture and maintain their culture amongst themselves Kuisel 4 Ironically the French press rarely mentions anything if at all in relation to the impact that the immigrants have on the French language although other conflicts rising from their existence in France are widely discussed and debated With this in mind it is clear that the French feel more menaced by the more overt Anglo American threat Since the French see their language as a representative of their nation accepting English in any form into the French language could be comparable to meekly allowing an invading horde cross their national border Although anglicisms and franglais word
24. an terminology The original governmental agency created to oversee the development of the French language the Acad mie Frangaise is ridiculed by French speakers as an ineffective outdated agency with ancient or aging members capable only of monitoring the evolution of the language Grigg 371 One British commentator R Gosling noted in his January 1 1995 broadcast of Gosling en France on the BBC Radio Four that the French although they can be nationalistic and chauvinistic and may support laws concerning their language they also have a sense of irony which often leads to ridiculing any proposals of the government Grigg 374 Bertrand Poirot Delpech a member of the Acad mie Frangaise is quoted in the April 26 1994 issue of The Guardian as recognizing the relative ineffectiveness of the academy Laws cannot dictate the use of language because the use of language will always follow people s whims In this respect the Acad mie Fran aise acknowledges that it has no role other than that of registrar Grigg 371 However the Secretary of the Acad mie Frangaise feels that it is still important to fight against the pollution of the French language which is to the French intellect what is air is to their lungs although it may be that it is necessary to bow to reality and include a wave of Anglo american words quote from J Akrill Times Literary Supplement No 468 1993 p 14 Grigg 371 The fight to conserve
25. ance fought desperately to keep both its independence from and influence over Eurasia The emergence of the Cold War may have been the first great international tension to eclipse the country of France and trap it between the United States and Russia As the new millennium approaches the European Union and its importance in the world is touted more and more The increasingly integrated Europe reduces France s autonomy In addition the social political and economic structures of France can be seen as similar to other Western nations thus reducing their perceived uniqueness Kuisel 4 Polls discussed in Jacques Rupnik s Anti Americanism and the Modern The Image of the United States in French Public Opinion reveal that approximately two thirds of French citizens believed by the 1980 s that France ranked as a secondary world power and that less than twenty five percent continued to believe it to be a primary power Kuisel 225 226 Alain Decaux a former minister of the Francophony admitted in 1992 that French was losing its position as the first language and urged French speakers to bolster its place as second Grigg 370 France may accept its place in the world today but it is not ecstatic to have lost its prestige in the process 30 66 In the eighteenth century at the height of France s power French was taught studied and spoken all over the world it was a sign of taste and refinement By the turn of t
26. and values Etiemble 233 234 However Etiemble s book has been discounted by some linguists for containing misinformation and lack of evidence for his extreme statements concerning the increasing use of foreign words by the 37 French The complete acceptance of American culture that Etiemble predicted has not occurred In 1970 six years after Etiemble s book was first published polls revealed that the French disapproved of American culture and regarded their way of life as better and more civilized although they did recognize the power and prosperity of the United States Kuisel 218 In the present decade English and Anglo American culture is still regarded in a similar light English words can be found in the media advertising business meetings scientific conferences and even political debates and conversations It is easy to argue that English loan words have not provided a favorable picture of Anglo American culture nor has the French language been ennobled through their absorption unlike English Thody 18 It is impossible to discuss popular music homosexuality teenage sexuality or drugs without using a franglais term or anglicism Thody 45 In the business world English is seen as more competitive than French and the key to effective advertising France Minister says 30 Apr 1994 Baverel 13 Mar 1996 The negative social connotations of the English and franglais vocabulary
27. angais 30 July 1994 Although the loi Toubon does not appear to have created any major trade barriers for France in Europe or with America it is quite obvious that only Anglo American companies are found in violation of the loi Toubon none of the big French exporters have incurred charges Klebnikov 58 The law may be ridding French of a few English and franglais terms but the law has not encouraged the spread of French Created in 1970 the Francophonie a group of countries where French is spoken Peron el Hugoz 15 July 1994 does very little to increase the use of French outside of France yet its members advocate the restored pre eminence of French S il arrivait que le fran ais ne reste pas la premi re langue de travail de l Europe alors l Europe ne serait jamais totalement europ enne Plenel 4 May 1994 62 If it should happen that French does not remain Europe s primary language of work then Europe will never be totally European Georges Pompidou former French President Philip Thody author of Le Franglais Forbidden English Forbidden in Loan Words and National Identity comments that it is quite unusual to find any recognition of the fact that the French are quite capable of ruining their language without any help from the English or even from the Americans Thody 96 Even so the fact that the French are so intent on ridding France of the influence of Anglo American culture and the English la
28. angaise traditionally records spelling and grammar it does not create new forms Rickard 137 Grammar rules had been recorded and supported with examples for standard rules and their exceptions by Grevisse but French spelling used by the Acad mie Francaise were deemed incorrect or inadequate by many causing a rash of reform proposals in the twentieth century Rickard 136 137 Proposals to compensate or change the complexity of French spelling were periodically made in the first half of the 1900 s but to no avail Rickard 137 The decline in international use and popularity of the French language became apparent at the beginning of this century After World War I the Treaty of Versailles was set down in both French and English upon the insistence of the American United States and British leaders Rickard 153 It was one of the first instances when French had to share its international role Another example occurred in 1945 with the proposal to only use English Russian and Spanish as 21 languages of the United Nations Organization eventually French and Chinese were added after protests and a vote Rickard 153 154 General remedies proposed to slow or halt the dwindling international use of French include spelling reform as previously mentioned world bilingualism French and English a new method of teaching French from the fundamentals which appeared in 1954 as le fran ais l mentaire elementary French Ric
29. appos es ou faites par des personnes morales de droit public ou des personnes priv es exer ant une mission de service public font l objet de traductions celles ci sont au moins au nombre de deux Dans tous les cas o les mentions annoncees et inscriptions pr vues aux articles 2 et 3 de la pr sente loi sont compl t es d une ou plusieurs traductions la pr sentations en fran ais doit tre aussi lisilie audible ou intelligible que la pr sentation en langue trang res Un d cret en Conseil d tat pr cise les cas et les conditions dans lesquels il peut tre d rog aux dispositions du pr sent article dans le domaine des transports internationaux Art 5 Quels que soient l objet et les formes les contrats auxquels une personne morale de droit public ou une personne priv e ex cutant une mission de service public sont parties sont r dig s en langue fran aise Ils ne peuvent contenir ni expression ni term trangers lorsqu il existe une expression ou un terme fran ais de m me sens approuv s dans les conditions pr vues par les dispositions r glementaires relatives l enrichissement de la langue fran aise Ces dispositions ne sont pas applicables aux contrats conclus par une personne morale de droit public g rant des activit s caract re 71 industriel et commercial et ex cuter int gralement hors du territoire national Les contrats vis s au pr sent article conclus avec un ou plusieurs cocontractan
30. as superior to Italian culture and led the outcry against anything and everything Italian Eventually France had absorbed the new concepts so that they ceased to be new and began to be regarded as French instead of Italian a few Italian words and suffixes remain in French today In short the French reached a point where the exchange ceased to be profitable for them and commenced to threaten their own ideas and language even if some of their ideas were based on those from Italy The French began rejecting ltalianisms once they felt that their language was being unreasonably altered through the acceptance of Italian terms France s strengthening political power ameliorated French cultural pride reflected in the linguistic purism response the Italianisms France s power grew continuously from the sixteenth century until the Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution caused a switch in favor of English Instead of exporting terms for art food and philosophy French began importing words for the textile industry and railways Grigg 369 The English were the first to industrialize and maintained economic leadership into the 1870 s when Germany began to surpass them David Gordon argues in The French Language and 28 National Identity that the appearance of the Alliance Frangaise in 1883 quite possibly is one of the first signs of the decline of France Flaitz 112 As the twentieth century approached it became c
31. based on the 1835 sixth edition of the dictionary of the Acad mie Frangaise regulated the language used and taught in the state education system Rickard 121 A fairly universal standardized French was spreading across the country The number of French speakers was growing and so was the vocabulary Authors of the nineteenth century encouraged the flexible growth of French Chateaubriand revived and used words in his poetry which had not been previously accepted von Wartburg 218 Victor Hugo originally believed his literary work had codified the French language but he eventually changed his mind and promoted the concept of an ever evolving language von Wartburg 220 Regionalisms began appearing again but not archaisms Honore de Balzac employed regional vocabulary in his work von Wartburg 222 224 Guy de 20 Maupassant continued in the same vein as Balzac writing realistic dialogues for his characters von Wartburg 226 Standard French was soon heard almost everywhere and local languages and dialects were slowly dying and disappearing from France Even so French was not yet the universal language of France until the twentieth century New grammars and ideas for spelling reform appeared again in this century One of the most important French grammars Le Bon Usage Good Usage by a Belgian Maurice Grevisse was first published in 1936 with regular revisions through 1986 Rickard 136 The Acad mie Fr
32. cal vocabulary and syntax as language purism grew Rickard 105 106 Yet the philosophers of the era understood that restricting vocabulary could limit thought and intellectual boundaries which were being pushed at the time Rickard 106 Prose gained in 17 use and more vocabulary either borrowed from other languages or created by authors enriched the language with more precise terms and subtle distinctions in meaning Rickard 106 von Wartburg 194 Latin dropped from daily use and remained in use only within academic domains which opened the linguistic door for French Rickard 114 With the power of Latin diminished French grew to be the international language of the eighteenth century Before the French Revolution in 1789 French language had been adopted as the o international diplomatic language and was even used by the Russian aristocracy Petit Larousse 1627 Rickard 117 While Occitan was still spoken in the countryside of southern France French had become known in the cities and had replaced the local dialects for writing purposes Rickard 117 Interestingly enough the Berlin Academy in Germany held an essay contest in 1782 to answer the question Qu est ce qu a rendu la langue francoise universelle What made the French language universal to which one of the two winners Antoine de Rivarol included comments such as Ce qui n est pas clair n est pas francais That which is not clear is not F
33. ce on Latin Words for which the Romans did not have an equivalent term were adopted into Latin or Latinized Some examples are alauda a Latinized Gaulish word which was kept by the developing Romance language of Old French as aloe and is known today as alouette skylark or caballus again Latinized it eventually replaced at least within the territory of Gaul the original Latin term equus and survives in modern French as cheval horse Rickard 4 Yet any linguistic borrowings from the Celtic inhabitants beyond vocabulary such as speech patterns or articulation cannot be proven to have been carried over into Latin Rickard 3 Gaulish or Celtic place names remained and still remain to this day in such towns as Paris named after the Parisii the Gaulish people who lived in the environs von Wartburg 23 The vocabulary borrowing is evidence that interaction occurring between these two peoples influenced their languages The stage was set for the emergence of a new language local inhabitants speaking one language and the people in power imposing another The mixing of the Romans and Celts began to produce a new dialect of Latin heavily influenced by the local languages called vulgar Latin Vulgatus or vulgaris is a Latin adjective meaning common general and vulgus is a Latin noun meaning masses people populace Traupman 334 Cicero derisively labelled the budding Romance language quotic
34. culture their way of life their ideology and their history Above all the French language is seen as the ambassador of civilisation which the French themselves feel has been is and will be French culture a classical humanist education a philosophy which is realistic tragic and skeptical a way of life centered on le bon go t good taste and haute cuisine excellent cuisine and great intrinsic merit Kuisel 235 236 This attitude towards the French language is changing and will have to change in order for the French to adapt to the global economy of the future where English has replaced French as the lingua franca and American technology and consumerism have influenced many of the major cultures and countries of the world The twentieth century has seen a great shift of power from Europe and France to North America and the United States it is precisely this new international balance resulting in a secondary role for France which is driving the recent revival of language purism A similar movement is occurring in the United States as the number of non English speaking immigrants 25 namely Mexican grows Although the language reforms proposed and the laws passed in France today appear to attack foreign languages in general they are aimed at ousting English franglais and Anglo American culture from the media and business and therefore returning French language and society to the French and F
35. dard spelling existed The first reforms appeared in 1530 as Geoffroy Tory a printer and Robert Estienne each added the cedilla and accents such as the acute accent over the letter Rickard 93 These changes were also advocated by Montflory in the 1530 s Rickard 93 94 Louis M igret attempted a spelling reform in the middle of the century involving a more phonetically based system which was never quite accepted several other attempts were made but they never went beyond proposals Rickard 94 In the seventeenth century Fran ois de Malherbe criticized archaisms in word order and sentence construction as well as challenging the use of neologisms any loan words whether from a dialect of French or another language and even technical terms in poetry Rickard 102 Ronsard s suggested French spelling had been adopted during the beginning of the seventeenth century by ironically Dutch printers who then imported their books into France by 1660 French printers were using the same system Rickard 107 Although the Acad mie Frangaise had published its own dictionary and continued to update it through the following centuries other dictionaries and grammars appeared during the seventeenth century The Grammaire de Port Royal Grammar of Port Royal published in 1660 by Claude Lancelot and Antoine Arnauld was perhaps the most important Rickard 104 von Wartburg 183 Port Royal 15 also continued to publi
36. de la culture et de la francophonie Jacques Toubon Fran ois Mitterrand Le ministre du budget porte parole du Gouvernement Nicolas Sarkozy Le ministre de l enseignement sup rieur et de la recherche Fran ois Fillon press 79 BIBLIOGRAPHY Ades Julie Emilie Pol mique apr s la censure partielle de la loi Toubon Le Monde 18 Aug 1994 Online Nexis 18 Aug 1994 Alexandre Francis Au courrier du Monde Protection de la langue New Catalogue Le Monde 9 July 1994 Online Nexis 11 July 1994 Arnold Serge Quand deux politiciens fran ais hesitent entre marketing et promotion Agence France Presse 12 Mar 1994 Online Nexis 13 Mar 1994 Baverel Philippe Le snobisme de l anglomanie un engouement branche signe d une perte de confiance dans le francais Le Monde 13 Mar 1996 Online Nexis 14 Mar 1996 Berg R J _Litt rature Fran aise Textes et Contextes Tome 1 Orlando FL Holt Rinehart amp Winston Inc 1994 Bole Richard Michel L hispanophonie mangeuse de mots Le Monde 11 Nov 1994 Online Nexis 14 Nov 1994 Buhrer Jean Claude Avis partag s chez les Suisses Le Monde 6 May 1994 Online Nexis 7 May 1994 Chemin Ariane Radio Mercredi 25 mai France Culture Tire ta Langue Queneau Gracq et la loi Toubon Le Monde 23 May 1994 Online Nexis 25 May 1994 Colignon Jean Pierre Mode d emploi La cot des mots Initier Le Mo
37. ench newspaper comparable to The New York Times The Manifeste claimed that English was being spoken even in the French government and as la langue de la Republique est le fran ais the language of the Republic is French France should participate a la construction d une communaut francophone internationale in the construction of an international Francophone community Peroncel Hugoz 6 July 1992 The Manifeste may have been a subtle reaction to the push for the unification of Europe in that its proponents were attempting to assert French independence within the European Union With similar emotional motives the loi Toubon was proposed and passed two years after the Manifeste amongst great controversy The loi Toubon is the most recent effort to eliminate Anglo American culture through language reforms and remains highly controversial today among French citizens and the international community as well In 1994 the Minister of Culture Jacques Toubon proposed the strongest law yet against foreign terms to the French Parliament The law is similar to the loi Bas Lauriol in that it is aimed at protecting 46 French citizens consumers and employees and remedied the problems which arose from the inadequate provisions and penalties in the loi Bas Lauriol Introduced in order to protect the language from foreign influences the loi Toubon can be seen as an attempt to thwart the flow of Anglo American words wh
38. ent toute publicit crite parl e ou audiovisuelle Les dispositions du pr sent article ne sont pas applicables a la d nomination des produits la d nomination des produits typiques et sp cialit s d appellation trang re connus du plus large public La l gislation sur les marques ne fait pas obstacle l application des premier et troisieme alin as du pr sent article aux mentions et messages enregist s avec la marque 70 Art 3 Toute inscription ou annonce appos e ou faite sur la voie publique dans un lieu ouvert au public ou dans un moyen de transport en commun et destin e a l information du public doit tre formul e en langue fran aise Dispositions d clar es non conformes a la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 Si l inscription r dig e en violation des dispositions que pr c dent est appos e par un tiers utilisateur sur un bien appartenant une personne morale de droit public celle ci doit mettre l utilisateur en demeure de faire cesser ses frais et dans le d lai fix par elle l irr gularit constat e Si la mise en demeure n est pas suivie d effe l usage du bien peut en tenant compte de la gravit du manquement tre retir au contrevenant quels que soient les stipulations du contrat ou les termes de l autorisation qui lui avait t accord e Art 4 Lorsque des inscriptions ou annonces vis es l article pr c dent
39. enu peuple small lower class Rickard 83 Beginning with Estienne and a few other grammarians in the 1500 s the number of dictionaries and grammatical texts grew throughout the following century One problem they encountered was the lack of pre existing grammatical rules for French so they applied Latin grammar instead of creating rules to accommodate their language Rickard 90 91 Perhaps the most important advocate for the French language during the sixteenth century was the group of poets who called themselves the Pl iade Founded by Pierre de Ronsard near the middle of the sixteenth century the Pl iade set forth two goals for themselves to defend the French language and its literary worth and to create a more illustrious distinguished French Berg 192 Joachim du Bellay s D fense et Illustration de la langue fran aise Defense and Enrichment of the French Language describes how to achieve these 12 two goals He posits three general steps first to enrich the language through vocabulary borrowings from other languages and even invention of new words second to imitate the classical writers both Greek and Roman in form and topical content using rhetorical structures and mythological allusions third to respect the dignity of poetry and the Muses which inspire the poets Berg 191 193 The Pl iade regarded vocabulary borrowing and neologisms as the best means of enriching the language The
40. ercent of the songs played on French radio stations are Anglo American Montaigne 22 Mar 1995 The appeal of English and Anglo American culture provides strong competition for the French culture Flaitz 71 72 partly because young people may be more open to changing their cultural ideas than the older generations who feel so threatened In the twentieth century the United States has come to dominate in the business and scientific worlds Jacques Toubon in a comment on the motivations for the existence of the loi Toubon fo 39 stated that the French language is in the process of succumbing au mod le unique anglo marchand to the one and only English market model Loi sur le francais 30 July 1994 One journalist commented that English words are occasionally borrowed because they are quicker or faster to use but for the most part they are adopted because terms for a new technology do not have a French equivalent Baverel 13 Mar 1994 A perfect example of this is the emergence of the CD ROM which did not have an equivalent until 1996 when the Acad mie Fran aise merely altered the spelling although not the pronunciation of CD ROM to c d rom Giudicelli 10 June 1996 Certainly the American culture is the dominant force on the Internet today Kahn 2 Feb 1998 The modern world focuses on business science and technology areas in which the United States is the leader or major influence Toubon claim
41. esident of the National Assembly Philippe Seguin is reported as believing the law was necessary to defend the French language especially in light of the loi Bas Lauriol which had been stripped of its effectiveness Peron el Hugoz 20 Jan 1994 Edouard Balladur Prime Minister at the time also supported Toubon s efforts to halt the spread of foreign languages to the exclusion of French in France indicating that le r le de l tat tait justement de redresser ce type d volution the role of the State was precisely to rectify this sort of evolution and it must extend internationally to include all of the Francophone countries Peroncel Hugoz 20 Jan 1994 Peroncel Hugoz 14 Feb 1994 The bi monthly radio talk show Tire ta langue Stick out your tongue addressed French language issues including slang in a nostalgic tone des crivains et des splendeurs pass s of past writers and splendors since it began in 1984 Chemin 23 May 1994 Olivier Germain Thomas the host of Tire ta langue fights against those who are too lazy to learn the French language properly and promotes la d fense et l illustration du francais the defense and enrichment of French Chemin 23 May 1994 He is even more harsh in his other talk show Agora in condemning the am ricanisation de 49 la langue Americanization of the language Chemin May 23 1994 The French philosopher Michel Serres appealed to the Pri
42. essed greatly during the sixteenth century as other lands were regained from England and regions annexed Rickard 81 This allowed for the official version of French that of the lle de France to grow in strength and spread in use even though Occitan and many local dialects held sway in the southern regions of France The north south linguistic division remained in existence however literature from the south was written in French and not in Occitan Rickard 82 According to John Palsgrave an Englishman who wrote_Esclarcissement de la langue francoyse Explanation of the French Language to explain the French language to his fellow Englishmen the most respected dialect of French was spoken in Paris and the region between the Seine and the Loire Rickard 82 a 11 Following Palsgrave s observations other grammatical studies of French were written and published as people became extremely interested to describe it analyze it compare it in detail with other languages and speculate about its origins Rickard 81 Grammarian Robert Estienne wrote the first Latin French and French Latin dictionaries in 1532 and 1539 respectively as well as creating la lexicographie the lexicography von Wartburg 151 Estienne based his syntax on the French of the royal court and state departments such as the Chancellery and the Treasury against which his son argued for a common standard based more on the idiosyncrasies of the m
43. f which the Commission du bon langage Commission of Good Language concerns itself with upholding standards Rickard 157 The Commissions minist rielles de terminologie Ministerial Commissions of Terminology have been created to enrich the language with or create new French technical terms instead of allowing foreign words to be adopted for lack of a French word In all there are more than twenty organizations involved in monitoring and controlling the French language Grigg 369 Along with the linguistic committees laws exist regarding the French language One of the most prominent laws is the Loi Bas Lauriol Bas Lauriol Law Officially titled Maintenance of the Purity of the French Language Grigg 372 the law passed on January 4 1976 Rickard 157 The Loi Bas Lauriol restricted the use of foreign languages or foreign words in the supply and demand of goods in advertising whether spoken or written in labor contracts business transactions instructions and guarantees for appliances in radio and television programs in public services and transport Rickard 157 The intention according to Rickard was to protect consumers tax payers contractors etc from misleading descriptions or ill defined terms in contracts Rickard 157 The Association g n rale des usagers de la langue fran aise or AGULF General Association of Users of the French Language has actively sought to discover and prosecute
44. for scientific purposes and some official purposes especially after the advent of the printing press but during the fifteenth century the use of French steadily increased within official spheres of the royal government even as its influence in Italy and Sicily waned Rickard 62 63 During this period Old French had developed beyond its initial structure and by the fourteenth century is identified as Middle French Rickard 61 Latinisms or Latin words began to make their way into Middle French instead of vernacular terms appearing in Latin a reversal parallel to its decline in prestige von Wartburg 140 10 For the first time French or Middle French was recognized as the official language of France excluding Latin provincial languages and local dialects Rickard 81 In August of 1539 the Ordonnances de Villers Cotterets were issued Article Three of the Ordonnances states that all court proceedings deeds judgements etc were to be set down en langage maternel francois et non aultrement in the French mother tongue and not otherwise Rickard 83 Henceforward French was used in civil and ecclesiastical administration and archives even in regions not under the direct control of the French king Rickard 83 After several centuries of linguistic struggle French was finally emancipated from Latin in the sixteenth century von Wartburg 15 Despite some loss of land to Italy political unification of France progr
45. form part of the reason why linguistic purism has come to encompass a struggle against both franglais and its accompanying cultural associations Thody 63 Feeling their national identity is at risk by Americanization the French resist in order to protect civilisation Kuisel 235 and American culture opposes the French definition of civilization In France Americans are viewed as youthful dynamic wealthy 38 pragmatic optimistic and friendly but also materialistic puritanical vulgar and even racist and violent Kuisel 9 Europeans notably the French were disappointed and frustrated when America did not live up to the hopes of an earthly paradise the French had hoped for a new humanity a dream which was shattered as the images of gross inequalities base materialism and racism appeared on the radio television and film Kuisel 236 The constant exposure to American cultural ideas about clothes literature and cuisine through television radio and film advertisements and popular magazines and books is still regarded as excessive Kuisel 225 but generally accepted Even though French adults are ambivalent about the impact of U S culture there is paradoxically a craze for anything and everything American among French youth Kuisel 227 French youths are quite immersed in American culture wearing American clothes watching American movies and listening to American songs for example over fifty p
46. he next century the Russian aristocracy used French more than Russian Thody 89 90 In the twentieth century France was forced to choose a side in the Cold War choosing capitalism over communism From the beginning the United States and the U S S R were regarded as the two world superpowers and France rarely entered into the picture As evidenced by the struggle to include French as one of the languages of the United Nations the English language had come to dominate world affairs Grigg 370 As the twentieth century progresses the number of English terms in French increases Direct borrowings anglicisms translated catch phrases and combination French English words are growing in daily speech newspaper publications and in the realms of science technology and business Concern over the prominence of English has led to the loi Bas Lauriol and the loi Toubon aimed at restricting foreign terms used in France it is quite clear that the target is English and not just foreign terms in general Flaitz 110 Both of these language laws ban the use of foreign words in France especially 31 when a foreign term takes the place of a French term which is already in existence Terms which already exist in French are sometimes being replaced by their English equivalents a fact which has caused an outcry for their removal In 1994 the French government published the Dictionnaire des termes officiels de la langue frangaise in order t
47. he south controlled by the Visigoths a linguistic division developed from the political and ethnic barrier between these two peoples which became increasingly striking over time see map Rickard 40 von Wartburg 64 Between the sixth and ninth centuries A D pronunciation affected by Germanic accentuation drastically altered the Latin of Rome into the beginnings of Old French von Wartburg 65 and by the end of the eight century Latin and Gallo Romance had grown even farther apart than they were in the fifth century Asher 1300 As spoken Latin or Romance differed so greatly from written Latin Charlemagne attempted to reinstate classical Latin in the ninth century A D bringing in scholars from Ireland and England to restore and purify Latin as well as founding numerous schools where all teaching was done in Latin Rickard 18 von Wartburg 68 69 While Charlemagne did spark a scholarly revival of classical Latin which resulted in new copies of old manuscripts his attempt failed to impose the reformed language on the populace In fact at the Council of Tours in 813 A D French bishops agreed that instead of Latin the Romance or German vernaculars were to be used by the local priests in preaching and educating the masses about God von Wartburg 69 However the local vernacular of Gaul Old French was still only a spoken language Rickard 18 The country known today as France was divided and subdivided in
48. ianus sermo daily speech or rusticus sermo rural speech von Wartburg 36 Traupman 259 274 285 During the fifth century another contributor to Romance the name given the stage between Latin and Old French appeared on the scene the Germanic language Franks and Visigoths to the east of Gaul began invading in 406 A D and settling in France unlike the Romans however they adopted the language of Gaul and even formed an alliance with the Church Rickard 7 Indirectly the Germanic languages influenced the budding Romance language Many military terms made their way into Latin from German and thence into Romance Before the Frank invasions Germans had entered the Roman army starting in the first century A D and replaced the Romans in most positions of rank by the fourth century von Wartburg 55 Soon more foreign peoples arrived and settied in Gaul The Roman Empire had begun to deteriorate and only one province in southern Gaul remained under Roman control Syagrius the governor of the province lost to Clovis and his Franks in the middle of the fifth century von Wartburg 55 The north of France was occupied by the Franks while the south was under the weak domination of the Visigoths Rickard 8 von Wartburg 64 Latin still reigned as the language of communication especially as neither the Franks nor the Visigoths imposed their language upon the local populations Between the north controlled by the Franks and t
49. ich Oliviero Toscani of Benetton refuses to do they have had to translate their advertising catch phrases turning Just do it into Ta vie est a toi or find French equivalents to avoid accruing the heftier fines imposed by the loi Toubon Tilles 8 July 1994 Alan Vickers president of Nike France said that the new law is bureaucracy gone mad Tilles 8 July 1994 Forbes printed an article on May 22 1995 which viewed the language law as a trade barrier with France Klebnikov 292 Overall Anglo American society dislikes the loi Toubon but as the law has been passed compliance is necessary RAMIFICATIONS TODAY Il n y a pas de crise de la langue il y a une crise de l amour de la langue Peroncel Hugoz 4 July 1994 There is no crisis of language there is a crisis of love for the language translated by Grigg 374 Roland Barthes French intellectual Since it was passed in 1994 the loi Toubon has ensured that the Acad mie Francaise has remained in the background The attempts of the Academy and its secretary Maurice Druon to continue to regulate the French language have been ridiculed by the French press and public An article in Le Monde on December 6 1997 is particularly harsh in comparing the Acad mie Fran aise to workers still in the mines while the rest of the world has ceased to use coal Georges 6 Dec 1997 For the journalists of Le Monde Druon and his fellow Immortals are straining in vain to codif
50. ich accompanies the double threat of Americanization of the French youth and a technologically and commercially dominant America Grigg 368 Adopted on June 30 1994 by the French Parliament the political right voted in favor the socialists abstained Peron el Hugoz July 4 1994 Loi sur le fran ais 30 July 1994 the law very specifically targets advertising business corporations scientific publication television and radio as the problem areas In general the loi Toubon stipulates that advertising on television and radio must use French unless no French equivalent exists that all public notices must be in French that safety and health regulations must be in French all teaching must be in French that at all conferences in France subsidized by the French government all documents circulated must be in French Thody 61 Before it was altered by the Conseil Constitutionnel Constitutional Council the loi Toubon banned foreign expressions and terms from official publications internal company documents and conduct codes written and verbal advertising invoices merchandise instructions private and public exams all theses and any type of public announcements Grigg 373 47 Fines for violating the law are higher than under the loi Bas Lauriol The violator can be fined up to FF10 000 2 000 for the first offense and up to FF20 000 4 000 for any subsequent violations Grigg 373 Anyone caught
51. iens militent pour largir la francophonie Le Monde 22 Mar 1995 Online Nexis 22 Mar 1995 Nadler Steven Port Royal Logic Audi Robert gen ed The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy New York Cambridge University Press 1995 Neufeldt Victoria Ed in Chief and David B Guralnik Ed in Chief Emeritus Webster s New World Dictionary of American English Third College Edition New York Simon and Schuster Inc 1991 Nundy Julian France Out of France Bois de l Est Rides Again to Defend Linguistic Purity Independent 2 June 1994 12 Online Nexis 6 June 1994 Peroncel Hugoz Jean Pierre Culture Edouard Balladur re u quai Conti Le Monde 14 Feb 1994 Online Nexis 15 Feb 1994 Perongel Hugoz Jean Pierre Culture Le projet de loi sur l emploi du fran ais en France Langue l impatience de M Segui Le Monde 20 Jan 1994 Online Nexis 21 Jan 1994 Peroncel Hugoz Jean Pierre Dans un manifeste Pour l avenir de la langue francaise Deux cent cinquante personnalit s demandent M Mitterrand de r agir contre le tout anglais Le Monde 6 July 1992 Online Nexis 7 July 1992 Peroncel Hugoz Jean Pierre Defense et illustration de la francophonie Le Monde 13 Sept 1996 Online Nexis 13 Sept 1996 84 Peron el Hugoz Jean Pierre Francophonie Des pans entiers de l activit nationale deviennent bilingues regrette Philippe Seguin Le Monde 20
52. ither free nor compulsory Rickard 121 State education at the primary level finally became compulsory secular and free in March of 1882 which greatly aided the acquisition of French by non French speakers Rickard 122 Other factors played a role in the increasing use of French in France After the Revolution obligatory military service required men from different areas of France to communicate and it was not possible to learn all the local dialects Rickard 121 von Wartburg 213 For administrative purposes France was divided into eighty three d partements villagers who knew no French could not continue to use their language except in the home as during the Roman 19 occupation and learned to speak French for political as well as social reasons Rickard 121 A combination of the Industrial Revolution and Napoleonic rule contributed to the expansion of French within the country itself After 1832 the growth of railways along with national and regional journals helped spread the French language to all areas of the country Rickard 122 Universal male suffrage 1848 in combination with electoral campaigns also aided the spread of French Rickard 122 Words were created and added to the French vocabulary with the invention of the new government its internal structure and its institutions such as the postal service von Wartburg 215 Standard grammar based on No l and Chapsal s grammar of 1823 and spelling
53. kard 154 Several organizations were created to find and enforce solutions to the problem Founded in 1957 the Office du vocabulaire francais Office of French Vocabulary attempts to regulate neologisms and the improper use of French words by sounding public opinion and arranging referenda for specific problems pointed out by the surveys Rickard 155 156 Other committees and councils created to monitor the French language include The Comit d tude des termes techniques fran ais Committee for Study of French Technical Terms makes decisions regarding the definitions and forms of new technical terms as well as finding French equivalents for foreign words Rickard 156 The Conseil international de la langue fran aise International Council of the French Language has three goals first the standardization of French spelling and grammar second the creation of French vocabulary for all aspects of the modern world such as technical and scientific inventions and processes and third the promotion of French as a language of economic and social development Rickard 156 The Organisation D fense de la langue francaise the Defense Organization of the French Language reports the daily decisions of the Acad mie Francaise Rickard 156 22 The Comit pour la d fense et l expansion de la langue fran aise Committee for the Defense and Expansion of the French Language contains three sub committees one o
54. l advances had grown to the point that French in some cases had been 53 completely supplanted Grigg 381 The French Ministry of Culture viewed the state of affairs as intolerable and the loi Toubon accommodated this attitude by including a clause to the effect that the government would withhold funding from organizations that did not publish their theses scientific or not in French or provide simultaneous translation at conferences Grigg 381 The advertising world and the media also opposed the loi Toubon because they felt that it would restrict the creative nature of their work The co chairman of FCA BMZ Philippe Calleux mentions that although he originally felt concerned about the use of English he then accepted it as the language of the global village Tilles 8 July 1994 According to the July 4 1994 issue of Le Monde some advertisers believe that the loi Toubon would cause their creativity to be sterilized Peron el Hugoz 15 July 1994 The AACC l Association des agences conseil en communication the Association of Council Agencies in Communication although it had abstained in the official debate over the law relied on humorous articles and publications such as the facsimile Sky my pub to indirectly lobby against this legislation Ades 18 Aug 1994 When the law passed the AACC along with other objectors brought their complaint against the loi Toubon to the Conseil Constitutionnel Constit
55. lars in the field of the origins or other aspects of language purism in France are used Two linguists provide a brief glance over the history and development of the French language over the centuries Peter Rickard and W von Wartburg Drawing upon anthropological methods Jeffra Flaitz compared and measured attitudes of the French toward English and Anglo American culture He stipulates that once English had become widespread in France it resulted in a negative attitude toward the English language Anglo American ideology and speakers of English Flaitz viii or ix Richard Kuisel followed the evolution of anti American sentiments in the twentieth century after World War Il finding that the French responded to the assumption that the United States is a social model Kuisel ix Concentrating on the use of language by the media Philip Thody reviewed English words in the media where they appear and how they are used to conclude that English terms are appearing where no French equivalent existed and are not unduly influencing the French language because they are not replacing French terms Thody 2 Peter Grigg focused on the loi Toubon and the movement against English in France and argues that the French are fighting against American dominance in commerce and technology and the strong presence of American culture in the media All of these authors drew upon the history and origins of the French language as a necessary backgrou
56. lear that France was no longer the superpower it once was Previously vocabulary borrowing between French and English had been fairly equal even favoring French somewhat The abundance of all types of English words and phrases is causing the same uproar today for a similar reason Many of the new inventions and concepts come from Anglo American countries This trend started with the Industrial Revolution and has continued to grow over the past two centuries In the beginning France did accept the new ideas originating in Great Britain and the United States It modeled its reforms of the Revolution of 1789 after the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States During the nineteenth century railways which originated in England made their way into France Certainly no one today would think to question the term chemin de fer railway it would not be seen as a borrowed English term because it has been completely absorbed into the language In the twentieth century capitalism and free market economics reign supreme America s leadership in the economic and technological arenas remind the French who still had not fully accepted their country s secondary position that they could not catch up Kuisel 215 After World War Il when the previously isolationist United States began to dominate the international scene France quickly slipped into a background position lts importance in Europe was 29 reduced although Fr
57. me Minister to take action against the preponderance of English in the media and government Peron el Hugoz 14 Feb 1994 Along with prominent figures in the media and politics the Acad mie Frangaise continues to attack the enormous number of English words in French and their flagrant use and abuse Maurice Druon the perpetual Secretary of the Acad mie Fran aise complained about language abuse by the French media including false meanings barbarisms ignorance of the most elementary rules of syntax defective pronunciation the invasion of foreign terms and a general tendency to vulgarity in an article in Le Figaro Nundy 12 He also attacked politicians for inventing words in parliamentary debates when their vocabulary failed them because these words were in turn adopted by their opponents and the media even though they were incorrect Nundy 12 Another member of the Acad mie Frangaise Bertrand Poirot Delpech remarked Legislating with regard to verbal laxity in economic and administrative life is both legitimate and necessary If it comes to imposing restraints or even fines if the laws are broken then why not Grigg 372 In May 1994 a poll published in The Times stated that sixty one percent of the French public would support the government in regulating franglais Grigg 373 A separate study by SOFRES the Societe frangaise d tudes par sondages the French Society of Studies through Polls published in Le Monde
58. n France the fall of the Toulousian dynasty a consequence of Pope Innocent the Third s Albigensian Crusade 1209 1213 A D ended any linguistic influence upon the north the language of the south Occitan was rarely used after the end of the Toulousian dynasty for literary purposes Rickard 46 Although the Langue d Oc was still spoken in the south the Langue d O l eventually dominated written texts All underlined terms appear in the Glossary Epic poems began to be written in Old French from the eleventh century a period known as the classical epoch Rickard 38 von Wartburg 115 By the middle of the thirteenth century French is used alongside Latin even in royal documents and by foreign scholars The language of Paris and the surrounding area together known as the lle de France was accepted by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as the desired form Rickard 39 The first grands centres d tudes great centers of study the University of Montpellier and the University of Paris were founded in the thirteenth century which reinforced the lle de France as a linguistic center because courses would have been conducted in Latin von Wartburg 115 By the end of the thirteenth century and up through the fifteenth century a period of philosophical critique French literature lost its prestige but Latin also began to lose its role as the dominant language Rickard 62 von Wartburg 116 120 Latin was still used
59. nd to comprehending modern linguisitic attitudes ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE In the fifth or fourth century B C most of France then known as Gaul was settled by Celts who spoke a mixture of Celtic languages and dialects The Celts drove out the Iberians and the Ligurians as far as the Alps in eastern France and Switzerland and even menaced the Greek settlements on the Mediterranean coast Rickard 1 von Wartburg 16 The Greeks who controlled the coastal areas of southern France eventually asked for aid from the Romans to combat the Celts sometime during the second century B C the first campaign against the Gauls as the Celts were known by this time occurred from 154 to 125 B C and the southeastern portion of Gaul was conquered by the Roman army and renamed Provincia Rickard 1 Thereafter the Celts ceased to be invaders and became defenders To the east the Germans contained the Celts as the Roman army advanced slowly but surely and by 52 B C Julius Caesar had conquered most of the rest of Gaul Rickard 1 By the beginning of the first century Roman law ruled Gaul and Latin was the language of administration justice and commerce The Gaulish inhabitants were forced to attend the Roman school and thus to learn Latin if they desired any social advancement It simply became a practicality to learn Latin the invaders language since the Romans were in power Celtic languages did have some influen
60. nde 13 June 1994 Online Nexis 15 June 1994 80 Coleman Fred A great lost cause France vs the Internet U S News amp World Report 21 April 1997 57 59 Colombani Christian En vue Le Monde 6 Dec 1997 Online Nexis 8 Dec 1997 Colonna d Istria Michel Un colloque sur l enjeu culturel du multimedia Les arts num riques face au march mondial Le Monde 30 Sept 1994 Online Nexis 30 Sept 1994 Com die fran aise The Economist 9 July 1994 54 Commerce un magasin est sanctionn pour ne pas avoir traduit en frangais les instructions port es sur les tiquettes Le Monde 23 Jan 1996 Online Nexis 23 Jan 1996 Coquillat Michelle Acad mie et misogynie Le Monde 20 Jan 1998 Online Nexis 20 Jan 1998 Culture emploi du frangais Jacques Toubon repond aux critiques am ricaines Le Monde 6 Apr 1994 Online Nexis 7 Apr 1994 Un d put britannique veut interdire les mots fran ais en Grande Bretagne Agence France Presse 21 June 1994 Online Nexis 22 June 1994 tiemble R n Parlez vous franglais 1964 Collection Id es Paris France Gallimard 1991 Feminin Madame la ministre delegu e charg e de l enseignement scolaire repond a la Acad mie fran aise Le Monde 12 Jan 1998 Online Nexis 12 Jan 1998 Flaitz Jeffra The Ideology of English French Perceptions of English as a World Language New York NY Mouton de Gruyter 1988
61. ndependent Minister Says Non to Le Marketing Speak from the April 30 1994 issue of The Guardian France Mind Your Language from the March 23 1996 issue of The Economist Before the article is even read the articles signal the opinion that the linguistic situation in France is ridiculous and unnecessary An editorial in The Independent commented that the French language has no need to be defended by such measures as the loi Toubon and noted that the Germans regard the number of Anglo American terms that their language has adopted as beneficial even though the Germans have adopted more American terms than the French Why France Should 14 April 1994 As one Anglo American journalist pointed out and as the French advocates also claim the loi Toubon is more about protecting France and the French from a new American invasion than it is about maintaining the purity of the French language Lottman 54 The same article goes on to say that the law is one part of the struggle over the entertainment market which can also be evidenced by the radio and television quotas requiring a certain percentage of the songs and broadcasts to be in French Lottman 16 Foreign companies specifically American and British corporations now had to create new advertising campaigns in order to conform to the letter of the law Although corporations such as Nike 58 and Benetton have not been asked to translate their names wh
62. ng as a visible French translation is displayed Grigg 374 After the alteration of the loi Toubon a new ambiguity has appeared concerning the definition of what is French and what is not as French is now required in so many areas Grigg 374 Arguments over what is allowable are muddied by claims that creativity is being hampered and by an obstinate refusal to quit using foreign words The ruling of the Conseil Constitutionnel solved many of the problems noted by deputies who had opposed the law in Parliament Since the loi Toubon cannot be altered further many of the objectors have ceased to complain about the law and have returned to mocking the Acad mie Fran aise and its members Giudicelli 10 June 1996 Colombani 6 Dec 1997 The press in Great Britain and the United States published scathing and mocking articles about the loi Toubon and the linguistic debate in France The consensus was that the loi Toubon would fail just as the loi Bas Lauriol had failed The Anglo American press recognized that the French language was integral to their culture but still felt that the measures proposed by Toubon were excessive Nundy 12 While the French press mocked the author of the law 56 Jacques Toubon by nicknaming him Mr Jack Allgood the English went a bit further Loi sur le francais 30 July 1994 Mikoska 1 July 1994 A conservative deputy in Great Britain Anthony Steen proposed a similar law to the
63. nguage may possibly cause more problems in the future Perhaps the loi Toubon will fade away like the loi Bas Lauriol but it is more likely that it will continue to be enforced just as the French language will continue to represent civilisation and the French culture for the French into the next century 63 APPENDIX A GLOSSARY ACAD MIE FRAN AISE founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu consisting of 40 members its duty is to create a dictionary and a grammar for French and to protect the French language COMMUNE territory administered by a mayor assisted by a municipal council similar to a county in the U S A DEPARTEMENT territory administered by the general council and an administrator chosen by the prefect similar to a state in the U S A FEMMES SAVANTS LEARNED OR WISE WOMEN a group of women in the 16th century which sought the creation of a society to monitor and excise indecent and crude words from French FRANCOPHONY a group of countries where French is spoken who are interested in promoting the use of French in the world ILE DE FRANCE the area between the Seine and the Loire surrounding and including the city of Paris LANGUE D OC LANGUAGE OF OC synonym for Occitan named after its word for yes oc southern French dialect s dating from around the 13th century A D virtually nonexistant today LANGUE D OIL LANGUAGE OF OIL named after its word for yes o l northern French dialect s
64. o provide French replacements for anglicisms Thody 21 The dictionary was compiled with the belief that the only reason that franglais words were being used was because the French language did not have an equivalent and therefore French speakers had no recourse but to use a foreign term Nicknamed the Toubon after Minister of Culture Jacques Toubon the Dictionnaire des termes officiels de la langue fran aise has not been particularly successful in achieving its goal Thody 22 23 The Toubon was created by various ministries who found equivalents for some English and franglais terms Thody 23 They focused mainly on technical terms because of this there is a great deal of slang and daily vocabulary absent from the Toubon It is still useful for specialists but the franglais words which pervade street slang are not included rendering the dictionary virtually useless for the average person Thody 22 23 The Toubon has not helped to solve the problem which many feel is too important to ignore the use of franglais in everyday life The Toubon defines disc jockey as an animateur and a comeback as a retour yet it accepted weekend and sandwich without giving them French equivalents Grigg 374 32 Equally baffling is the absence of French words for baby sitting businessman slogan junior or top model Thody 22 23 The daily words included and excluded from the Toubon appea
65. ofessors Psaki Tanner and Calin for their assistance in the preparation of this manuscript In addition would like to thank my parents Nancy and Randy Scheel for their support and encouragement would also like to thank Muriel B tan and Nicholas Bonnichsen for the help they provided in compiling sources Finally would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Jayson Faust without whom may never have completed this thesis TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter L INTRODUCTION I ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE ni THE FRENCH RESPECT FOR THEIR LANGUAGE French Prestige Linguistic Corruption Ideological Colonization Conclusion IV FROM 1975 TO 1994 The Loi Toubon Support in France Opposition in France The Ruling of the Conseil Constitutionnel Reactions from Anglo American Society V RAMIFICATIONS TODAY APPENDICES A GLOSSARY B DIALECT MAP OF THIRTEENTH CENTURY FRANCE C MAGAZINE ADVERTISMENT FOR RAY BAN D MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT FOR RALPH LAUREN E DRAWING OF FRENCH YOUTH F TEXT OF THE LOI TOUBON IN FRENCH BIBLIOGRAPHY Page 24 26 30 35 40 42 45 47 51 54 55 59 63 65 66 67 68 69 79 INTRODUCTION la langue fran aise n est point fix e et ne se fixera point Une langue ne se fixe pas L esprit humain est toujours en marche ou si l on veut en mouvement et la langue avec lui the French language isn t at all fixed and never will be A language does
66. ology Flaitz 104 The French are using linguistic restrictions as a defense against a phenomenon which they interpret to be American culture invading France through the medium of the English language and thus corrupting their way of life Notre conscience linguistique n est rien de moins que notre conscience nationale Our linguistic consciousness is nothing less than our national consciousness Andr Th rive Le Francais langue morte Flaitz 103 In the fifteenth century the Renaissance occurred in Italy and in the following century Italianisms and Italian ideas made their way into French and France Acceptance and imitation were the primary reactions to new fascinating ideas from Italy These ideas altering many aspects of French life from philosophy to art and architecture Rickard 87 People associated with the royal court used and perhaps overused Italian words it was popular to use Italian vocabulary and even alter French words to appear Italian von Wartburg 151 152 By the second half of the sixteenth century a 27 sentiment arose that the Italian language and culture might replace the French language and culture In reaction the French began to reject Italianisms and Italian ideas because the French felt their interpretation and their vocabulary had moved beyond the Italian influx of ideas and terms Some French intellectuals such as the grammarian Robert Estienne felt that their culture w
67. on for French workers consumers and tax payers from potential misunderstandings caused by the number of foreign words employed by public services Grigg 371 372 However the loi Bas Lauriol was not able to fully restrict the use of foreign words by private corporations the media and the government Enough loopholes existed in the wording of the law that businesses were still able to include foreign words in their commercial signs company names and trademarks Flaitz 116 Article One of the loi Bas Lauriol aimed most definitely at consumers and employees prohibits the use of foreign words if a French equivalent exists Flaitz 113 114 This does not account for the foreign words which did not yet have a comparable term in French some of them are still do not Few companies were prosecuted under the loi Bas Lauriol because the law was effectively ignored by both the public and the French government Two companies which were discovered to be in violation of the 1975 law in France are TWA Trans World Airlines which issued boarding passes in English with no French 44 translation and a French surf board manufacturer who included instructions completely in English again with no French translation Grigg 372 The fines imposed by the law were fairly low and therefore fairly ineffective the French surfboard manufacturer was only fined FF2600 or approximately 520 Grigg 372 In 1985 another government agency the Commi
68. ontrolling interests Flaitz 90 By the 1980 s three fourths of imported television shows in France were American a by product of American dominance in the television and film industries Flaitz 72 The media a daily 35 presence for many people heavily uses Anglo American culture and vocabulary because of its prevalent use franglais may appear as a greater threat to the French way of life Inevitably words which are spoken on a regular basis whether on the streets or in the conference room are transferred to the media Once a new word or term has been popularized by the media many speakers may follow suit Often a franglais term may already be commonly known before it even appears in the media For those who see franglais as an invasion of English and Anglo American culture the amount of franglais in the media is a devastating measure of the Anglo American influence in France Instead of the world imitating the French the world and the French began to imitate the Americans at least this is how it appeared to some of the French A quotation from Le Canard Enchain 31 Aug 1977 issue sums up this attitude To be modern is to imitate the Americans That s the French trouble there is no modern way of being French France once the mother of arts letters and science has become a little copycat Yesterday we were the locomotive today the caboose Kuisel 219 36
69. ords but also several Italian and Latin suffixes a travesty in their opinion Rickard 89 90 By the seventeenth century the French language of the lle de France closely resembled the French of the twentieth century Rickard 100 One important development occurred during the seventeenth century which heavily influenced French and still does today In 1635 Cardinal Richelieu founded the_ Acad mie Fran aise this body was recognized by the Parlement de Paris two years later Rickard 102 The Acad mie Frangaise was charged with the creation of a French dictionary and also a grammar as well as a rhetoric and a poetics based on the observations of the academy Rickard 102 Its first dictionary was published in 1694 its grammar however did not appear until 1932 Asher 777 Rickard 102 However in 1705 the Acad mie Fran aise ratified a treatise on grammar and lexicography published fifty eight years previously Remarques sur la langue fran oise Remarks on the French Language by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Rickard 103 Favre de Vaugelas contributed to the standardization of the language with this work especially as his observations of grammar were approved by the Acad mie Fran aise Asher 777 By the end of the seventeenth century it was generally 14 accepted that all aspects of French were permanently codified Gordon 27 Spelling reforms were rampant during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as no stan
70. period following the Strasbourg Oaths through the eleventh century Few texts survive from the tenth century perhaps because it was a tumultuous political period the era of the later Carolingian kings who retained weak control over their warring vassals In 911 A D Charles the Simple ceded Normandy also known as Neustria to the occupying Vikings or Normanni men of the the north who eventually settled down and within a few generations spoke Old French Rickard 24 von Wartburg 72 Before the Normans dropped their language many of their sea terms combat vocabulary and place names passed into Old French such as the word vagr Norman or vague Modern French wave von Wartburg 74 75 By the end of the eleventh century a capital had finally been established in Paris and the surrounding area developed into the political and linguistic center for France In the south Occitan or the Langue d Oc was widely spoken and was a possible rival for the northern language the Langue d Oil The two languages were named after their term for yes oc in the south and oil in the north langue meaning language in English Berg 5 Some texts were written in Occitan such as the Boecis and the Life of Saint Foi of Agen in the eleventh century Rickard 35 However the language of the north eventually prevailed since the Capital was in the north and therefore it was the language spoken by the king In souther
71. ploi du fran ais est obligatoire dans l ensemble des missions et des messages publicitaires des organismes et services de radiodiffusion sonore ou t l visuelle quel que soit leur mode de diffusion ou de distribution l exception des vres cin matographiques et audiovisuelles en version originale lt lt Sous r serve des dispositions du 2 bis de l article 28 de la pr sente loi l alin a pr c dent ne s applique pas aux vres musicales dont le texte est en tout ou en partie r dig en langue trang re lt lt L obligation pr vue au premier alin a n est pas applicable aux programmes parties de programme ou publicit s incluses dans ces derniers qui sont con us pour tre int gralement diffus s en langue trang re ou dont la finalit est l apprentissage d une langue ne aux retransmissions de c r monies culturelles 75 Dispositions d clar es non conformes a la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 lt lt Lorsque les missions ou les messages publicitaires vis s au premier alin a du pr sent article sont accompagn s de traductions en langues trang res la pr sentation en fran ais doit tre aussi lisible audible ou intelligible que la pr sentation en langue trang re gt gt Art 13 La loi n 86 1067 du 30 septembre 1986 pr cit e est ainsi modifi e Apr s le sixi me alin a du II de l article 24 il ins r un alin a
72. pr sent article un dispositif de traduction doit tre mis en place Art 7 Les publications revues et communications diffus es en France et qui manent d une personne morale de droit public d une personne priv e exer ant une mission de service public ou d une personne priv e b n ficiant d une subvention publique doivent lorsqu elles sont r dig es en langue trang re comporter un r sum en fran ais Dispositions d clar es non conformes la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 72 Art 8 Les trois derniers alin as de l article L 121 1 du code du travail sont remplac es par quatre alin as ainsi r dig s lt lt Le contrat de travail constat par crrit est r dig en fran ais Dispositions d clar es non conformes la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 lt lt Lorsque l emploi qui fait l objet du contrat ne peut tre d sign que par un terme tranger sans correspondant en fran ais le contrat de travail doit comporter une explication en fran ais du terme tranger lt lt Lorsque le salari est tranger et le contrat constat par crit une traduction deu contrat est r dig e la demande du salari dans la langue de ce dernier Les deux textes font galement foi en justice En cas de discordance entre les deux textes seul le text r dig dans la langue du salari
73. ps which are sponsored by the government have brought charges against the Georgia Institute and hope for a conviction and a fine of up to 5 000 Coleman 57 An article published February 2 1998 in Le Monde complains about the fact that English and American culture dominates the Internet Kahn 2 Feb 1998 The author feels that Il faut mettre du fran ais sur le Web La lingua franca du Web n est pas l anglais c est le codage We must put French on the Web The lingua franca of the Web is not English it is computer code Kahn 2 Feb 1998 Languages evolve and have the capacity to deal with the flow of new terms whether created by native speakers or foreigners by 61 themselves English is still used by French youth in their slang it can still be seen in journals and advertisements see Appendices 1 and 2 for example in 1994 Vendredi Samedi Dimanche described some clothing as having un look Army an Army look and Le Point used le top niveau the top level in 1995 Thody 255 198 The prominence of English in the media makes it is difficult to see a great decrease in franglais terms and anglicisms The law certainly has made publication and advertising more difficult for the scientific community and for both French and foreign businesses The science academies believe that the loi Toubon puts both scientific conferences and la science francaise en danger French science in danger Loi sur le fr
74. r les mots lt lt articles L 122 34 L 122 35 et L 122 39 1 gt gt IV H est ins r apr s l article L 132 2 du code du travail un article L 132 2 1 ainsi r dig lt lt Art L 132 2 1 Les conventions et accords collectifs de travail et les conventions d entreprise ou d tablissement doivent tre r dig s en fran ais Toute disposition r dig e en langue trang re Dispositions d clar es non conformes la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 est inopposable au salari qui elle ferait grief gt gt Art 10 Le 3 de l article L 311 4 du code du travail est ainsi r dig lt lt 3 Un texte r dig en langue trang re Dispositions d clar es non conformes la Constitution par d cision du Conseil constitutionnel n 94 345 DC du 29 juillet 1994 lt lt Lorsque l emploi ou le travail offert ne peut tre d sign que par un term tranger sans correspondant en fran ais le texte fran ais doit en comporter une description suffisamment d taill e pour ne pas induire en erreur au sens du 2 ci dessus lt lt Les prescription des deux alin as pr c dents s appliquent aux services ex cuter sur le territoire fran ais quelle que soit la nationalit de l auteur de l offre ou de l employeur et aux services ex cuter hors du territoire fran ais lorsque l auteur de l offre ou l employeur est fran ais alors m me que la parf
75. r to correspond to the classes the upper and lower classes reject the concepts defined by baby sitting or top model while they are accepted by the middle class Even when franglais terms have an official French equal the French public does not always accept them or chose to use them While words such as ordinateur have replaced the use of the English word computer others have fallen by the wayside such as minimarge for discount Grigg 371 372 Some English words adopted by the French speaking population have eventually become commonplace and can be found in French dictionaries The_Petit Robert 1 included direct loan words holster and stetson as in the type of hat as well as collapser meaning to faint or collapse Soft and 6 Sept 1994 Le Petit Larousse Illustr 1995 even admitted the words soft and hard with multiple definitions ranging from abbreviations for software and hardware as well as to descriptive adjectives referring to sexual acts in erotic films Soft et hard les nouveaux 6 Sept 1994 Many anglicisms are borrowed with no alterations in pronunciation spelling or definition because they are the only existing term for a new phenomenon whether cultural or technical Grigg 374 375 French equivalents do not exist for this type of franglais vocabulary currently in use and the government does not seem to be 33 keeping up with the constant flow of Anglo Americ
76. rance The term franglais has been used in conversations and French publications for several decades to describe both the pervasiveness of English in French and allude to the prominence of American culture in France Le Petit Larousse Illustr 1997 defines franglais as the ensemble des n ologismes et des tournures syntaxiques d origine anglaise introduits dans la langue frangaise ensemble of English neologisms and syntactic constructions introduced into the French language Larousse 457 This combination of French and English vocabulary existed before the word franglais ever appeared in 1955 to describe it Rickard 132 The debate over the prominent use of franglais in France today is as strong as ever with a few new developments bringing the battle to the forefront of politics both nationally and internationally The enormous influence of American culture is spreading all over the world Some countries accept it others reject it Each society deals with the flow of images and information from the United States in its own manner Typically the French view American culture as a threat to their country and culture Jeffra Flaitz in The Ideology of English French Perceptions of English as a World Language points out that the French view English first as a threat to France and the 26 eminence of the French language second as a forceful offensive linguistic influence and third as a subversion of French ide
77. rench and La syntaxe francaise est incorruptible French syntax is incorruptible Rickard 118 The general attitude surrounding French and its use appears to have mirrored these sentiments The events surrounding the French Revolution of 1789 affected the use of French and pushed the language to a new level as a national language A few decades before the Revolution Diderot used his Encyclop die to attack the use and abuse of absolute power within the 18 government von Wartburg 193 After the Revolutionary Government established itself in 1790 the government asked Abb Henri Gr goire to investigate and evaluate the linguistic state of the nation as it felt that l unit de l idiome est une partie int grante de la R volution the unity of the language is an integral part of the Revolution Rickard 120 Gr goire found that out of a total population of twenty five million only three million could truly speak French and even fewer could write in French Rickard 121 It is hard to evaluate his research which was limited to sending questionnaires to local parish priests but the government decided to act upon his results believing that an insufficient number of people spoke what was supposed to be the national language Rickard 120 121 The first step proposed was a primary school for each commune with teaching done in French Rickard 121 This was not achieved until 1832 and primary school was ne
78. rt sur l application de la pr sente loi et des dispositions des conventions ou trait s internationaux relatives au statut de la langue fran aise dans les institutions internationales Art 23 Les dispositions de l article 2 entreront en vigueur la date de publication du d cret en Conseil d tat d finissant les infractions aux dispositions de cet article et au plus tard douze mois apr s la publication de la pr sente loi au Journal officiel Les dispositions des aricle 3 et 4 de la pr sente loi entreront en vigueur six mois apr s l entr e en vigueur de l article 2 Art 24 La loi n 75 1349 du 31 d cembre 1975 relative l emploi de la langue fran aise est abrog e l exception de ses articles ter 3 qui seront abrog s compter de l entr e en vigueur de l article 2 de la pr sente loi et de son article 6 qui sera abrog la date d entr e en vigueur de l article 3 de la pr sente loi 78 La pr sente loi sera ex cut e comme loi d tat Fait a Paris le 4 ao t 1994 Par le Pr sident de la R publique Le Premier ministre Edouard Balladur Le ministre d tat ministre de l int rieur et de l am nagement du territoire Charles Pasqua Le ministre d tat garde des sceaux Pierre M haignerie Le ministre des affaire trang res Alain Jupp Le ministre de l ducation nationale Fran ois Bayrou Le ministre de l conomie Edmond Alphand ry Le ministre
79. s account for no more than 2 5 of French vocabulary their prominence in the media ensures that they are heard read or spoken every day in France The fact that many of the rising technical and scientific fields require the communication of new findings in English and almost penalize doing so in French has become an additional focus for the purism movement The language purism in France today although it has its roots in the history of a country which values its language as the representative of their culture and civilisation appears as a subtle protest against its decline from primary position in the world Since the creation of the Acad mie Fran aise in 1635 the French government has attempted to regulate the language In the twentieth century the government has continued on this path with the passage 42 of two language laws The loi Bas Lauriol has remained fairly ineffective since it took effect in 1976 A much stronger law the loi Toubon recently passed amidst a flurry of debates and foreign commentary Three years after the first violator was prosecuted the loi Toubon still continues to be used for routing English out of France 43 FROM 1975 TO 1994 The French government made its first in a series of official attempts to regulate the language with the loi Bas Lauriol Introduced in 1975 with the title Maintenance of the Purity of the French Language the loi Bas Lauriol was meant to provide protecti
80. s that A foreign language often becomes a tool of domination uniformization a factor of social exclusion and when used snobbishly a language of contempt Grigg 368 This appears to be the truth in the case of Claude Roux a French biological scientist with an international reputation for his expertise and knowledge of lichens Peroncel Hugoz 25 Mar 1992 Two years in a row Mr Roux applied for the job of Second Research Director at the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique National Center of Scientific Research and because he had only published in French and not in English Mr Roux was turned down despite an otherwise favorable review Peroncel Hugoz 25 Mar 1992 This is the case for many professionals in the 40 fields of science medicine and technology where many of the new discoveries are reported in English whether they were discovered by an English speaker or not Occurrences such as this one are another contributing factor to the call for allowing only the French language in France To completely accept America and Americanization means in a sense to forfeit Frenchness the French want their identity and culture to remain French while gaining the most from America Kuisel 233 In other words the French are attempting to keep their culture national identity and language intact while reaping the benefits enjoyed by the prosperous United States The loss of international politic
81. sh dictionaries in the eighteenth century Rickard 105 The Acad mie Frangaise s two volume dictionary excluded technical terms as it was mainly intended for the royal court because this lapse was criticized the Acad mie Fran aise commissioned Thomas Corneille to create a dictionary Dictionnaire des Aris et des Sciences Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences published in 1694 Rickard 104 As evidenced by different dictionaries the French language reflected the social stratification at the time Some protested the separation evident in the actions of the Acad mie Frangaise and other lexicographers and grammarians Critics of the academy were more vocal and left behind written complaints about the quality of the vocabulary in the dictionary Two French languages existed one for la vie de soci t society or courtly life and one for la vie de m tier trade or artisan s life the nobility believed they had the right to ignore any and all scientific discoveries of the age as well as the scientists who discovered them von Wartburg 186 Scientists of the time were generally lower class people with some education but not of the nobility and who often did not speak the language of the court or the lle de France The separation of vocabulary in the many dictionaries reinforced the notion of la vie de soci t and la vie de m tier One particularly vocal critic Antoine Fureti re who compiled his own Dictionnaire universel
82. ssariat G n ral de la Langue Fran aise General Commissariat of the French Language was created to administer all of the government agencies monitoring the French language as another attempt at language control Grigg 371 The Commissariat did very little to contribute to the linguistic fight beyond managing the other linguistic agencies Private linguistic pressure groups have also been organized by French citizens who are concerned about the influence of foreign words on the French language Grigg 371 Eventually the lack of control over the evident number of foreign terms in the media and slang produced a new momentum for the purism movement calling for stricter reforms The French language had been identified as the language of the country and of the French people but it had never legally been the national language In 1992 the French government changed the constitution to state that French is the official language of France Grigg 370 In that same year a manifesto directed at French President Mitterrand asked him to protect the French language from the devastating ravages it suffered from English It was signed by more than 250 prominent French people including actors Acad miciens diplomats former ministers and writers who were for the most part 45 over thirty years of age Grigg 373 Excerpts of the text of the Manifeste pour l avenir du fran ais appeared in the July 6 1992 issue of Le Monde a prominent Fr
83. they see the law as restricting the speech patterns and mannerisms that had evolved through its contact with English and Anglo American culture Michel Rogale executive creative director for J Walter Thompson France stated that the loi Toubon is a form of racism Tilles 8 July 1994 Agence France Presse reports in its July 1 1994 issue that the deputies and scientists oppose the law for its xenophobic overtones Mikoska 1 July 1994 Their argument against the law is that languages cannot and should not be regulated by the government Liberal deputy Laurent Dominati succinctly sums up the attitude regarding the link between free thought and language la langue c est la pens e l tat n a pas 4 s en meler language is thought the State has no right to interfere Mikoska 4 May 1994 Both Georges Sarre a dissident socialist deputy and Jean Paul Fuchs a deputy from the Haut Rhin region were disturbed that the loi Toubon did not provide any means for promoting the use of French outside France Plenel 4 May 1994 Mikoska 4 May 1994 The loi Toubon met with fierce opposition in the scientific community who objected to specific articles aimed at keeping English out of all correspondence conferences and publication Loi sur le frangais 30 July 1994 In the years preceding the loi Toubon the percentage of English used in scientific circles a consequence of the increasingly international scope of scientific and technologica
84. to little morsels by conquering peoples and local controlling powers It is important to note that although the dialect that would become Old French existed during the ninth century a great number of local dialects and separate languages were spoken all over the area These dialects had grown and developed after the Roman retreat a period of four hundred years which reflected both the north south division and the waves of foreign invaders see map Rickard 40 Private wars between local rulers lurking brigands and attacking Norsemen from the north kept the country in political and linguistic chaos Rickard 23 French kings existed but lacked real power to control the country or reduce infighting The earliest extant texts in Old French appeared in the ninth century when Latin was dominant One such text was the Strasbourg Oaths translated or written in both the Romance and German vernacular written in 842 A D Rickard 20 The other a 28 line poem describing the martyrdom of the virgin Saint Eulalie appeared around 880 A D von Wartburg 71 The oldest manuscripts were usually religious in nature as they were used to reach the masses von Wartburg 71 Three religious documents written in Old French appeared in the tenth century one known as the Jonah Fragment contains notes on a sermon two are poems the Clermont Passion and the Life of St Leger Rickard 27 These are the only texts preserved from the
85. ts trangers peuvent comporter outre la r daction en fran ais une ou pleusieurs versions en langue trang re pouvant galement faire foi Une partie un contrat conclu en violation du premier alin a ne pourra se pr valoir d une disposition en langue trang re qui porterait pr judice la partie laquelle elle est oppos e Art 6 Tout participant une manifestation un colloque ou un congr s organis en France par des personnes physiques ou morales de nationalit fran aise a le droit de s exprimer en fran ais Les documents distribu s aux participants avant et pendant la r union pour en pr senter le programme doivent tre r dig s en fran ais et peuvent comporter des traductions en une ou plusieurs langues trang res Lorsqu une manifestation un colloque ou un congr s donne lieu la distribution aux participants de documents pr paratoires ou de documents de travail ou la publication d actes ou de comptes rendus de travaus les textes ou interventions pr sent s en langue trang res doivent tre accompagn s au moins d un r sum en fran ais Ces dispositions ne sont pas applicables aux manifestations colloques ou congr s qui ne concernent que des trangers ni aux manifestations de promotion du commerce ext rieur de la France Lorsqu une personne morale de droit public ou une personne morale de droit priv charg e d une mission de service public a l initiative des manifestations vis es au
86. utional Council 54 The vice president and general delegate of the AACC Jacques Bille sent a letter to the Conseil Constitutionnel on July 11 1994 advising the Conseil of the ramifications for the fields of communication and advertising that the loi Toubon would create Ades 18 Aug 1994 The Conseil Constitutionnel then evaluated the loi Toubon and its formal ruling was announced one month after the law was passed by the French Parliament Most of the law was deemed legal under the French Constitution however two articles were overturned On July 31 1994 the Conseil Constitutionnel stated that the loi Toubon opposed the fundamental liberty of thought and expression guaranteed by the constitution notably the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789 and therefore the government could not oblige private citizens on pain of punishment to use certain words and expressions defined by regulation Grigg 374 Therefore the Conseil Constitutionnel annulled two articles the first prohibiting use of foreign words by private citizens in personal relations and by radio or television organizations and services whether public or private the second granting government or public aid to teaching and research work in order to guarantee publication in French Loi sur le fran ais 30 July 1994 Franglais was still illegal for advertisers 55 and public officials but anglicisms are acceptable as lo
87. xis 2 Nov 1993 von Wartburg W volution et Structure de la Langue Fran aise Bern Switzerland Geschwister Ziegler amp Co 1946 What s the French for cock up The Economist 12 Aug 1995 61 Why France Should Be Linguistically Laissez Faire editorial Independent 14 Apr 1994 17 Online Nexis 14 Apr 1994
88. y the French language and the French language will continue to elude them If the Acad mie Frangaise has taken a back seat in linguistic affairs the loi Toubon is still in force and the French government has ensured that this time the law will remain alive Several foreign businesses all of whom are mentioned by the press have been Anglo American have been found in violation of the loi Toubon in the last three and a half years In 1995 a Parisian woman discovered that the Walt Disney Store in Paris on the Champs Elys es had English labels 60 on seven toys and even though the other 4 993 toys had French labels the company was required to remove the offending merchandise Klebnikov 292 The charges against Disney were dismissed however a year later the Body Shop in the town of Chamb ry in the Savoy region was found guilty of selling products without French labels and instructions and subsequently fined FF1 000 200 under the loi Toubon Smith 22 Jan 1996 Commerce un magasin 23 Jan 1996 The most recent development has been the case against the Georgia Institute of Technology The Institute has an overseas campus in the French town of Metz and had created a Web site in English providing information on its courses which are taught in English by American professors Coleman 57 Because the Internet site is not in French and has not been translated into French two language grou

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