France protects itself from the dreaded English language by banning

'fast-food' and 'podcasting'

Last updated at 12:28 12 March 2008
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-530403/France-protects-dreadedEnglish-language-banning-fast-food-podcasting.html#ixzz3Boz1ONFr

France has launched a new drive to stop a glut of English words from invading the
native tongue.
Terms including "email", "blog" and "fast-food" should all be banished from the
language, according to French culture ministry chiefs.
Others words threatening to steam-roller French vocabulary out of existence are
"supermodel", "take-away" food and "low-cost airline".
Even such obscure terms as "shadow-boxing" and "detachable motor caravan" - which
have apparently slipped into French usage - are included in the 65 pages of banned
words on the ministry's new website, which was launched this week.
French linguists at the Academie Francaise - the body that monitors and protects the
their language - have come up with Gallic equivalents to more than 500 mostly English
words for the website, being run by the culture ministry's "General Commission for
Terminology".
It is expressions related to new technology that have clearly caused the greatest
headache for the language experts - with an entire page on the site being devoted to the
word "podcasting".
A spokesman for the Terminology Commission writes: "The word derives from the
brand iPod, and its usage in French is causing some confusion.
"The Commission recommends that the French equivalent from now on should be
'diffusion pour baladeur'."

Neither do the French appreciate the term "Wi-Fi" - easily pronouncable in French as
"wee-fee" - because it is short for the English phrase "wireless fidelity".
So they recommend that France's millions of internet users say "acces sans fil a
l'internet" instead.
The detailed list of words covers almost every sphere of life - with builders being told
they should no longer glibly talk about "multifunctional industrial buildings" and "rise
pipes", but now use "batiment industriel polyvalent" and "colonne montante".
Scientists can no longer refer to "serial analysis of gene expression" and "suppression
subtractive hybridization". From now on they must say, "analyse en sirie de l'expression
des genes" and "hybridation soustractive selective".
And television sports commentators are being advised to stop using the word "coach" or
"corner" for football matches. They should instead say "entraineur" and "coup de pied
de coin".
But the site also contains several bizarre misconceptions of words not actually used in
English at all.

It recommends that people should stop referring to a snack bar as a "scramble" and start
calling it a "kiosque".
And women who want a make-over must no longer ask to be "re-looked", but request to
be "remodelle" instead.
A Terminology Commission spokesman said: "The list has been published because in
some areas of life, people are becoming obliged to use foreign words that are not
comprehensible to all, when there is always a French equivalent that will do equally
well.
"French is a living language which is able to adapt in the modern world, but it is also
rich enough to speak for itself, without the need for hundreds of English expressions."