Re: Wierd news: French crack down on Internet pronunciations

[Jon Gabriel]

From: Jean-Louis Couturier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Wierd news: French crack down on Internet pronunciations
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 18:15:32 -0500

At 17:03 2002-12-16 -0600, you wrote:

Jean-Louis Couturier wrote:
>
> At 19:37 2002-12-15 -0600, The Fool wrote:
> > > From: Robert Seeberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >
> > > http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/bizarre/1698583
> > >
> > > French is such a rich language that it now has, by state decree, two
> >words
> >
> >French is like those galactic languages, in which their is only one way
> >to say something. French is rather anal retentive.
>
> I take it you don't go out much. No two French countries use the exact same
> idiom and even in France, there are regional differences.

But in France, they've got a government entity or something trying to
keep the language "pure". The *attitude* is somewhat anal-retentive.

Now, the Quebecois, on the other hand, are a little more laid back about
the whole thing. Quebecois are *cooler*.

Julia

But then again, we have language laws and our Anglos like comparing us to Nazis.
On the other hand, laws are cropping up in the US also in areas where Hispanics
are numerous enough that they don't need to learn english, so I guess we will soon
be downgraded to being as bad as Americans. <g>

Even in France, things are not as rigid as they seem. Yes, the French Academy
decides what is French and what is not, but they are more often than not
officialising a fait accompli. Even the two major dictionaries Larousse and Robert
don't wait for the Académie to rule on a word before including it.

As for the sentence "French is rather anal retentive" it does not target a nation but
a language and its speakers.

Jean-Louis

When I was in Montreal last February, I remember seeing a newspaper article about a bombing (or perhaps a bomb threat?) at a coffee shop chain that had an English name and refused to change its name into French. The article indicated that terrorist actions like that were the responsibility of a local anti-English-language movement.

Granted, it's been a few months and I may be misremembering the facts, but did you hear about this?

Jon

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