|
|
To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu
-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
|
E-mail? The French beg to differ By Jo Best, 0 July 21, 2003 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/E-mail-The-French-beg-to-differ/0,139023166,120276424,00.htm
The latest Anglicism to fall out of favour in France is the word "e-mail," now banned from use by government employees. The word "e-mail" can now no longer be used in French official communication, including documents, memos, the internet and even e-mails themselves. The General Commission on Terminology and Neology, part of the French Culture Ministry and affiliated to the Academie Francaise--which outlawed the word "Walkman" in favour of "baladeur" some years ago--prefers the French alternative "courriel." The edict on "courriel," a shortened version of the phrase "courrier electronique," or electronic mail, is not expected to make a lot of difference to the common parlance of French technophiles. "E-mail" has been in use in Europe for years, and the commission's decision will be largely arbitrary to French speakers, who are particularly fond of slipping the odd English word--"le meeting," "le cash"--into conversation. The word "courriel" is French Canadian in origin, a French dialect considered a bastardisation of the language by traditionalists in France.
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved. |
