I never got the hang of this kind of myopic, senseless traditionalism. If Latin didn't let himself be bastardised with the influences of Frankish and Gaulish there wouldn't be any French.
The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
51–60 of 203 posts
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#52As a french guy, I sense some kind of disdain for the Académie Française that I don't really get. The evolution of the french language is not dictated by the Académie, but rather by its use by the french people, and the role of the Académie is merely to decide what should or shouldn't be set in stone in the dictionary. And in fact the usage of the french language is quite diverse, even in France. You can have regiona…
I think it might have something to do with their role of "protecting France from “brainless Globish” and the “deadly snobbery of Anglo-American,” as a member spat out in a speech last month"
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#53I laugh at this useless institution, but then I realize that many "real" institutions are probably just as useless and anachronistic as this particular one.
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#54As a french guy, I sense some kind of disdain for the Académie Française that I don't really get. The evolution of the french language is not dictated by the Académie, but rather by its use by the french people, and the role of the Académie is merely to decide what should or shouldn't be set in stone in the dictionary. And in fact the usage of the french language is quite diverse, even in France. You can have regiona…
I think English speakers just find it a bit strange because our own language is such a mess. In fact we don't even agree on how to spell basic words (maybe due to a deliberate political act by Noah Webster? not sure), and there is zero chance of international standardisation at this point, so we can't even imagine an official body that does this. Perhaps that's why some people seem to interpret it as "authoritarian".…
> there is zero chance of international standardisation at this point
Well, the French language isn't really standardised internationally either, as many French-speaking countries have their own equivalent to the Académie.
The Office québécois de la langue française in Québec is the most active and influential one (as an example, their proposed word "courriel" for replacing "email" is the most common variant, even in France) and Belgium also has a Conseil de la langue française. Switzerland also has a Délégation à la langue française which is much less active, and the equivalents in Africa are mostly anecdotal for now though.
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well nobody is saying that any language is wrong or not. It's just that the french language is kind of an international standard and some people must decide how this standard should adapt with the evolution of the world. But the decision they make are not arbitrary decisions based on their personal feelings, they are guided by the etymology of french.
> some people must decide how this standard should adapt with the evolution of the world Actually, no. Neither English, Spanish nor German have a dedicated powerful centralized institution that makes those decisions for the language, and I guess Chinese doesn't either? > But the decision they make are not arbitrary decisions based on their personal feelings, they are guided by the etymology of french. French differs…
Spanish has the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, which is exactly like the French Académie. Many latin-American countries have an equivalent, and they coordinate with the Spanish one.
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> some people must decide how this standard should adapt with the evolution of the world Actually, no. Neither English, Spanish nor German have a dedicated powerful centralized institution that makes those decisions for the language, and I guess Chinese doesn't either? > But the decision they make are not arbitrary decisions based on their personal feelings, they are guided by the etymology of french. French differs…
German actually has the Rat der Deutschen Sprache which is exactly this and makes exactly these decisions. As do many other languages. The latest change they made was introducing the capital ẞ.
No, it doesn't if you mean with "exactly these decisions" that it also decides what words are considered officially part of the language.
You also got the name wrong. It's "Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung" (Council for German Orthography) and that is exactly what they do.
They standardize on the orthography. Nothing more.
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well nobody is saying that any language is wrong or not. It's just that the french language is kind of an international standard and some people must decide how this standard should adapt with the evolution of the world. But the decision they make are not arbitrary decisions based on their personal feelings, they are guided by the etymology of french.
> some people must decide how this standard should adapt with the evolution of the world Actually, no. Neither English, Spanish nor German have a dedicated powerful centralized institution that makes those decisions for the language, and I guess Chinese doesn't either? > But the decision they make are not arbitrary decisions based on their personal feelings, they are guided by the etymology of french. French differs…
> Neither English, Spanish nor German have a dedicated powerful centralized institution that makes those decisions for the language, and I guess Chinese doesn't either?
Among this list, only English doesn't have an institution.
All three other languages (Spanish, German and Chinese) have multiple institutions, basically one per country that speaks the language, just like French.
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#58As a french guy, I sense some kind of disdain for the Académie Française that I don't really get. The evolution of the french language is not dictated by the Académie, but rather by its use by the french people, and the role of the Académie is merely to decide what should or shouldn't be set in stone in the dictionary. And in fact the usage of the french language is quite diverse, even in France. You can have regiona…
> The evolution of the french language is not dictated by the Académie, but rather by its use by the french people > the Académie is actively trying to find french equivalent for [convenient English words] that are coherent with the etymology of the french language Don't these two sentences you wrote contradict each other? From what I gather, you ARE saying that the French language IS dictated by the Académie, even t…
Nah. They try to find and promote alternative words but no one uses them.
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
> some people must decide how this standard should adapt with the evolution of the world Actually, no. Neither English, Spanish nor German have a dedicated powerful centralized institution that makes those decisions for the language, and I guess Chinese doesn't either? > But the decision they make are not arbitrary decisions based on their personal feelings, they are guided by the etymology of french. French differs…
Ahah, what the hell are you talking about. Here is a very hidden list, found on an obscure website, that you might want to look into : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_regulators
This list doesn't say what scope those regulators have.
I only know the situation for German and there the "Council for German Orthography" only regulates orthography not language and word usage, so take this list with a grain of salt.
Re: The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked
#60I never got the hang of this kind of myopic, senseless traditionalism. If Latin didn't let himself be bastardised with the influences of Frankish and Gaulish there wouldn't be any French.
Most European countries have a similar language board, English is more an exception than anything else.
And there's not much Gaulish influence in French, here is the full (and small) list of words originating from Gaulish: https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/Cat%C3%A9gorie:Mots_en_fran%C...