How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
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Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#2[deleted]
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#3https://archive.ph/nItnV
I wonder what the Académie Française has to say about that...
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#4https://archive.ph/nItnV I wonder what the Académie Française has to say about that...
The Académie nowadays is (mostly) a bunch of old politically influent people with zero or little linguistic knowledge. They stopped reforming the language almost two hundred years ago and now they can only hope that people will keep paying them attention. But the language will keep evolving and drifting, and they will keep resisting, until the divergence will be so large that they will just disappear into nothingness, and people will ask: "why did people bother with them for so long?..."
Or, as the young ones do nowadays, they'll just say "Cheh!" to the Académie.
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#5You're find this out now? After four centuries of Spanish in the Americas, Spanish speakers there have developed an enormous culture and diversity and innovation in the language. I remind my Spanish friends that there are three times the number of Spanish speakers in Mexico than in Spain. In fact, there are more Spanish speakers in the United States there are more Spanish speakers than in Spain. Ditto for Portuguese, where Brazil and the Portuguese in Africa have developed delightful versions of Portuguese -and an enormous and diverse culture. France and the French should be proud that their language and culture are being spread and transformed by the French speaking nations in Africa; I especially love the music coming out of Mali, Senegal and Algeria (Rai, anyone?).
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#6> Members of the French Academy, the 17th-century institution that publishes an official dictionary of the French language, have been working on the same edition for the past 40 years.
This is nonsense. The French Academy is adding new words to the dictionary every year.
The whole article is weak to say the least. Of course, the French spoken abroad is changed by the local influences. This is the sam case as with any language that crosses countries boundaries. There are major differences within France as well.
In everyday discussions, I do not see any special influence from Africa on our language. The influence of instant messaging is orders of magnitude larger and I have to decipher phrases such as "vzy cr". Or monstrosities such as "sa va koi" which are shaping our language deep down because it is how many young people express themselves.
French is complicated and mostly masochist (we are the champions of how to write something easy most difficultly, and crank weirdness of pronunciation to 100). It is not helping that we are rigid in how the language evolves (and sometimes straight ridiculous). But the changes to French French come from inside France, the ones from Mali French - from within Mali etc.
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#7https://archive.ph/nItnV I wonder what the Académie Française has to say about that...
The Académie nowadays is (mostly) a bunch of old politically influent people with zero or little linguistic knowledge. They stopped reforming the language almost two hundred years ago and now they can only hope that people will keep paying them attention. But the language will keep evolving and drifting, and they will keep resisting, until the divergence will be so large that they will just disappear into nothingness…
Well, yes, except that this is the language (and its rules) that is taught as school.
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#8https://archive.ph/nItnV I wonder what the Académie Française has to say about that...
The Académie nowadays is (mostly) a bunch of old politically influent people with zero or little linguistic knowledge. They stopped reforming the language almost two hundred years ago and now they can only hope that people will keep paying them attention. But the language will keep evolving and drifting, and they will keep resisting, until the divergence will be so large that they will just disappear into nothingness…
Spot on.
I am surprised that such a topic has been made an article about given that language mutates 100% of the time as soon as leaves its place of origin for whatever the mean, from accent, to colloquialisms and to slangs.
It happened to Spanish, English and to other languages.
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#9> Members of the French Academy, the 17th-century institution that publishes an official dictionary of the French language, have been working on the same edition for the past 40 years. This is nonsense. The French Academy is adding new words to the dictionary every year. The whole article is weak to say the least. Of course, the French spoken abroad is changed by the local influences. This is the sam case as with any…
Wait until they learn about chocolatines.
Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Académie nowadays is (mostly) a bunch of old politically influent people with zero or little linguistic knowledge. They stopped reforming the language almost two hundred years ago and now they can only hope that people will keep paying them attention. But the language will keep evolving and drifting, and they will keep resisting, until the divergence will be so large that they will just disappear into nothingness…
Well, yes, except that this is the language (and its rules) that is taught as school.
Do your research on European Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese, and you’ll realize that the latter owns its own version and defines its own standard without needing the consent from any other country.
So, there is nothing France or any institution can do about it.