How The French Take English Internet Words And Make Them Acceptable For French Ears
from the non! dept
More than six years ago, we wrote about how the French, ever protective of their language, had rejected a bunch of commonly used words to describe new technologies such as email, and
created their own official French-approved versions. The process, of course, is an ongoing one, and an attendee at a recent meeting explains the process by which the French
come up with officially acceptable French ways of saying things like "ipod" and "pharming." As the article says: "The words are created by a panel of industrialists and savants, either from scratch or based on observations of evolving usage. The Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry has set up a Special Commission on Terminology and Neologisms in Electronic Communications to carry out such work." Apparently, just letting languages evolve naturally (while perhaps requiring that much less bureaucracy) is just way too messy.
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Re: This is almost too stupid to stand...
CloakedMind said: to support your argument that France was somehow helping in the fight almost made me fall out of my chair with laughter.
After spending three paragraphs of spewing insults about the intelligence of others, you yourself prove lack thereof by misunderstanding the first quote you use. How pathetic is that? Care to point which part of my argument was about the French helping fight? The point being made was that another person falsely believed that everyone was losing to the Nazi Germany when D-day came. It was even false on the day when Operation Overlord was just beginning to develop. Care to prove me wrong?
You are so quick to claim that I hate America, but can you really find where I profess my hate for it? Being more knowledgeable about history and knowing its dark sides does not count as "hate." It's just my knowing what country I live in (oh yes, I live in US). Of course, you will try to twist it now to still make me out to be anti-American and all. But knowing the negatives of own country is what helps people make it better. Apparently you rather just pretend everything is peachy until everything does become as bad as others claim it is. So yeah, while I try to improve on what's wrong, you can sit on your ass and call me US-hater, I'll make sure you still get the same benefits of living here that I do.
P.S. Sceptic is from the Latin word scepticus. Skeptic is from Greek word skeptikos. Take your pick. If you are really trying hard to make a French joke, here is some help: yeah, French is a Latin based language.
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