Probably this morning, after waking up, you turned on the "computer", yout took a look at your "emails" or you started "chatting" with a friend. You will probably subscribe a "newsletter", and as true fans of the network, you will update your "blog". So, in a few minutes, you will have to do with English words (computer, email, chat, blog, newsletter) that have entered in every language. But French people, you know, don't really like talking another language. And they never really liked the English words in their vocabulary.
So President Nicolas Sarkozy has decided to hold a contest to abolish those English words and find others using the French language. The president does not want to hear those words and many others will like the same. So school students will be permitted to submit up to this evening their ideas, sending them to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The contest is called Francomot and students could invent new words or use some existing already but changing a little bit in order to make it close to the concepts related to the net.
It is not something new for France, because in the past several
administrations have tried to block the advance of those words that,
wouldn't be born without Internet and probably they would not be so popular all around the world only in one language. So the government of Paris forward regularly to its offices the English words to avoid. So,
for example, the word "chat" in French institution has become
since 2006 "Dialogue en ligne", and "courriel" is used instead of e-mail.
But France proudly defends its own language (the only like English
spoken on five continents) and its history, as to be perhaps one of the
few countries in the world where the "computer" - in Italy everybody calls it "computer"- is called "ordinateur".
Then the 10th February the Francomot
jury will take a look to the suggestions and on February the 17th to 18th, Alain
Joyandet, Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophony,
will officially award the winners.
Marianna Lepore
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