There are, I notice, lots of French words in the English language. I sense that the English rather enjoy it. And whilst most of the French people I know appear to use English words when it is convenient, I also hear French voices raised in a passionate, sometimes almost shrill, objection.
Protection of French-ness it would appear.
So it was with some interest that I noticed an article in the free paper "20 minutes" entitled " On parle tous « franglais », so what?" (We all speak franglais, so what?)
The argument in 5 steps went something like this:
▪ because it's too late
▪ because you should not ban all franglais
▪ because France is weighed down if you do
▪ because it is a "win win situation"
▪ because certain anglismes disappear
I was particularly interested in the section under "win win". I have long been of the opinion that much of our English has 2 sources. Hence "Anglo-Saxon". And this has assisted me in picking up French as a language. I started to use posh English words with a French accent for anything I didn't know. It doesn't always work, but then again it is successful more often than you might expect.
I reasoned that this came down to a certain Frenchman in 1066 becoming king. So it was with interest that I read the following:
■ «Amour propre », « cliché », « déjà-vu » sont quelques-uns des mots intégrés à la langue anglaise, rappelle Paul-Romain Larreya, Et ce depuis 1066, quand la bataille d'Hastings ouvrait à Guillaume le Conquérant le chemin de Londres.
■ «Amour propre », « cliché », « déjà-vu » are some words integrated into the English language, recalls PRL, ever since 1066 when the battle of Hastings opened to William the Conqueror the road to London.
Exactly.
But now it is not just me who thinks so.
It appears that French has also acquired some English. William must have gone home from time to time.
Protection of French-ness it would appear.
The argument in 5 steps went something like this:
▪ because it's too late
▪ because you should not ban all franglais
▪ because France is weighed down if you do
▪ because it is a "win win situation"
▪ because certain anglismes disappear
I was particularly interested in the section under "win win". I have long been of the opinion that much of our English has 2 sources. Hence "Anglo-Saxon". And this has assisted me in picking up French as a language. I started to use posh English words with a French accent for anything I didn't know. It doesn't always work, but then again it is successful more often than you might expect.
I reasoned that this came down to a certain Frenchman in 1066 becoming king. So it was with interest that I read the following:
■ «Amour propre », « cliché », « déjà-vu » sont quelques-uns des mots intégrés à la langue anglaise, rappelle Paul-Romain Larreya, Et ce depuis 1066, quand la bataille d'Hastings ouvrait à Guillaume le Conquérant le chemin de Londres.
■ «Amour propre », « cliché », « déjà-vu » are some words integrated into the English language, recalls PRL, ever since 1066 when the battle of Hastings opened to William the Conqueror the road to London.
Exactly.
But now it is not just me who thinks so.
It appears that French has also acquired some English. William must have gone home from time to time.
Terence Westoby
Sent from Samsung tablet
How amusing that using posh words with a French accent actually works. Makes sense, I suppose, as a lot of our posh words were introduced by our Plantagenet overlords (their continued usage a testament to French preservation).
ReplyDeleteWilliam wasn't French, though, although he probably instigated the conversational use of a dialect of French at court. And any languages he would have taken back across to Normandy would have been either Celtic, Norse or German in origin as the Isles were possibly even less homogenised than Frankia; the Franks being a tribe from the anarchic forests of Allemagne, naturally.
Not that any of that matters: national languages didn't exist and regional dialectics weren't terribly important as anyone who was anyone spoke Latin!
Nice post, pa.
The comment about William taking English back to France was very tongue-in-cheek. But thanks for the comments- appreciated.
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