I just liked this little news story from Yahoo!Quebec helps French Web surfers
PARIS (Reuters) - Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec has come to the rescue of its cousins in France where the heirs of Moliere have been left lost for words in the hunt for Gallic versions of some common terms on the Internet.
The guardians of French language, galled by the remorseless encroachment of English words into everyday usage, have been scratching their heads for the best part of a decade in search of French-sounding alternatives for "e-mail", "spam" and "chat".
Now, almost 10 years after the plugged-in people of Quebec adopted it, France has embraced "courriel" as an official translation for "e-mail", a web-friendly version of the clumsy "courrier electronique" that authorities had tried to enforce.
"It turns out that 'courriel' went down well here and has started being used, so we've made the abbreviation official," said Florence Desmouliere of the official French division of the Culture Ministry that helps coin new words.
The use of "courriel" is now obligatory for French civil servants, but France's language gurus turned up their collective noses at some of Quebec's other offerings.
French Canadian surfers use "pourriel" for spam, mixing "poubelle" (garbage) and "electronique". Chat is "clavardage", from "clavier" (keyboard) and "bavardage" (chattering).
But the arbiters of what is and isn't French have rejected these -- for the moment.
"The language in Quebec is slightly more familiar than ours," explained Desmouliere. "It's different, more colourful. We like it a lot, but we don't quite have the same criteria.
"We've not found a satisfactory alternative for spam, nor for chat. Perhaps one day we'll adopt the Quebec view."
posted July 10, 2003 12:57
