French Government Bans Term 'E-Mail'

[Kev]

Originally posted by: notfred
Oh no, they want official business to be carried out in the native language!

If any of you are the type that like to say "People should speak English in America... we shouldn't have to have spanish translations for everything" Then you really can't complain about this.

let's start calling "gorditas" at taco bell "fat girls"

 

[amcdonald]

I'd like a fat girl supreme... and a beef greasy fat girl (chalupa)

 

[AvesPKS]

This is no different from the US government imposing regulations upon itself. While the government does hold some sway over the market, how many of you drive E85 or dual fuel vehicles, because of the fact that the government does? They're not banning anything for the general public, just inside their government.

 

[Mean MrMustard]

Originally posted by: MogulMonster
cough....freedom fries...cough.....

This is exactly what I was thinking when I read that.

Pot meet kettle, I guess.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: amcdonald
What the hell kind of country has a "General Commission on Terminology and Neology"

Bassackwards, idiotic countries like Frances.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: notfred
Oh no, they want official business to be carried out in the native language!

If any of you are the type that like to say "People should speak English in America... we shouldn't have to have spanish translations for everything" Then you really can't complain about this.

Exactly! On both counts. I mean come on, we have no room to criticize, our government officials unofficially renamed french fries and french toast "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast." Not the first time I've been embarrassed to admit I'm an American...

 

[SilverTorch]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Wow

 

[Vcize]

LMAO, this is pretty funny.

Though I have to admit, "freedom fries" wasn't exactly the most clever name either.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

I'm not sure how any society that makes sufficient use of email technology to need a word for the concept can maintain a policy of cultural isolationism.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Beau

Lets ban the word "French" and use the phrase "Sensless retards" or "stards" for short instead.

One step ahead of you

 

[RyanM]

France's dedication to preventing the "perversion" of their language has always made me laugh.

With English, we accept new words and phrases. Other languages and cultures have added to our language and made is stronger and more effective. And we never shy away from expanding it evermore.

The French, on the other hand, try to cling desperately at their language and prevent it from becoming despoiled.

It smacks of stupidity.

Do you know what a CD-ROM drive is called in France? Le cederom. Pronounced "Luh Say-Day-rOM".

They took an ACRONYM and turned it into a WORD. That's just wrong. I can't imagine what they did with DVD.....it's a thought too scary to contemplate.

 

[Spac3d]

We should just nuke those idiots.

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: Spac3d
We should just nuke those idiots.

I've thought about that before.

What would the world lose?

Their wine isn't that good.
Their guns aren't that great.
I don't like cheese, so no love lost there.

The only downside would be the death of what is it....55 million French people?

That's not so bad, is it?

 

[ClueLis]

This is really nothing new. The French have made it policy to eliminate all foreign words that have a French eqivalent. I would bitch and complain, but whole "freedom fries" incident killed that for me.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: MachFive

They took an ACRONYM and turned it into a WORD. That's just wrong.

Do you write "radar", "laser", and "sonar", or "RADAR", "LASER", and "SONAR"?

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: ClueLis
This is really nothing new. The French have made it policy to eliminate all foreign words that have a French eqivalent. I would bitch and complain, but whole "freedom fries" incident killed that for me.

No, their policy is to replace any words that have filtered into their language from outside WITH a French equivilant, often creating one if necessary.

Just take a look at their computer terminology. It's beyond hilarious.

 

[ClueLis]

Originally posted by: MachFive

Originally posted by: Spac3d
We should just nuke those idiots.

I've thought about that before.

What would the world lose?

Their wine isn't that good.
Their guns aren't that great.
I don't like cheese, so no love lost there.

The only downside would be the death of what is it....55 million French people?

That's not so bad, is it?

Yes, but gone would be their laughable attempts at playing world leader.

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw

Originally posted by: MachFive

They took an ACRONYM and turned it into a WORD. That's just wrong.

Do you write "radar", "laser", and "sonar", or "RADAR", "LASER", and "SONAR"?

The concept of an acronym becoming a word is not really strange to me...but the fact is, these slowly evolved into words instead of straight-up acronyms, whereas the french just took an acronym and said it will be such and such word.

And the other thing is, I'll bet that at least half of the people 'on the street' wouldn't know that radar, laser, or sonar even stands for anything.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: amcdonald
I'd like a fat girl supreme... and a beef greasy fat girl (chalupa)

Actually I think it would be "and a beef slipper".

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw

Originally posted by: MachFive

They took an ACRONYM and turned it into a WORD. That's just wrong.

Do you write "radar", "laser", and "sonar", or "RADAR", "LASER", and "SONAR"?

Those are acronyms that have made their way into the common language. After decades of use, and having the distinct advantage of already LOOKING like real words, they no longer needed capitalization.

On top of that, it wasn't some government authority that decreed those words would lose their capitalization - It was the public, in using the terms. My issue is not so much with the French language, but with the way the French government actually regulates it. I think that's an extremely backwards way to deal with the evolution of communication.

A better example would be CD-ROM, CD, DVD, etc. If we started calling CD's "seedees" so that we didn't have acronyms in our language, I don't know what I'd do, but it'd likely involve temporary insanity and some high explosives.

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: ClueLis

Originally posted by: MachFive

Originally posted by: Spac3d
We should just nuke those idiots.

I've thought about that before.

What would the world lose?

Their wine isn't that good.
Their guns aren't that great.
I don't like cheese, so no love lost there.

The only downside would be the death of what is it....55 million French people?

That's not so bad, is it?

Yes, but gone would be their laughable attempts at playing world leader.

Their attempts are LAUGHABLE though. Isn't our own amusement reason enough to spare their pitiful lives?

 

[stormbv]

Who cares.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: MachFive

On top of that, it wasn't some government authority that decreed those words would lose their capitalization - It was the public, in using the terms. My issue is not so much with the French language, but with the way the French government actually regulates it. I think that's an extremely backwards way to deal with the evolution of communication.

Really, no disagreement with you there (but I said as much above).

Although the codification of CDROM as "le cederom" might not be as ridiculous as you think, given that it's really just the pronunciation of CDROM using the French alphabet.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: amcdonald
What the hell kind of country has a "General Commission on Terminology and Neology"

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I don't think the French have basic rights such as Freedom of Speech. :frown:

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw

Originally posted by: MachFive

On top of that, it wasn't some government authority that decreed those words would lose their capitalization - It was the public, in using the terms. My issue is not so much with the French language, but with the way the French government actually regulates it. I think that's an extremely backwards way to deal with the evolution of communication.

Really, no disagreement with you there (but I said as much above).

Although the codification of CDROM as "le cederom" might not be as ridiculous as you think, given that it's really just the pronunciation of CDROM using the French alphabet.

Yes, but that decision was made not by those speaking the language on a day to day basis, but some obscene goverment authority who, when they made the decision, didn't have the slightest idea what a CD-ROM drive was.

That's the irony, too - cederom is spelled precisely how you would pronounce it (in French, of course), so why did an entirely new entry in the dictionary need to be created for it?