FRANCE GUARDS LANGUAGE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 5

FRANCE GUARDS LANGUAGE

Campaign To Ban English Words (NZ. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, December 1. L’office du Vocabulaire Francais, a private organisation de-, devoted to the defence of the French language, recently appealed to French newspapers to protect the country’s language against encroachment by AngloSaxon words.

On an appointed day it asked editors and writers to be on guard against the misuse of French words in their newspapers and against allowing English words to creep in. Five hundred volunteers scanned the French press that day and last weekend the organisation presented its report on the result. The newspaper which had the fewest mistakes—six—got the loving cup. Some newspapers had as many as 60 and over. Now the organisation has issued a list of English words it would like to se omitted from the French language. It does not like “le leader” for “leading article,” but wants “chef” or “editorial.”

“Le parking” (car park) should be replaced by “pare de stationnement” or “parcake”; and in sport “le shot,” “le goalkeeper” and “le referee,” by “le tir,” “le gardien de but” and Tarbitre.” Some words, however, are still a puzzle to translate. They have not replaced “sex appeal” although “viens par ici” (“come hither”) has been suggested. Neither has any suitable replacement been found for “public relation.” At the other extreme are the real anti-English fanatics. They insist that “New York” should be spelled “nouillorque” and “weekend” “vequend.”