re: #108 Slumbering Behemoth

It goes both ways. I recall watching a PBS documentary on car manufactures, with a French board of directors not wanting to use the word “Air Bags” for, well, air bags, because that phrase is an “American Invention”.

The French are very careful to try to preserve their language. They really do not like it when Anglais makes its way into the language.

There is an institution in France, L’Academie Francaise, which tries to prevent English from creeping into the language. They do other things, too, but this is one of the things they look at.

Conservatism
As French culture has come under increasing pressure with the widespread use of English in media and technology, the Acadmie has tried to prevent the Anglicization of the French language. For example, the Acadmie has recommended, with mixed success, that some loanwords from English (such as walkman, software and email) be avoided, in favour of words derived from French (baladeur, logiciel, and courriel respectively). Moreover, the Acadmie has worked to modernize French orthography. The body, however, has sometimes been criticized for behaving in an excessively conservative fashion.