France Bans the Term 'E-Mail'

[eyelikeart]

So this is interesting. I want to know what will happen to anyone who slips up?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030718/ap_on_fe_st/france_out_with__e_mail__1

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Ha, saw that and almost posted it myself....don't know if that will ever catch on. France will be the only country not using 'e-mail' - it is such a universal word.

D

 

[Kwyjibo]

banning the term not very effective its like all those laws they used to have in the south about birth control being illegal

 

[MacManDan]

LoL, as much as this amuses me, it can't be any worse then the U.S. changing everything to "Freedom fries" and "Freedom toast" and so on ...

 

[medea]

well they are just protecting their language, and you can't blame them really. Russia has been making a lot of changes like this as well.

 

[Doctor Q]

The French press can start using the word "courriel" instead of "e-mail", but will it affect how citizens speak to each other? And e-mail is international. Will they use the term in their cross-border e-mail, even if the guy at the other end might not have learned the word?

Maybe the French should rename "spam" too. Then, by definition, there would be no more spam! What would be a good new French word for "spam"?

 

[mactastic]

paté

 

[patrick0brien]

Originally posted by mactastic
paté

-That liver!

And funny as hell. Good one.

 

[Flowbee]

I like "courriel." It has a certain elegance. I think I'll start using it myself.

 

[settledown]

dude,
your name is flowbee...and you're going to use courriel?

Maybe change your name to Le Flowbee

 

[e-coli]

Oh give me a frickin break.

If you want to stop the influx of American culture, ban McDonald's, not "e-mail".

 

[tazo]

Originally posted by e-coli
Oh give me a frickin break.

If you want to stop the influx of American culture, ban McDonald's, not "e-mail".

"beht weh need oww-wa mac-dohne-alds."

 

[shakespeare]

Yeah, I don't blame them either. I know that the Icelandic government has taken great pains to come up with purely Icelandic words for modern things; the Icelandic word for inter-continental ballistic missile was taken from the 12th century sagas, where it meant "burning arrow." I think it's a romantic impulse to keep a little of Iceland (or France) protected from the rest of the world, and I'm very much on their side. In this case, it's a clever shortening of the long form "courrier électronique" - rather the way we shortened "electronic mail."

And if this is getting back at us for that damn Freedom Fries fiasco, well, more power to them for that, too.

 

[MrMacMan]

Thats pretty stupid, and it will sure help relations.

Thanks for banning one of the most used english word in your country.


In Retaliation we need to ban Entrepreneur.

Screw them, we have been using that word for so long we need to kill it. It doesn't even mean buisness person in french, it roughly means contractor.

 

[chewbaccapits]

Originally posted by settledown
dude,
your name is flowbee...and you're going to use courriel?

Maybe change your name to Le Flowbee

LOL...classic....nice response...too funny...

 

[Flowbee]

Originally posted by settledown
dude,
your name is flowbee...and you're going to use courriel?

Maybe change your name to Le Flowbee

Hey, I had no control over what my parents named me. I got enough teasing in school... I don't need it here, too. Just because I have an unusual name doesn't my my opinions less valid, does it?

 

[Durandal7]

They have good intentions. After all, what better way to protect your language then to make it hopelessly obselete and restrictive?

 

[bennetsaysargh]

lol. funniest thing all day. everyone is against each other these days. weather it;'s political, or it's just changing words. it's not going to stop people from using it though. what are they gonna do, arrest you?

 

[medea]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
lol. funniest thing all day. everyone is against each other these days. weather it;'s political, or it's just changing words. it's not going to stop people from using it though. what are they gonna do, arrest you?

Try reading the actual article before passing judgment, it states the change is for "government ministries, documents, publications or Web sites," did everyone catch the word GOVERNMENT, they are not trying to ban civilian use.....

 

[FriarTuck]

How about "message de reddition" instead ? They're familiar with that one already.

 

[kettle]

...what are they gonna do?...

for starters you'll probably get a "Free" Membership/Contributors Subscription followed by an instant ban for not reading the sub clauses in the new Macrumors rules or something.

he he

oh... or we (the rest of the known world) could block all French ip's before things start getting really silly.

To all French people still able to access this site, the above is not intended as a personal insult.

Your mothers smell of elderberries!

yes all of them...

Battle of Agincourt - 1415

The interesting thing about that battle was the English Yeomanry couldn't give a monkey about all that Chivalry rot (read as red tape) and just wanted to get the job done so they could go home, needless to say the captured French Knights made more in scrap value than in ransom.

oh for the relative freedoms of an English Yeoman.

 

[Abstract]

^^Wha!?!


Anyway, I agree with Shakespeare when he said:

Yeah, I don't blame them either. I know that the Icelandic government has taken great pains to come up with purely Icelandic words for modern things; the Icelandic word for inter-continental ballistic missile was taken from the 12th century sagas, where it meant "burning arrow." I think it's a romantic impulse to keep a little of Iceland (or France) protected from the rest of the world, and I'm very much on their side. In this case, it's a clever shortening of the long form "courrier électronique" - rather the way we shortened "electronic mail."

It makes sense in their language, and I hope that every country tries to preserve their own language(s) and culture from this American in-your-face full frontal assault on cultures around the world. Its good that countries like China only allow 10 American movies into their country every year. This may sound extreme, and maybe they should be a bit more lax, but I can see why countries have the rule in place.

I'm going to side with France on this one.

 

[laukev7]

You know, we actually do have a French word for 'spam'.

It's 'pourriel'. 'Pourri' as in 'rotten'. Cute, eh?

By the way, we also have that sort of linguistic restriction in Quebec. On our channels (not the American ones), 70% of the content must be of francophone origin. And, of course, the 101 law.

 

[tristan]

language police?

Poor frenchmen - have to check with their govt every time they want to use a new word. Sacre bleu!

 

[Rower_CPU]

Re: language police?

Originally posted by tristan
Poor frenchmen - have to check with their govt every time they want to use a new word. Sacre bleu!

Couldn't be farther from the truth.

France adopts words from us all the time in slang and common jargon. It is the job of l'Académie Française to determine if a word should become part of the "official" language and if a francophone equivalent can be created.