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March 24, 2006

Language Purity

So Jacques Chirac got in a tizzy because a French businessman spoke English at a European language, to which Agnes Poirier responds:

France must be one of the very few countries in the world, if not the only one, where the Prime Minister is officially in charge of national language policy. The Prime Minister's cabinet has direct authority over Le Conseil supérieur de la langue française. In France, one can use only words that are correct, authorised by law and sanctioned by the dictionary.

Well, I'm all for the purity of language. From now on, let's only speak to the French in Latin. Wouldn't want to corrupt the language, you know, which all these debased words and idioms and pronunciations.

Posted by jeff at March 24, 2006 8:19 PM

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Comments

In one of my first linguistics classes, we were taught that the difference between a dialect and a language is an army.

So what, is French just a dialect of Italian now?

I'd say the french businessman is just cutting his losses.

Posted by: queuno at March 26, 2006 9:04 AM

Well, originally French and Italian were dialects of Latin. That was my point.

Posted by: Jeff Medcalf [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 26, 2006 9:31 AM