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France Says 'Au Revoir' to the Word 'Smartphone' (smithsonianmag.com)

Posted by msmash on from the what's-in-a-name? dept.

Hoping to prevent English tech vocabulary from entering the French language, officials have suggested 'mobile multifunction' as an alternative. An anonymous reader shares a report: The official journal of the French Republic, the Journal officiel, has suggested "internet clandestin" instead of dark net. It's dubbed a casual gamer "joueur occasionnel" for messieurs and "joueuse occasionnelle" for mesdames. To replace hashtag, it's selected "mot-diese." Now, as the Local reports, the latest word to get the official boot in France is smartphone. It's time to say bonjour to the "le mobile multifonction." The recommendation was put forth by the Commission d'enrichissement de la langue francaise, which works in conjunction with the Academie Francaise to preserve the French language. This isn't the first time that the commission has tried to encourage French citizens to switch over to a Franco-friendly word for "smartphone." Previous suggestions included "ordiphone" (from "ordinateur," the French word for computer) and "terminal de poche" (or pocket terminal). These, it seems, did not quite stick.

6 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember when they tried to push back against "cheeseburger", McDonalds in Québec had to write "hambourgeois au fromage". It didn't stick for long. It's called "hamburger au fromage" in the correct form now, but we still call it a freakin' cheeseburger.

    1. Re:Whatever by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know why France gets so much credit for linguistic preservation. Seriously, it's 2018 and they're just now getting around to formalizing a French word for smartphone? And like usual, I imagine few people will use the new word.

      When telephones came out, Icelandic quickly adopted the word "sími", resurrecting an old word for "thread". Cell phones came out, and they became "farsímar". Smartphones came out, and they quickly became "snjallsímar". I mean, it doesn't happen immediately. People were calling tablets "tablets" at first, but when it came out that the proper word was "spjaldtölva", people switched over pretty quickly. Tölva (computer), by the way, comes from "tala" (number) plus "völva" (prophetess). :)

      A fun experiment is to go to Wikipedia and enter a bunch of random science terms in different science fields - preferably ones not named after a person or whatnot (which tends to carry over between *any* language) - and for each one, look at the in-other-languages sidebar to see what the word is in other languages. Because as a general rule, in almost every language the terms very strongly resemble the English.... except Icelandic. You know, you look up photon, and it's a bunch of entries like "photon", "foton", "fotona", "futun", etc, etc.... then you get to Icelandic, and it's "ljóseind". ;) It's "tyrannosaurus", "tiranozaurus", "turanosaurus", etc, etc.... then Icelandic, "grameðla". But it's actually quite useful. For example, in some members of my family there's a condition called ankylosing spondylitis. Unless you're a doctor who's familiar with the field, or someone in your family has it, odds are you have no clue what that is. But in Icelandic, it's "hryggigt" - that's "hryggur" (spine) + "gigt" (arthritis). Anyone can see that term and immediately have a rough idea of what the primary symptoms are like (the spine slowly fuses, among other things).

      That's not like Icelandic is "pure" or anything. "Hæ" is essentially embedded in the language, for example. "Basically" is pretty much becoming that way. Etc,. But at least in general, people try. And for most - not all, but most - new science/tech terms, the Icelandic terms stick.

      --
      Santa Ana Winds: Like the Dustbowl, but with awards shows.
  2. All french everywhere by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to think, being a Canadian, that it was just the Quebec francophones with the hyperactive inferiority complex which manifested like that. In Quebec they are anal about signage to the point of there being ordinances outlining the maximum size of English print on your store front in order to preserve their language (which I won't actually insult France enough to call French and will just call "Quebecois"). They were so adamant about it they had to use a special constitutional opt-out Canadian provinces have called the notwithstanding clause to make it legal notwithstanding a person's right to freedom of expression.

    Now I realize this is just endemic to all French everywhere.

  3. Funny conversation with a colleague from Quebec by TomR+teh+Pirate · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This sort of French language and cultural identity protection has been going on for years. I remember once talking to a colleague from Quebec about this. He told me that he had initially been reticent about the idea of moving to the US because there is a sense among the Quebecers that the rest of us English-speaking Americans are out to destroy their cultural heritage. At the time of the conversation he had already been in the US for several years and so I asked him, "well, what is your assessment of American culture trying to destroy French culture?" His response boiled down to, "most of you don't even know who we are. We've been paranoid about nothing."

  4. Eurorail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My wife spent a summer living in Germany with her family. They took the Eurorail to Paris for a couple of days. On the way, all announcements were made in English, Spanish, French and German. Until they got to France, where it switched to ONLY French, even though the train was continuing on to Spain.

    At some point it gets petty.

  5. I'm french, and believe me, this will never happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    NO ONE cares about the "Académie Française".

    I can't remember a suggestion they did that did stick, whereas all the stupid "Cédérom", "Dévédérom", "mél" are NEVER used by the people actually using the language every day (It is possible some TV shows/commercials try to stick on that, but no one cares). There's no reason "internet clandestin", "joueur occasionnel", "mot-diese", or "mobile multifonction" will fare better than the previous failures.

    The Académie Française is a group of old men babbling together about how the language is so awesome despite needing a heavy refactoring. They are just unable to keep up with the 20th century, nevermind the 21th. Just remember to shut down the TV before putting them to bed for the night (and don't forget the medicine, and the diapers).

    Seriously, there are more important things in the universe.

    The day we fire them, and replace them by actual language experts and engineers, we'll all celebrate together. Until them, let them talk. Don't give them your attention (they crave that). Just close the door so the noise doesn't bother you.