Frankly lingual
One of the reasons it’s so exhausting to keep up with the news is the endless dealing with hysteria – headlines in a constant state of alarm, stirring up the impression that we’re forever teetering on the brink of some unnamed catastrophe.
Each new piece of bad news fills us with dread, and makes us smug with worst suspicions confirmed. It’s a wonder we’re not all stocking up on Carnation milk and stuttering like Woody Allen.
The other day I was reading an article on the purported demise of the French language.
While it went on to be a relatively reasoned piece, if read hastily, in the title – Last ‘adieu’ to French as world language? – and throughout there are inferences that French is on the verge of extinction, threatened with cannibalisation and fatal bastardization by English. (Qualifying the English language with words like “prestigious” instead of the more apt “practical” is just baiting.)
France’s many regional languages were killed by an appalling national policy that forbade their teaching in schools, and this is one of the (most tragic) ways that languages die. They don’t die merely from the influence of another language. On the contrary: a language’s ability to adapt and transform itself ensures its continued vitality.
While Latin continues to live on through the countless words it gave to many of the world’s current lexicons, its ultimate demise derived from its lack of flexibility.
(I expect there are even those who will perceive political perils in the fact that a number of lovely Arabic words – bled: dull place, chouia: tiny bit… – are common in spoken French.)
As to arguments over the efforts being made by the Académie Française and Quebec’s Office de la langue française, I’ll say only that in the main I support their goal, but regret their occasionally exaggerated stance.
Until we have learned to communicate with something other than language (no, emoticons don’t count), I believe it’s important to continue to uphold works that strive for clarity.
The term “purity” can no more be applied to a language than it can to a citizenry, and I’m certain that few in the field ever use the word with conviction (‘What is at stake is the survival of our culture. It is a life or death matter’ – cf. reactionaries and those whose job it is to be alarmist.)
But here’s the main thing: I’m very wary of statistics on how many people speak English as a second language. In my experience, many who claim fluency are far from fulfilling my (perhaps lofty) definition of the word.
Countless thousands of businesspeople have a passable command of it, enough to get them through a meeting or type up an e-mail, but they are not fluent, nor is the language being batted around conference halls anything better than a sorry dilution of the English language.
It’s a nasty “lite” version called International English where everyone is on a first-name basis, and nobody’s quite sure what all those apostrophes replace.
It has no style, no poetry, no nuance, and no purpose other than to do business. It is indeed the new Lingua Franca, and will ensure only that you’ll get your martini dry, a room for the night and increase your third quarter earnings.
It will not equip you to enjoy James Joyce, or even Dr. Seuss.
It is nothing to rejoice about.
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Comment
- ”...a language’s ability to adapt and transform itself ensures its continued vitality… The term ‘purity’ can no more be applied to a language than it can to a citizenry.”
Well said, and I couldn’t agree more—and I’m taking time out from my busy vacation schedule of relaxing in the Southern California sun to tell you so! Listen up, everyone, this is basic stuff, like life/liberty/pursuit of happiness.
— language hat Jul 8, 5:52pm # - The words that “stick,” managing to permanently infiltrate a language, as it were, can say a lot about the cultural circumstances surrounding their adoption. That the lexicon of American business & technology is a new lingua franca is clearly a byproduct of US hegemony in these spheres.
Other examples abound throughout history. In the Spanish language, for instance, the few remaining traces of a Germanic heritage are mostly echoes of a warrior people: the words guerra (war), guardia (guard), espada (sword) are Gothic in origin. This speaks volumes when you consider how precious little else these people left behind.
Perhaps there will come a time when people will speak of those barbarous, technocratic American speakers of English.
— Carlos Arribas Jul 8, 7:54pm # - “France’s many regional languages were killed by an appalling national policy that forbade their teaching in schools…” Over in Spain, where in certain sectors the regional languages are again thriving after the Francoist years of silence, a friend of mine, the (reasonably politically correct) mother of a six year-old girl, has just had her daughter change schools because more class time was was being devoted to the Valencian language than to English. My friend feels that her child is being used as a political pawn, and that English will be of more practical use in the future. Ideally, she’d have a trilingual daughter – Castilian, Valencian, English – but what to do, given this English Lite world we’ve made?
— Jonathan Jul 8, 8:42pm # - There is a quite invalid elision involved in moving from the decline of French as a global auxilliary language to a threat to the language itself.
Generations of ickle Dutch and Swedish persons have spoken a native language with little presence on the Global Stage (although plenty of wordwide speakers) and the sky hasn’t yet fallen on their heads.
— des Jul 9, 5:35am # - Exactly, but I’ve seen a number of people draw this conclusion.
C’est trop con.
— gail Jul 9, 7:03am # - To add to the list of Arabic words imported into French, there’s sur Coran , which I’ve read has spread out from the beur community.
There seems to be a strain of American neocon thought which regards France’s Arab community as a dangerous fifth column of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-semitism. Spineless French politicians, so the theory goes, will refrain from cracking down on this threat for fear of losing the Arab vote. Never mind that plenty of Arabs get beaten up by white, Christian Frenchmen who are doing their bit to defend Western Civilisation…
— David Jul 9, 10:17am # - “There is a quite invalid elision involved in moving from the decline of French as a global auxilliary language to a threat to the language itself.”
I find myself agreeing with Des on this one. I don’t see importing a bunch of words from a narrow semantic field of one language into another to be synonymous with language death. I find anti-loanwords policies to be a bit like anti-immigration policies: scary. We’ll see in twelve or a thousand years after the US’s hegemony in whatever has been eclipsed what remains of all those annoying anglicisms in French. And thanks for such a wonderful blog entry. A real pleasure to read.
— jim Jul 9, 11:35am # - i believe that the “decline” of french to be linked to France’s loss of status as a colonial power. it was the language of diplomacy because (1) it had an empire; and (2) its grammar is so beautifully precise – quite helpful when drawing up treaties and drawing lines in the sand. english grammar, on the other hand, is ambiguous at best.
i love english for its incredible flexibility. i love french for its elegance. and regardless of france’s standing in the world, i’ve discovered that the ability to speak french well is still regarded as a sign of raffinement et sophistication.
as a writer (for commercial purposes, but still…) i continually rail against improper and sloppy usage. but as for l’Académie and l’Office, they’re fighting a losing battle. living languages will always incorporate elements from other languages. l’usage, c’est le roi.
c’est juste mon avis…
— dlt Jul 9, 2:16pm # - Went to a bookstore today, browsed around, found this bit (translated in German original): ”... The fashionable word “loss of identity” has cornered the concept of metamorphosis. Yet, metamorphosis is one of the most important themes in literature since antiquity, be it Greek or Chinese …” Turned out to be from Yoko Tawada’s lectures on poetry, delivered in Tuebingen. Yoko Tawada came from Japan and now writes also in German. Ah well, somehow this seems to fit in here.
— katatonik Jul 9, 5:47pm # - So how is it that, in spite of everything we’ve learned and been taught, we’re still so surprised that all things are in a constant state of evolution?
— Jul 9, 7:17pm # - Part of the problem is that so many of the people who argue for the important of good usage and attention to things like proper grammar and spelling are so damned ignorant about the whole mess themselves. For instance, while I was amused by your recent Harper’s excerpt about the Coca-Cola ads, I was really irked that someone making very good arguments against using ‘everyday’ when ‘every day’ was meant (and an Englisht teacher at that!) also had the bad judgment to use terrible arguments against the neologism ‘impactful’. ‘Not listed as a word in any dictionary I’m aware of’? :-(
— Chris Jul 10, 1:33am # - this just popped into me head: someone’s gotta hold the fort for clarity – in thought and in expression. the two are inextricably linked. and if it’s easy to muddle the minds, it’s easy for the rumsfelds and cheneys to take over. if that hasn’t happened already.
— dlt Jul 10, 9:43am # - The Rumsfelds and Cheneys are muddle-minded, too. But what’s important, in terms of their effect on the world, is that they perceive themselves as models of clear thought.
— Jonathan Jul 10, 5:35pm # - May you recommend a good book or system to learn French?
Thank you in advance.
— Jack Jul 15, 4:35pm # - Oops, only just saw your question, Jack. Sorry.
It’s hard to recommend a system, because it all depends so much on how you learn – some need to hear it, some to see the words and some, images for it to stick.
The best system is undoubtedly a combination of text, tapes and, above all, “real” material (movies, magazines, TV shows, etc.) so you can hear/read how people really talk.
As for manuals, I’m afraid I haven’t used any in an awfully long time, but it would no doubt be helpful to go on Amazon.com and look at the reader reviews; they’re generally fairly helpful for this type of book.
And if you’re in a big city, there’s probably a book shop that specializes in teaching material.
If you have the bases, there’s a British company that has a mail order deal where they send you press clippings, printed and on tape every month. If haven’t tried it, but it looks like a smart system.
I can probably dig up their name if you like.
— gail Jul 27, 4:53am # - There is an interesting discussion about being ‘multilingual’ in Douglas Hofstadter’s “Le Ton Beau de Marot – (In Praise of the Music of Language)”
Hofstadter was apparently drawn into the world of translation when the first attempts were made to translate GEB to French, German, and other languages. In “Le Ton Beau” he talks about a decimal notation to qualify the mastering of languages (Mother tongue qualifies as ‘1’, a fair grasp of a second language as e.g. ’.6’, giving the speaker a ‘1.6’ for languages).
Describes himself as being “Pilingual”, fluent in Pi languages, Hofstadter only once met a person scoring 5 on his scale; She was a native Russian speaker who also knew English, German, French and Italian, all of “very high nature”...
As for me, a native Dutch speaker in bi-lingual Belgium, i prefer to speak ‘nimble’ English over ‘light’ English.
— Raf Jul 30, 7:15am # - I think anyone who uses language for their work quickly learns that you never stop learning, even your native tongue.
And I’d say it’s near impossible to get anywhere past the .5 level if you’ve never lived in a language, or at the very least use it on a regular basis, interacting with natives.
Your English is indeed very nimble, Raf. We over here are mighty impressed.
— gail Jul 31, 4:53am #
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