People working for the government cannot use terms borrowed from the English language.

France is trying to stop a process that might otherwise be taken for granted: words borrowed from English are not wanted in the French language, and the government (to protect the purity and integrity of the language) has banned several words that have been borrowed from English and must be replaced by French alternatives, reports The Guardian.

According to the French culture ministry, a barrier to understanding for people who don’t play video games has been created by terms borrowed from English, so more traditional, local terms should be used. Professional gamer has thus become “joueur professionnel”, which means the same thing, but is more difficult to pronounce (and takes longer). Cloud gaming has become “jeu video en nuage”, which is a direct translation.

It becomes incomprehensible: the term streamer has become “joueur-animateur en direct”, which could be translated as “direct live player.” The term has become even more complicated… but eSports has also been given a similarly complex formulation in the form of “jeu video de competition”, which can be translated to English as “competitive videogame.”

Currently, only government employees are banned from using terms borrowed from English. Still, it doesn’t make much sense because even though there is a French government equivalent for email (“courriel”), the term is stuck in the vernacular. In English, we say email, not “electronic mail”, which sounds so stupid that people would laugh at anyone who used the non-shortened term.

Académie Française, which has been around for centuries, is potentially behind this push: they pointed out back in February that linguistic degradation should not be treated as inevitable. They referred to the French state railway SNCF brand Ouigo as an example (pronounced we go), but some terms have been adopted one-to-one, such as ‘big data’ or ‘drive-in’.

Understandably, language should be preserved, but innovation should not be rejected. Many languages have adopted words from other languages. Even German or Japanese tend to have words taken from English and are commonly used. Perhaps the French government is somewhat Anglophobic…?

Source: PCGamer