In quieter times (Photo: L.A. Cicero)
The French have always been protective of their language against the foreign invasion of words. “Weekend,” “internet,” “football” make their regular incursions against the proud tongue of the Gauls, and are repelled, with mixed results.
Now France’s preeminent public intellectual Michel Serres (we’ve written about him here and here) has joined the fray. In today’s Telegraph:
“There are more English words (in adverts) on the walls of Toulouse than there were German words during the Occupation,” said philosopher Michel Serres, a member of the Acadamie française [sic], the state body which aims to protect the French language.”
“I want to invite the French to go on strike. Each time that advertising is English, you don’t buy the product, each time a film’s title is not translated, you don’t go into the cinema,” he said in an interview with la Depeche du Midi newspaper.
The spelling error in a leading British newspaper makes a good case for the English taking a few more French classes – and when, oh when, will foreign diacriticals be an established style rule for newspapers? It looks so insular when we refuse to honor the spelling of foreign names.
In any case, one Englishman fired back:
Stephen Clarke, the Paris-based English author whose novel The Merde Factor sees its hero battling with the anti-Anglais brigade, wrote a stinging reply to Mr Serres’ boycott call in a blog for the Telegraph:
“It is pretty thoughtless to compare advertising posters that we are free to ignore completely with Nazi proclamations informing people that they will be shot if they are found out of doors after curfew or sent to death camps if they belong to certain ethnic groups.
He’s threatening retaliation – a ban on all French words and expressions on the other side of the Channel. No more gâteau for the English. Let them eat cake!
Meanwhile, here on the Pacific, Humble Moi had the honor of catching Michel Serres for one of his very rare English interviews – in fact, it’s the only one I’ve been able to find online:
Tags: Michel Serres, Stephen Clarke
October 27th, 2013 at 6:33 am
To compare the use of English phrases in modern day Toulouse to the Nazi occupation is incredible from an ‘intellectual’, worse still from an apparent ‘philosopher’. Tens of thousands of English speaking soldiers, from both sides of the Atlantic, died in the campaigns to free France from Nazi occupation in1944-5. Serres has not only displayed appalling bad taste, but also a complete lack of perspective. He should be boycotted by all who have the opportunity so to do.