Global Policy Forum

By Stuart Jeffries

The French language risks becoming obsolete in the 21st century, overwhelmed by a bastardised English which has itself been ruined by neologisms and barbarisms.

The warning came from the historian Alain Decaux, a member of of the elite Académie Franí§aise, during a debate at the Institut de France in Paris in which the French language and culture were deemed to be in a state of crisis.

"Is French going to find itself in the same situation as those American Indian languages whose memory Chateaubriand said was kept alive only by a few old parrots on the Orinoco river?" Mr Decaux asked.

"Anglo-American is taking hold in the economy, advertising, research, public services, the army, training, international institutions."

Mr Decaux recalled that French was once the language of diplomacy and European culture, but that had changed, thanks to President Georges Clemenceau's peace negotiations after the first world war.

"He wanted to pay homage to our British and American allies by allowing the treaty of Versailles to be written in both French and English," said Mr Decaux. "This first surrender can be regarded as being at the start of lots of others." Now, 90% of UN documents are in English.

Although Mr Decaux's fears for his native tongue are not new, what was striking about his speech was his warning to the British that the language of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce risks being destroyed by the way in which English is evolving.

"What may save French, paradoxically, is the growing uniformity of English. Because the language that is used throughout the world is less and less English. It's a new language, whose roots are English, but which consists of a fusion of neologisms, approximations and distortions. It's no longer a language of culture.

"Our grandchildren will have to speak Anglo-American because their success will depend upon it. But if they want to know Shakespeare, Wilde or Joyce, they will have to go back to the English language and learn that in order to find riches, beauty and creative genius. In Europe, each culture must defend its language - and that includes the British."

In France, French is protected by a battery of laws. The government even has a Commission de Terminologie, one of whose members, Alfred Gilder, last year published En vrai Franí§ais dans le Texte - a definitive list of 8,000 Anglicisms that he wants replaced in all official documents with Gallicisms of his own coinage.

Nevertheless, it is rare to find someone who speaks of la fin de la semaine or le balladeur when they can say weekend or Walkman.

What, then, can save French? Mr Decaux said that the language's secret weapon was "la francophonie" - 30m native speakers outside France around the world, along with 80m other French speakers.

He also pointed to the rise of a colloquial French called verlan, which developed among immigrants in the suburbs of French cities but is spreading throughout the country.

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