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And French is just bad Vulgar Latin and Gaulish. There is no such thing as purity or correctness in language - those concepts are farcical. Every second of eve

And French is just bad Vulgar Latin and Gaulish. There is no such thing as purity or correctness in language - those concepts are farcical. Every second of every day language evolves with the words and pronunciations of the people currently using it. If enough people spell or pronounce the "wrong" way, it becomes the "right" way. French today is slightly different than it was yesterday, and the day before, and 50 years ago.

orwin 1y ago
I think we have like 5 words left from Gaul in modern french (only one I know is 'talus'). Old central French was mostly vulgar latin+frankish, with a bit of Gaulish and Arabic, then Gaulish was traded for latin and greek forcibly thanks to the french 'Academie' that made central/Parisian french the only french, and we lost a lot (a _lot_) of words. What's funny is that English, beside Normand french, borrowed a lot from French before that,and we borrowed those words back, with a different meaning, or sometimes a similar one.
bryanlarsen 1y ago
> There is no such thing as purity or correctness in language There certainly is, in the case of French and other languages that have a central authority defining what is pure and correct. Defining something as pure by fiat seems nonsensical, but the world is strange that way. Especially if it applies outside the jurisdiction. Why should the Parisian government get to declare that Quebecois is impure?
- School-Cotton 1y ago
  People massively overstate the power and influence of the Académie française. It is essentially just a cultural organization. Sure, it claims to officially regulate the French language, but its decisions are not actually binding on anyone, not even the government or the education system, and are in fact widely ignored. In actual practice, French is about as regulated as English is (i.e., not at all) and French people use tons of loanwords from various languages, especially English and Arabic.
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    It's been a while since I've talked about this with somebody from France, but if I remember correctly, they take pride in speaking real French rather than speaking pure French. I wish I remember the words they used. In other words, they recognize the Académie as the authority on purity, and then reject purity.
  - rich_sasha 1y ago
    > its decisions are not actually binding on anyone IME they are binding on French learners who, instead of being taugh French as she is spoke (haha) are taught French à la Académie Française.
- thrance 1y ago
  How I wish we could cut these reactionary fossils from our tax money. It is nonsensical, and should no longer exist. They are tasked with maintaining an "official" dictionary, but have only published 9 editions so far, in over 300 years. The last one, that was just finished (only took 45 years) misses very important words like "web", "mail" or "homophobie" because they're supposedly too recent, but somehow includes "woke". In a French dictionary. What a fucking joke.
duxup 1y ago
Same issue occurs with food. "Authentic" ... I'm not opposed to the word, but I want to know the context / time period they're shooting for. The range of possibilities with food and food evolution and influences can be very wide.

orwin 1y ago

I think we have like 5 words left from Gaul in modern french (only one I know is 'talus'). Old central French was mostly vulgar latin+frankish, with a bit of Gaulish and Arabic, then Gaulish was traded for latin and greek forcibly thanks to the french 'Academie' that made central/Parisian french the only french, and we lost a lot (a _lot_) of words. What's funny is that English, beside Normand french, borrowed a lot from French before that,and we borrowed those words back, with a different meaning, or sometimes a similar one.

bryanlarsen 1y ago

> There is no such thing as purity or correctness in language There certainly is, in the case of French and other languages that have a central authority defining what is pure and correct. Defining something as pure by fiat seems nonsensical, but the world is strange that way. Especially if it applies outside the jurisdiction. Why should the Parisian government get to declare that Quebecois is impure?

School-Cotton 1y ago
People massively overstate the power and influence of the Académie française. It is essentially just a cultural organization. Sure, it claims to officially regulate the French language, but its decisions are not actually binding on anyone, not even the government or the education system, and are in fact widely ignored. In actual practice, French is about as regulated as English is (i.e., not at all) and French people use tons of loanwords from various languages, especially English and Arabic.
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  It's been a while since I've talked about this with somebody from France, but if I remember correctly, they take pride in speaking real French rather than speaking pure French. I wish I remember the words they used. In other words, they recognize the Académie as the authority on purity, and then reject purity.
- rich_sasha 1y ago
  > its decisions are not actually binding on anyone IME they are binding on French learners who, instead of being taugh French as she is spoke (haha) are taught French à la Académie Française.
thrance 1y ago
How I wish we could cut these reactionary fossils from our tax money. It is nonsensical, and should no longer exist. They are tasked with maintaining an "official" dictionary, but have only published 9 editions so far, in over 300 years. The last one, that was just finished (only took 45 years) misses very important words like "web", "mail" or "homophobie" because they're supposedly too recent, but somehow includes "woke". In a French dictionary. What a fucking joke.

duxup 1y ago

Same issue occurs with food. "Authentic" ... I'm not opposed to the word, but I want to know the context / time period they're shooting for. The range of possibilities with food and food evolution and influences can be very wide.