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> 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 defin

> 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.

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.