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Each year, the media greedily list “the new words” chosen by Little Robert And The Little Larousse. Covided, wokism, cyber harassment And distancial have thus recently entered the holy of holies, testifying in their own way to the changes in our society.
What is said less is that the opposite movement also exists. Regularly, unfortunate adverbs, unfortunate nouns and unfortunate adjectives leave these prestigious pages to join the cemetery of forgotten words. Those whom, collectively, we mercilessly sacrifice on the altar of modernity.
It is to them that I wanted to pay tribute during this week of the French language. And for that, it was enough for me to immerse myself in the book, superbly illustrated (1), that the Larousse editions devoted to the words and expressions in use at the time of the very first publication of the glorious dictionary, in 1905, and gradually driven out of the nomenclature… So many disappearances which, they too, show how much our national idiom, like any living language, evolves over time. Here are some illustrations:
– A profusion of prefixes. The French of 1905 had less modesty than ours. Pierre Larousse, an observer of the language (and not a prescriber of “good use” like the French Academy) had introduced into his book the terms he heard around him: sent (who has neighbors), improve (give back to a thing the quality it had lost), loosen up, declutter, demur, unconquered… Direct constructions to which today we prefer periphrases. Uninvite has thus been replaced by “cancel an invitation”. Have we really won?
The era had the mania of the mania
– Suffixes galore. The era had a mania for mania, if I may say so, and celebrated the inomaniaI’hippomania and the metronomania (the taste for poetry in verse). She also liked the endings in –able (Bernable, disappointing), in -eur (hoarder, silverer, muddy) and in –is lying (barbarously, comparably, considerately).
– Verbs from the first group galore. We then said “arrher” (pay a deposit), “to stable” (to put in the stable), “to victimize” (to make someone a victim), “to incident” (to create an incident), etc. In his preface, the linguist Bernard Cerquiglini observes that this creativity is today especially in use in the Francophonie with the Swiss schedulethe Belgian reciprocatethe Africans gift, encumber Or nap.
– Words that have changed spelling. We also discover terms which, if they still exist, were then written differently, from plutocracy To four-yearPassing by make, couscous (couscous), shah, rhapsodist and even scorch (and not crush).
– Forgotten Anglicisms. Eh yes ! Even supposedly “modern” English words sometimes get old. Sportsman, railway And steam boat have lived and are now – pardon the expression – “has-been“…
Finally, the book includes many expressions that have now disappeared. A person convinced of his importance? “To believe oneself the first mustard maker of the pope”. Do you have to be content with your fate? “Where the goat is installed, it grazes”. Passing oneself off as poor when one is rich? “Crying famine on a pile of wheat”. So many typical references to a still deeply rural and Christianized France.
FIND VIDEOS DEDICATED TO FRENCH AND THE LANGUAGES OF FRANCE ON my youtube channel
(1) Words and expressions of Pierre Larousse. Editions Larousse.
READ ELSEWHERE
ON THE TIP OF YOUR LANGUAGES: IT’S NOW OR NEVER!
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Many French people are convinced of this: they speak “without an accent”. It is this myth that the linguists Maria Candea and Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus brilliantly dismantle in this excellent article published in The Conversation. “When a Frenchwoman talks with a Quebecer, they can reciprocally find that the other has an accent”, they illustrate. Before adding: “Most of the time, the ways of pronouncing defined by the group which holds the symbolic power at a given moment (the king’s court, the bourgeoisie of the capital, the national media, etc.) are perceived as “without accent” while all the other ways of pronouncing are decreed as “with accent”. Enlightening.
French language: the city of Paris and the Ministry of Culture sued
On March 20, the collective Dare to French filed complaints against 20 major public bodies including the city of Paris, the Banque de France and even the Ministry of Culture, accused of not respecting the Toubon law. “We preach respect for diversity, but we refuse linguistic diversity, rolled down by the steamroller of a single language, Anglo-American”, the collective is surprised. Contact: [email protected] or 06 76 24 24 01
We read here and there that we could count up to 750 million French speakers in 2070, thanks in particular to schooling in Africa. A figure that is too optimistic, according to Jean-Paul de Gaudemar, former rector of the Agence universitaire de la francophonie. According to him, this would require that teaching in French be effective and that our language provide those who master it with a job. Two assertions that remain to be demonstrated…
Disappearance of Philippe Carrer, specialist in Breton civilization
Ethnopsychiatrist, author of numerous books, Philippe Carrer died on March 11. In particular, he analyzed the over-representation of risky behavior (alcoholism, smoking, cannabis and other drugs, abuse of psychotropic drugs) observed in the region. Behaviors that he explained by the feeling of “self-shame” of the Bretons linked to the devaluation of the local language and culture.
Toponymy: victory of a Breton municipality against the Post Office
Plouégat-Guérand, in Finistère, obtained the right to preserve the Breton names of its 140 localities, while La Poste wanted these names to be Frenchified.
Conference in Amiens: parallel between Picard and Ukrainian
Can we compare the situation of Picard with French and that of Ukrainian with Russian? Yes, says Professor Jean-Michel Eloy, who will defend his point of view based on historical and linguistic data. See you on Saturday March 25 at 2:30 p.m. at the Picard animation theater Dear Cabotans from Amiens. Reservation: 03 22 22 30 90. Free entry.
Discover the professions to which Occitan leads
The new website OccitanEtudesMetiers.com lists the training courses and professional opportunities related to the Occitan language.
Bernard Pigearias is a doctor, but he is also a lover of the French language, to the point of having developed the French-speaking pneumology space. Through four books, he delivers his knowledge on the origin and meaning of terms as diverse as vizier, consumption or grace.
Francophonie in his words, by Bernard Pigearias. Glyph Editions.
TO LISTEN
Secular dictation or spelling in the time of Jules Ferry
While it is a question of establishing daily dictations at school, Jean-Noël Jeanneney wonders in the company of Patrick Cabanel about our practice and our taste for spelling.
The little Prince talk about the croissant
An audio version of Little Prince de Saint-Exupéry read about the Croissant by Daniel Guy has just been put online. The variant is that of Toulx-Sainte-Croix (Creuse).
TO WATCH
French lessonby storyteller Pepito Mateo
French is a gold mine for those who know how to play with their words. The proof with the storyteller Pepito Mateo and this video taken from his show “The French lesson”.
REACT, DISCUSS AND FIND MORE INFORMATION ON THE LANGUAGES OF FRANCE ON the Facebook page dedicated to this newsletter.