French firewall to stop English web invasion

Rumours, or crazes, which sweep through the French-language internet - or "la toile" - should no longer be known as "le buzz".

They should in future be called "le ramdam", which may be Arabic but at least is not English.

Similarly, the practice of souping up or "pimping" cars should no longer be known to French teenagers as "le tuning". It should be referred to as "le bolidage" from the French slang word for a high-powered car, "le bolide" (literally a fire-ball or meteorite).

France's Canute-like efforts to prevent the French language from being invaded by modern English terminology entered a new phase yesterday.

The Government announced the results of its first open competition, among schoolchildren and students, to identify French-sounding terms for 21st-century phenomena. The winning entries will be taken up by the 18 ministerial committees which exist to invent, and promote, French neologisms to drive out anglicisms.

If given formal approval, they will be published in the Journal Officiel of the French Republic. All public servants will then be ordered to use the words in the hope that they will enter the everyday language.

Five terms for innovations, or obsessions, of the internet generation were put out to open competition by the French secretariat for the French-speaking world in February.

What should the correct French be for "le buzz" and "le tuning"? How about "le talk" as in "talk radio"? Or "le chat" as in an internet "chatroom"?

The committee of judges included the internationally successful French rapper (or rather "rappeur") MC Solaar.

Some of the hundreds of officially concocted terms have entered the language. "Logiciel" for software is now common.

Other official suggestions have flopped. The lives of French motorists are still saved by "les air bags" not by "les sacs gonflables". French texters still send "les smileys" and they watch "les sitcoms" not "les comedies de situations pour la television".

GALLIC ALTERNATIVES

Officially coined words which stuck:
"Bogue" for "bug".
"Logiciel" for "software".
"Baladeur" for "Walkman".
"Capital risque" for "venture capital".

Officially coined words which flopped:
"Jeune pousse" for "start-up".
"Fouineur" for "hacker".
"Frimousse" for "smiley".
"Presonorisation" for "play-back".

- INDEPENDENT