FRANGLAIS, FRENGLISH

[ISTORIK]

Franglais (slang), a portmanteau combining the words "français" ("French") and "anglais" ("English"), also called Frenglish, is a slang term for types of speech, although the word has different overtones in French and English.

English sense

In English, Franglais means a mangled combination of English and French, produced either by poor knowledge of one or the other language or for humorous effect. If one tries to speak French and fills in gaps in knowledge of French with English words or false cognates with their incorrect meaning, the result is Franglais. Franglais may also mean a diplomatic compromise such as UTC.

Example:

· Je vais driver downtown. — I'm going to drive downtown.

· Je suis tired. — I am tired.

· Je ne care pas. — I don't care.

For the former tendency we have only to remember Chaucer's Prioress, who (he tells us) knew nothing of the French of Paris, but only that of Stratford-atte-Bow ('Cockney French'). Similar mixtures occur in the later stages of Law French, such as the famous defendant who "ject un brickbat a le dit Justice, que narrowly mist".

An early literary example of the delight in mélange occurs in Robert Surtees' Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities:

"You shall manger cinque fois every day," said she; "cinque fois," she repeated.--"Humph!" said Mr. Jorrocks to himself, "what can that mean?--cank four--four times five's twenty--eat twenty times a day--not possible!" "Oui, Monsieur, cinque fois," repeated the Countess, telling the number off on her fingers--"Café at nine of the matin, déjeuner à la fourchette at onze o'clock, diner at cinque heure, café at six hour, and souper at neuf hour."

On a more rarefied level, Franglais can provide puns for more curious humorous effects.

Examples:

· coupe de grass — lawn mower (play on "coup de grâce").

· pas de deux — father of twins.

· J'accuse réception — I accuse the secretary.

· Trois, quatre, cinq — This sounds like trois cats sank, meaning three cats drowned.

· cottage fromage — cottage cheese

· I just trop manged.

· I didn't know il was going to fait du vent ce soir.

· I marched un peu on the trottoir, and there was crotte partout.

· beaucoup beaucoup people, people beaucoup

· À l'eau, c'est l'heure Not the motto of the French Navy, but 'allo sailor'

· Moi aussi I am an Australian

· Avocado pear - a French housekeeper's lawyer (avocat d'au pair)

· Lazy day cool - the ideas flow ("Les idées coulent")

· Any of which can perhaps be followed with the apostrophe Pretentious? Moi?

The humorist Miles Kington wrote a regular column Parlez vous Franglais which, for a number of years starting in the late 1970s, appeared in the magazine Punch.

Books published by Miles Kington include: Let's Parler Franglais, Let's Parler Franglais Again!, Parlez-vous Franglais?, Let's Parler Franglais One More Temps, The Franglais Lieutenant's Woman and Other Literary Masterpieces.

Another classic is Jean Loup Chiflet's Sky My Husband! Ciel Mon Mari! which is a literal translation (and a correct one too, for comparison) of French into English.

Perhaps the oldest and the funniest example of Franglais in English literature is found in Henry V by William Shakespeare. A French princess is trying to learn English, but unfortunately, "foot" as pronounced by her maid sounds too much like foutre and "gown" like con. She decides English is too obscene a language.

French sense

In French (and sometimes in English), the term refers to the use of anglicisms (English words) for which there are French equivalents, the most notorious of which is le week-end. These anglicisms are sometimes regarded as unwelcome imports, and as bad slang. Plus, the term refers to nouns created on Anglo-Saxon roots, often by adding "ing" at the end of a popular word, e.g. un parking (a car park or parking lot), un camping (a campsite), le marketing, le shampooing (shampoo, pronounced ʃɑ̃pwɛ̃ and not ʃɑ̃puiŋ). A few words that have entered use in French are derived from English roots but are never found at all in English, such as un relooking (a makeover), un déstockage (a clearance sale). For those who don't speak English, those words are often mistaken for true English nouns. Due to the world wide popularity of the internet relatively new English words have been introduced in French, like the words 'e-mail' and 'mail'. The French and Quebec government have proposed the use of a French alternative: courriel (courrier électronique) also the Académie française has suggested the use of the less popular mél.

Canada

Franglais should not be confused with Quebec French, which has a number of longstanding borrowings from English as the result of the historical coexistence of two linguistic communities inside Quebec and especially the Montreal area.

Similarly, English spoken by the anglophone minority in Quebec has borrowed certain Quebec French words such as dépanneur for corner store, autoroute for highway, PAB (from préposé aux bénéficiaires) for nurse's assistant, stage for internship, or metro for subway. These are permanent and longstanding features of local usage rather than the incorrect speech improvised by any given individual user with poor knowledge of the other language. They have mainly become part of a common ground tongue born out of mutual concession to one another, sponging up to each other. In fact, the substantial fluently bilingual community in and around Montreal will occasionally refer to "Franglais", usually after it is pointed out that someone has used a variety of French and English words, expressions, or propositions in a 'correct' fashion in the same sentence or point, a surprisingly common occurrence. In this sense, the term "Franglais" is used as much in a European context as in Canada (except Quebec). However, the term Franglais is used in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and some parts of Northern Ontario and northern Maine to refer to the mix of English and French spoken there, which is itself a longstanding dialect (see chiac). This mix uses just about as much English as French, although it is more likely to be understood by a francophone, since it usually uses English words in French pronunciation and grammar.

Other strange Franglais occurs across Canada due to the rise of immersion programs across the country. A good example of an anglicism turned Franglais is the unintentional translation of English phrases into French by students unaware of the 'proper' ones generally used in Quebec French. One such example is mistranslating a hot dog as "chien chaud" (literally a dog that is hot) when in fact the correct translation is "hot dog". In some ways, confusion over which expression is more correct, and the emphasis many immersion schools place on eliminating anglicisms from student's vocabulary, has promulgated the use of Franglais.

Franglais can also slowly creep into use due to mispronunciations and misspellings by many bilingual Canadians. Common mistakes that immersion or bilingual students propagate and tend to repeat beyond their student life include incorrect inflection and stresses on syllables, incorrect doubling of consonants, strange vowel combinations in their spelling, and using odd combinations of prefixes and suffixes opposite to the language they mean to use at a given time.

Sometimes youth culture purposely uses Franglais for its comical characteristics. In recent years, especially in British Columbia and southern and eastern Ontario, Franglais has become popular with teenage culture. Teenagers will frequently replace English words with their French equivalent for comedic or euphemistic value. This occurs most often with swear words. Some Anglophone Canadians euphemistically use the Québecois "sacres" instead of swearing in English. This is somewhat ironic because sacres (religious words such as sacrament, used as expletives) are considered the worst and most offensive type of swearing by native Francophone Canadians, however.

Frenglish

There is an English equivalence to the concept of the French word "Franglais". It is usually called "Frenglish". Many Anglo Montrealers grew up learning English in schools and living in a society dominated by French; in the media and on every outdoor sign - mandatory under Quebec Law.

A person who is said "to speak a perfect Frenglish" means he/she speaks an English riddled with common French expressions. Examples:

-"Open/Close the lights" instead of "Turn on/off the lights" ("Open/close" is actually a Montréalism, and incorrect in both French and English. "Allumer/éteindre la lumière" is correct, not "ouvrir/fermer la lumière". A literal translation would be "light the light/extinguish the light").

-"Pass the vacuum in the livingroom" instead of "vacuum the livingroom". In French "passer l'aspirateur".

-"This story doesn't have sense" instead of "This story doesn't make sense"

-"Let's go and drink sangria on a teRASse" instead of "Let's go and drink sangria on a TERrace" (pronunciation) or "Let's go drink sangria on a patio."

-"I bought two pair of pants" instead of "I bought two pairs of pants", omitting the "s" that signifies multiple items.

Frenglish is a term widely used in Montréal English.

Typologie du franglais

On recense 6 catégories d'anglicismes : lexical, sémantique, syntaxique, morphologique, graphique, phonétique. À ceux-là s'ajoutent les faux anglicismes.

Franglais lexical : domaine technique et monde des affaires

En informatique, le jargon anglais prédomine : « Je reboote (redémarre) pour que les drivers (pilotes) que je viens d'updater (de mettre à jour) soient loadés (chargés). »

De même en commerce booster les ventes pour pousser les ventes, alors que le Français dispose de : sommet, summum, apogée, cime, pinacle, plus haut de…, au mieux de…, le meilleur de…, la crème de...

Remarquons à cet égard qu'au XIXe siècle, où certains étaient portés à l'anglomanie, le français a utilisé ses mots pour désigner une construction pourtant inconnue alors en France et en Europe et a employé "gratte-ciel", traduction littérale en français de l'expression américaine sky-scraper. Il est fort probable qu'à l'heure actuelle, en pareil cas, c'est l'expression américaine qui serait imposée par les médias, sans réaction de traduction.

En revanche, des mots comme logiciel (sur le modèle de "matériel") ont été adoptés très rapidement par la population. Et plus personne ne dit computer pour « ordinateur », bien que le premier mot soit plus court.

Dans le commerce et la gestion d'entreprise : « Le reporting (rapport d'exploitation) mensuel du service marketing a accéléré la chute des stock-options (options d'achat ou actions optionnelles) du staff (personnel en fonction) ».

Franglais sémantique

· L'influence anglaise sur la langue est sensible dans les traductions approximatives, notamment dans les médias, entre autres à cause des faux-amis et des expressions calquées sur l'anglais (en informatique, librairie pour bibliothèque, firewall traduit en « mur de feu » au lieu de pare-feu). On distingue parfois en linguistique le premier cas (anglicismes sémantiques) du second (calques phraséologiques). Le mot trivial qui, en français signifie grossier, vulgaire, est souvent employé au sens anglais de "banal", "futile".

· Au Québec, ce type de franglais est plus répandu, mais « acclimaté » linguistiquement en signe de dérision (« sac de pinottes » (sack of peanuts) = sachet d'arachides).

Le franglais sur Internet

La plupart des sites proposent des menus en franglais :

· newsletter = lettre d'information, infolettre

· e-mail = courriel

· spam = pourriel, pollupostage

· messenger = messager, messagerie instantanée

· chatroom = salon, forum, bavardoire

· chat [tʃat] = tchatche, dialogue en ligne, clavardage

· chatter [tʃaˌte] = tchatcher, dialoguer, clavarder, jaser (qc)

· shopping = achats, magasinage (faire du shopping = faire les boutiques)

· news = nouvelles, infos, actualités

· webmaster = webmestre, administrateur de site,

· home = accueil, page d'accueil

· podcasting = diffusion pour baladeur, baladodiffusion

· podcast = balado

Le franglais dans l'information L'information télévisée, radiophonique et écrite utilise aussi souvent le franglais.

• prime time = début de soirée, heures de grande écoute
  
• access prime time = tout début de soirée
  
• timing = échéancier, calendrier, échelonnement
  
• pitch = bref résumé d'un film, d'un roman
  
• one man show = seul en scène
  
• jingle au lieu de musiquette, qui sonnerait trop français.
  
• senior, sénior = aîné, ancien.
  

On notera que senior a supplanté troisième âge qui a occulté personnes âgées, qui lui-même a évincé vieux.

---

It is not because you are

Paroles et Musique: Renaud Séchan 1980 "Renaud à Bobino"

When I have rencontred you,

You was a jeune fille au pair,

And I put a spell on you,

And you roule a pelle to me.

Together we go partout

On my mob il was super

It was friday on my mind,

It was story d'amour.

It is not because you are,

I love you because I do

C'est pas parc' que you are me qu'I am you.

You was really beautiful

In the middle of the foule.

Don't let me misunderstood,

Don't let me sinon I boude.

My loving, my marshmallow,

You are belle and I are beau

You give me all what You have

I say thank you, you are bien brave.

It is not because you are,

I love you because I do

C'est pas parc'que you are me qu'I am you.

I wanted marry with you,

And make love very beaucoup,

To have a max of children,

Just like Stone and Charden.

But one day that must arrive,

Together we disputed.

For a stupid story of fric,

We decide to divorced.

It is not because you are,

I love you because I do

C'est pas parc' que you are me qu'I am you.

You chialed comme une madeleine,

Not me, I have my dignité.

You tell me : you are a sale mec !

I tell you : poil to the bec !

That's comme ça that you thank me

To have learning you english ?

Eh ! That's not you qui m'a appris,

My grand father was rosbeef !

It is not because you are,

I love you because I do

C'est pas parc' que you are me qu'I am you.

---

Редактирано Юли 11, 2007 от ISTORIK

[ISTORIK]

<H1 class=title>Do you speak Frenglish?</H1><H3 class=date>December 10, 2004</H3>I'm back. I promised you anecdotes, so here are a couple of incidents, which are quite revealing of a well-publicised phenomenon: the invasion of English words into French.

Coordinator: "Please write your ideas on the flip-chart."

Céline: "Veuillez noter vos idées sur le… le…"

What's flip-chart in French?? Don't panic, don't panic.

"Le… le…"

19 pairs of eyes are on me. I can feel drops of sweat slowing running down my cold forehead.

"Le… le…"

"TABLEAU DE CONFÉRENCE!", I finally blurt out, a bit too loudly. I'm sure I can hear a crowd cheering and chanting my name in the distance.

French client: "Tableau de conférence? C'est marrant, nous on dit paperboard." (That's funny, we say paperboard).

I tell you, next time I can't think of the proper way of saying something in French, I'll just come out with a ridiculous made-up English word instead of risking brain meltdown.

Later on, I'm working with the French partners, finalising some documents I've translated.

"On aime pas trop intendance environnementale pour traduire environmental stewardship. On préfère écomanagement." (we don't really like intendance environnementale to translate environmental stewardship. We prefer écomanagement.)

"Écomanagement? D'accord, très bien" I manage to utter despite being crushed by distress. "What's wrong with my lovely intendance environnementale? Aren't they two beautiful French words (really long and clever-sounding too!)?" is what I really want to wail.

Honestly, your job is all about turning English into French and then you're told that your text is too French. I think this is very indicative of a real trend to incorporate more and more English words into French, especially in a business context. English-speaking countries arguably drive the world economy and the development of new technologies, and their words are often borrowed (scanner, internet, etc.) in a bid to keep up with them or simply because it's easier.

It really doesn't bother me at all, as all languages are constantly in a state of flux, and trying to stop that would be counterproductive, but it can be difficult to know what a particular client will see as acceptable or not. I think my client probably used paperboard because that's the name that's written on the flip-charts they use. For écomanagement, I think something else is going on: management is definitely a buzzword in French, it's very popular and sounds professional, progressive and they were probably trying to confer some prestige to what they do. We were working on documents to be read by councillors and potential clients, they had to "sell" something (energy-saving devices and programs) and the dynamism of management might have helped. A client who is more interested in the work itself (preserving the environment) might not have minded the more subdued intendance environnementale. As always, context is everything.

Posted by Céline, in <A href="http://www.nakedtranslations.com/en/cat_interpreting.php">Interpreting, on December 10, 2004

http://' target="_blank">