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ERIC Number: ED477228
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2003-Mar
Pages: 33
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Internet and the French Language. Occasional Paper.
Tattersall, Alex
This paper examines the influence of the Internet on the French language from a predominantly sociolinguistic perspective, noting the main areas of debate between francophone businesses, governments, and "Institutions de la Francophonie," while considering theories of language in contact and language policy. It analyzes a number of arbitrarily-selected, current, France-based, francophone Web sites in order to ascertain the level of influence of Internet-specific, English technical terminology on the French language (neologisms and Anglicisms, types of Anglicism, semantic Anglicisms, lexical Anglicisms, and graphical Anglicisms). The paper identifies and isolates linguistic tendencies that may provide clues about the reasons for this influence, and it verifies the existence of concrete evidence to justify French Minister for Justice Jacques Toubon's 1997 statement, "The dominant usage of English on the Internet is a new form of colonization. If we do nothing, it will be too late [...] we will be colonized." Three appendixes present a database of Anglicisms, a database of acronyms, and a list of French sample Web sites. (Contains references including books, Web sites, and dictionaries). (SM)
Centre for Language in Education, Research & Graduate School of Education, University of Southhampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, England, United Kingdom. Tel: 00-44-0-1703-592433; Fax: 00-44-0-1703-593556; e-mail: rc4@soton.ac.uk; Web site: http://www.education.soton.ac.uk/research_and_centres/centres_and_divisions/.
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Southampton Univ. (England). Centre for Language Education.
Identifiers - Location: France
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A