China Bans English For “Sullying Purity of Chinese”
- Categories: International, News
- Date: Dec 22, 2010 01:24 JST
- Tags: Bizarre, Censorship, China, Internet, Law, Mass Media, Politics, Translation
China has banned its media, publishers and websites from using foreign language words, particularly English ones, in an effort to preserve the glorious purity of the Chinese language from being defiled by corrosive barbarian influences.
China’s General Administration of Press and Publication says the infiltration of barbarian languages has “seriously damaged to the purity of the Chinese language” and resulted in “adverse social impacts to the harmonious and healthy cultural environment.”
Existing bans on the usage of barbarian words in TV and radio will also be strengthened; language criminals who flout the new regulations face criminal prosecution.
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Even English uses borrowed words or words with roots from other lanuages. That why its always evolving.
The bigger and more restrictive the goverment, the more stupid and assinine the regulations. Control,Control,Control.
like taco and burrito?
Most of people on USA don't speak another language than English or don't have a second language
Are you been in Japan or China? most of people don't talk English and don't have a second language.
Most of the people in the US come from a different country originally, and those people all brought parts of their language into American English. Their country is only 234 years old and many of its current inhabitants came there much later than that and are only like 3rd or 4th generation.
私は日本語少し話します。語学幾らですか
@Rashid,what languages can you speak?
English isnt my native language also (I also know a bit of japanese) but Im talking about the regular population.
(btw, congrats for study another language)
Dear god, this is south park level irrationality.
this ethnocentrism is so destructive
No, it isn't. It makes the nations great, but... then destroys them. ^_^
A number of non-Anglophone countries do this, actually.
Like France.[/punchline]
Oh no we don't.
Government do. People don't give a crap.
France don't do it at all. Open any magazine from France and you'll see that theres a lot of trendy expressions in english.
Nah
There are some "suggestions" of french expressions for replacing the too numerous english ones in the media, but they sound so silly (corner kick = coup de pied de coin) that it's still pretty minor and people don't really use them. And more importantly using english words is still not a crime, as far as I know.
So : only in china
like how'd one say "sandwich" in French?
Huh... "Sandwich" :-p
isn't Sandwich the name of the guy who created sandwiches to begin with ?
So it's neither a french or english word to begin with.
And yeah sandwich in french is sandwich. You can also say "casse-croute" or "casse-dalle" but it's familiar so you won't hear it in media
Thing is, who cares about France doing it, China is in the spotlight in Sankaku for a long time so it had to be pointed out and laughed off.
I'm french and it's not the case. You mistook us with Quebec, they are much more protectionist about the french language than us.
Wait, doesn't China introduce the simplified Chinese characters to replace the traditional Chinese characters - mostly characterized with more strokes, which are still used by Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese. So talking about purity of the Chinese language here makes no sense at all. Otherwise bring back the traditional Chinese characters instead using those simplified aberrations which, in my opinion, are no Chinese characters at all.
@TC-man,yea,Simplified chinese is much easier
(发=發/髮)（飞=飛）（书=書）
And they're horrible. Mao, ironically, had a beautiful writing.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
CHINA FAILS AGAIN!
can they spell "failure"?
to those who actually study english in China would,but those who don't would probably think
"肥了"
Sauna and chocolate are both borrowed. Barbarian temptations。 What about dildo ？ ^O^
肥了came first
"肥了" is copied from FAILURE.
As always.
china strikes again
Honestly, we really should be trying to get the labor back into our countries. Cheap labor is not the way of the future because all it leads to is dangerous items. The unfortunate reality seems to be that corporations really are the pathway to the safest and cheapest mass production of objects. Really if our health care in America does iron out the issues that were obviously going to happen at the start of a brand new system over the next few years, then in theory smaller business can give health care and match safety regulations and such in factories while robotics will become cheaper and cheaper over time.
I'm not an expert in any of those fields of course, but in my experience most things that seem complicated tend to have simpler solutions than those who are in the industry seem to think they are. They're just wrapped up in how things were compared to how they could be.
Most Wanted Men in China
1. English Teachers
1. English Reporters
1. English Authors
1. Foreigners
2. Japanese...
LOL, I remember that. My relatives were all over me when I could speak English like a madman.
But hey, maybe we should hope that they start going into the North Korean syndrome? Then it can fail on itself.
@OhYeah
Well, I could care less if they headed in that direction, but the rest of the world depends on cheap labor, which they happen to have in an abundance.
But then if they do, where are my figures going to be made?!
My Kuroneko isn't until April, dammit!
There goes China's tourism
I learned English and German from TV and got myself a C1 diploma in highschool for both.
What you're saying makes no sense. Rather, children should learn as many languages as they can as early as they can.
have to agree with Anonymous 03:23
most of my friends that not taking interest when watching english film in our childhood days, can't speak english at all
I know my english suck, but I still understand most of them, compared my friends that have zero interest
syllabus isn't enough to build your knowledge you know ...
I agree with you House, Cheap labor wouldn't be needed because slightly more expensive products made in our home countries would be just as affordable with how the economy would stabilize once all those jobs are held by current citizens and not imports.
I thought Bejing Olympics promote speak English?
Well, now China lost one of their bigger incomes. What do they plan to do now?
Sell hairy soya sauces?
regarding commercial relations and how it is affecting the future, i was glad to see some chinese were denounced for trying to gain a contract through bribes. i always wandered how they kept receiving all the deals and all labor contracts since is common knowledge that they lack not only quality but the smallest of safety measures. i still remember how Mattel how to pull off many toys from the shelves due to poisonous paint used in their toys, not to mention the Fiasco with the He Man collectors club Hordak Figures.
how can it be a good deal
making business with China if you either loose money for the bad quality of your product, or by the law suits?
only bribes and extortion can explain this.
You reminded me about import tariffs as well, TFish. Those can get pretty obscene as well, although I don't know by how much, I've only heard that they can be quite high.
Communist
Anonymous
05:00
skilled labor. sweat shop like factories for clothing may have to pay a bit more, but india will fold to lower wages for unskilled.
skilled, as in things like making pcb and the like, that will cost more than china, but china is about 1/4 the cost of american labor when they have to directly deal with americans, ill assume 1/10 the wage for when they dont have to.
so that would be around 1-2$ an hour, 40hours a week (assuming, for sake of argument) comes to 40-80$ a week, china pays those people 8$ a week. and we dont know what they get payed, we just know what they pay.
it would be the difference of an iphone costing 12-18$ in assembly (i forget the real price but its probably less than that) and costing 20-30 in assembly, most things wont cost all that much more.
HouseLife
05:15
the labor is cheap because we like cheap things. and i mean the real cheap things, like a wallmart shirt.
there are other places, that if the labor was moved from 1$ a week to 10$ an hour, even though they would still pull profit off items at current prices, they would hike them. like nike shoes.
it could honestly crash industry if we move away from cheap labor. suddenly minimum wage isn't enough, so we would have to pay more in welfare, or raise minimum wage, which would in turn hike prices a bit more, and tax people who can afford it more.
i beleive there are altunatives, but you have to look at the cause and effect.
TFish
05:22
again, price hikes, minumum wage, and other things need to be taken into account. and it wouldn't bennifit us in the beginning, things would need 10 or so years to balance out with how slow everything moves in the government.
*Reads*
*Rubs Eyes*
*Reads again*
*Slowly closes browser and pretends the article never existed*
@ Anon 3:23
Yes, children should learn as much language as they can. But how much can you learn from TV(not from an educational program) Yes you may be exposed to bombastic languages but how bout your grammar? That need to be learned from class and from communicating with others. If you say TV can be used for an exposure to the language, yes. TV can also refine what you have already know about the language. But if your grammar or basic understanding of the language is weak, you will tend to misuse the language.
I mean you got a diploma in English and German, but have you not attend a single class for it? Or maybe your learning abilities are very good. I have watched anime for years and all I know is watashi, baka, wait in Japanese. And I still don't know how to put them in a sentence.
So they are removing the most spoken language in the world :). Oh well.
@5:00
Oh yes they do, trust me boy. An unknown source said "in a data entry company they earn $2 bucks an hour, if they make a mistake they pay them $2 for each mistake made."
How that passed in India I got no idea. My idea is to bomb the whole world and restart it all over again.
@01:03
I believe that English is not the most spoken language in the world, as IIRC it's in the 4th place among other languages.
Ironically, Chinese is the most spoken one, unsurprisingly considering the huge Chinese population all across the globe (with the majority in China).
i honestly believe that chinese and other languages that borrow from that type of language (20000+ symbols) should be dissolved as a language.
im not being racist, im just being realistic. those kind of languages are a nightmare to learn (in written form) in english, american english, there are i believe 26 main characters, and than after that there are at least 52 secondary ones which are modified with ' and other things. if japanese just had the simple language it would be ok, because you can learn mostly from context in the spoken, haveing the kanji is almost unnecessary in written, because learn the context.
but thats just my take on language
Yama-jii:
English today is a conglomeration of every other language in the world. Looking through an English dictionary will reveal thousands of words adopted from other languages (primarily European). Anyone who speaks only English who tries to learn another language is always surprised to find they already know some words in the foreign language they are trying to learn. Restaurant, à la carte, attaché--from French; Bonsai, haiku, origami, tycoon--from Japanese; Caio, feng shui, Chop suey, Ginseng--from Chinese, and so forth. In fact, just do a search for "_language_ words in English" replacing the word language for any foreign language you want. There are even Swahili words commonly used in English.
Chinese, on the other hand, has very few words stolen fro other languages, so the comparison is not accurate.
Teri
Fear not Yoshii-kun! We are the superior people in this world.. You, me, and every otaku who lurks around here! We come from all across the world, using the power of the interwebs and we share common interests and a common idea of what is right and what is wrong. We shall form our own virtual country, and produce manga, anime, figures, dakimakura, shimapan, and other products we find necessary. There will be happiness, profit, and we shall win at life! Hurray!
Thing is, India's smart enough to not tolerate cheap labor like we do :(
Why can't I rate your post higher than 1.0 Yoshii-kun???
It needs a 10.0 rating.
To be honest I understand their effort. You see most Chinese are born, well, in a Chinese environment. They will most likely speak in Mandarin or Cantonese. And children are easily influence by the media. When the people on TV are speaking in English they will try and follow it. Yet, they don't really know how to use that language properly. So they'll end up mixing up the two languages(that is why they have singlish in Singapore)
Those that are born in an English speaking environment will not really understand this because there is only one language to learn. But when you have two major languages to learn, they often get mixed up. In the end the Chinese language will have a bit of English and even vice versa.
So in conclusion I think that they are trying conserve the quality of their English too. I also think that any language should be learned properly and not from TV. But artefact, the title is kinda misleading, I thought that they banned English entirely. Well I'm no China supporter as most of the commenters here but I think that we should be fair and try and understand them too. I just hope that they are not dumb enough to ban English from their education syllabus.
Yoshii-kun
03:04
in all honesty, moveing from china labor to india would take what? 1, 2 years? and thats for computer parts, shirts and other things like that would be under 1 year.
i can go that long while waiting,
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/11/10/selling-cars-chinese-style-nude-car-companions/
..Well, not always.
I don't know, American Cars are pretty shitty too..and they are not made but Cheap labors, in fact, they are quiet expansive
Herrrrrooooo!
A time to drop some glorious foreign nukes on China is at hand. Behold the Glorious shine of burning China1!!!11One1One!!11!
Why we don't ban Chinese government (only)
for "Sullying Purity of Humanity"?
This!
can they still use engrish?
Yes. They do not want their garbage being sullied by other garbage.
I saw this article and just thought "wtf? isn't this the nation that touts the fact that it has so many students "fluent" in english"?
you cant sully a septic tank
Um, sorry, did ANYONE read the damn original article instead the text here at SankakuComplex? The original article got a totally different tone (i.e. less negative) than the one here. The original article is talking about "mixed English words in publications" and "Arbitrary use of English words and acronyms" and "acronym mixing in Mandarin and coined half-English, half-Chinese terms" which are not in the original spelling in the Chinese and/or English language, with other words: incorrect use of these mixed/hybrid words. There are no words about a total ban of the English language or any other foreign language.
Misleading = MISLEADING
The original article is from a Chinese state-run propaganda rag.
The same story from a British state-run propaganda rag:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12050067
Arte:The same story from a British state-run propaganda rag
i lol'd ^ cuz its true
Sure, and imprisoning people for that is of course not nearly as bad.
/sarcasm
Author of sankaku and his folowers dont like everything that is or comes from china .
maybe cause everything that comes from china is either, poisonous, gross, xploding or any other type of fail...
If you ask me... this isn't as bad as the other BS that China does. If you think about it, China speaks chinses and many dialects of it and thats it. English is very irrelevant for a massive population where most of it only speaks, know and learn chinese without really seeing a forign word except in main cities.
Its a dumbass ban just like most Chinas stuff, but not that bad.
Shit I dont care. I dont ever want to step foot in China ever. As long as they dont touch Taiwan, they can do whatever they want.
They're just doing what France's been doing quite some time. China adores English in daily life - having a working knowledge of English is a requirement for all high-end jobs there.
I get the impression that they're trying to get rid of Engrish with this new legislation - fat chance, I think, though.
And this is other peoples business?WHY?
It's their country their rules...
Don't care...
right China. Maybe you should stop putting out simplified chinese cuz your older generation that grew up with traditional can't read that simplified shit your barbaric young generation seems to be fond of.
Why don't you go back to fapping to your comics.
Kinda wonders where anon 17:03 meant to comment lol
Also I was watching a non filler of Bleach tyvm
Sorta spoiler below
Waiting for Spirits are always with you to appear tsk next ep lol
I'm starting to smell the workings of an unfortunate WWIII with America and Japan being on the same side and attacking China
war between the U.S. and China will never happen too much economics at stake this is also the same reason that there won't be a third world war and even if said conflict were to come about it'll probably be more akin to World War ONE! rather than the global sized conflict that was world war two because again economics at stake so each side would do their best to contain said conflict to a single area (at best)
China feels butthurt ^_^
Agreed, @Chinese government go suck a big fat one.(I have nothing against the Chinese citizens because I don't know any so I can't judge them, only the government.)
Wth, Was about to write that when I saw this on the news o.o
what
the
shit?
why don't they just ban H20 while they're at it.
sometimes i wonder if all these laws are even being practice or just for show.
This is an old news already. It started over half year ago but nothing really changes actually. They just replace some English word abbreviations by their translations of full name, like replacing "NBA" by "美国职业篮球赛" (National Basketball Association), no big deal, is it?
Any abrogation of free speech is a big deal, although being Chinese I can appreciate how you might not appreciate this.
Dude I'm Chinese and I personally hate the communist government of China.
But Artefact your comment just now was quite offensive to me. Just because someone is chinese doesn't mean anything. It seems that you are highly biased against my kind.
@diskonline I don't get what you're saying. Does freedom of speech not apply to the media where you live?
Artefact, you are wrong. Most Chinese people, the educated ones at least, do see problems with the communist government. However, they also see it as a necessary evil. Take the one-child policy; largely looked upon as a violation of human rights here in the west, yet if it was never implemented then China would have only become increasingly impoverished over the decades.
It's easy for people who don't live in the country to cry for change, especially when you don't have anything to lose. Freedom is nice, but obtaining a desired level of it is a lot more complicated than most people believe.
Ah yes, the "necessary evil". A beloved cop out. Comes right after "i just did my job", "i didn't know about this" and "i had no choice".
I am highly biased against communist tyranny and the people who support it. As most mainland Chinese clearly support their government's activities passively or actively, it seems only fair to make such generalisations. If Chinese really cared about freedom of speech their government would not be able to repress it so thoroughly.
Now that you mention it. Media in China only publish what they're allowed to publish. This is a truth we have adopted, for we can't change it. So we don't believe the media now.
However, more truth lies in the Internet. Though they could be censored anytime, more would come, we're not as stupid as you thought.
Blame their lack of freedom to the Global Elite. They actually modeled that country for a police like state grid. The US and Europe will soon follow if we do not stand up to our government leaders to prevent stupid laws that would opress us.
You've just proved that 2 months one summer for an outsider (of mainland) is not enough to understand the environment here.
Showing off your intelligence is another kind of stupid, that's why they don't tell you the truth they know, especially when you're not so familiar with each other.
Usually we just pretend to be brain washed, we all do. But life here is full of tips saying "they're washing your brain!", it takes time to realise that, but it's only a matter of time.
I'm working on my doctor project at the very South of mainland. Sometimes I get Taiwanness classmates, one of them has been here for over 5 years. She can understand what life we're living, hope you can understand it later.
Give it 30 years and I believe it will change, a bit, maybe.
Yo anon.... Im Taiwanese in Taiwan and I see some truth in what he says. I guess I may be the only one that can argue with you on this point.
Most Chinese in China are not that intelligent. PLz dont be so foolish in thinking so. Ive been to China plenty of times and studied there for 2 months one summer for collage. The communist government brainwashes everyone, showing what it wants the people to know and see and refusing anyone in seeing another picture. On the other side, people there are just trying to make a living and dont care what is happening outside or what their governement is doing as long as it does not affect them.
its very easy to generalize since if people did know what the government had been doing to their people, they would rise up and they would win. But aggressive reppression has thwarted that, and that people just dont care.
Plus, there is just so much news evidence that proves China is in the wrong here that as a Chinese mixed, you just have to give up Chinese people in China.
Whether you're stupid can only be determined by yourself, not me. If you think so then this's it, I don't care. Personally I don't think you're stupid, but the thing is you're not living here; when you see the dark side of mainland you say "Well, that's terrible, but so what, I have my home sweet home at Taiwan, I don't care why it's terrible here and how to make it better really, it's just terrible and that's it, I don't want to have anything to do with that."
No one wants to go deep inside the darkness unless being forced/pushed, that's the human nature can't be denied.
So basically you just called me stupid for voicing my opinion diskonline? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the Chinese media only broadcasts what the governement wants the people to hear and censors what shouldn't be heard. Its no surprise that China's web is heavily censored to. Thats also called censorship to.
Ive been to China enough to say what I say and I stand by it. If you dont like it.... I dont care. I dont mind argueing with you if you put up some kind of an argument, but just calling me stupid isn't "showing off you're intelligence" either. Whether or not you lived there or me visiting China about 20 times a year for a decent amount of time doesn't mean that neither of us have a reduced experience in what China life is about. ITs the perception of it. And different people have difference perceptions of it. This is mine.
Plz try again.
dammit... pushed the delete button by accident. Reposting this. Sorry if this ends up being a double post.
So basically you just called me stupid for voicing my opinion diskonline? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the Chinese media only broadcasts what the governement wants the people to hear and censors what shouldn't be heard. Its no surprise that China's web is heavily censored to. Thats also called censorship to.
Ive been to China enough to say what I say and I stand by it. If you dont like it.... I dont care. I dont mind argueing with you if you put up some kind of an argument, but just calling me stupid isn't "showing off you're intelligence" either. Whether or not you lived there or me visiting China about 20 times a year (I go for work and visiting family reletives there in An Hui) for a decent amount of time doesn't mean that neither of us have a reduced experience in what China life is about. ITs the perception of it. And different people have difference perceptions of it. This is mine.
Plz try again.
Well, you think you know everything? This order/law has nothing to do with normal audience, it towards only media workers, like CCTV employers, presenters, news reporters themself.
Seriously, what's the big deal. They can still say what they want to say, can't they. Being unable to use English doesn't mean they can't say anything about English, what's more, they're only news reporters.
Yeah, it's not necessary, it looks stupid, but what is this with free speech.
Chinese culture (and women) has/have been the cum dumpsters of foreign barbarian 'invaders' for millenia. Either by actual invasion, or by assimilation of the foreigners who immigrate by the Chinese.
So in other words...
Yeah. More Epic Chinese FAIL.
..... `BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA1!!
Actually it bans the mixed Chinese-English expression. Not the entire language. Fails again? Don't know where fails
No, it bans any foreign words from media. This is a fail for obvious reasons.
Ideas of language purity are essentially nationalistic myths. For example, the English language is a mix of Latin and Germanic elements, with many loanwords from Commonwealth nations.
"cafe" is French, "schadenfreude" is a word derived from German that means to find pleasure in others misfortune. Our ENTIRE numerical system was "borrowed" from Arabics, as is the word "assassin." We here at good old Sankaku use the word Otaku regularly. This is a borrowed word. Oh, as well as the word "saute."
it is idiotic as well, isolating from the world doesn't improve the country. it makes it only worse -.-
*goes to Sankaku*
*Stares at article*
G'damnit...
don't forget the infamous deja vu
"Pronto" isn't an original english word.
Its just to keep their people in check, Their goverment is quete represive. There is many "dangerous" Ideas out there that can put the one on top at risk.
Like the "Unaproved" Nobel Guy recently, it put their national security at risk, if many of that kind of guy apear.
and the Source of Influence is Foreign, and mainly they came in English
If the people cant read those, The somewhat "Dangerous" Thinking threat can be minimum
and all Happy leader on top Can reign for many more years.
as long their People is dumb
"Tsunami" is a pretty recent one since scientists don't like "tidal wave".
If English doesn't absorb as many foreign words as other languages today, it's because the new terms people want to use tend to be English to begin with, like "email" and "internet".
oh, i understand their worries
imagine the possibly most idiotic written language in existence today, having an alphabet of 10 000 to 40 000 symbols, 50 000 to 100 000 words
now take the english language with 26 symbols and 500 000 to 1 000 000 words
that must be embarrassing
yea, they should stick to their bronze age language and not let anyting touch it
Here is a wonderful list of all the borrowed Japanese words that are in common English use (listed in English dictionaries etc.) The expressions "Head honcho" & "Just a skosh" were originated from Japanese words.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Japanese_origin
The English language even has borrowed words from China (list below) so to say that English has not adopted foreign words in the last few centuries is definitely off. Also, China should realize this and appreciate it. If English can adopt Chinese, then Chinese can adopt English. (Troublesome beings.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Chinese_origin
English has mugged entire languages for their vocabularies and continues to do so.
The notion that it is not still assimilating other languages could hardly be further from the truth - if anything the pace has quickened with the advent of a global "lingua anglica."
China fails to understand that languages are not impervious to time and evolution. Any language differs from itself depending on the times. For example English from 200 years ago is not the same as English as we currently know it; and I doubt Chinese is an exception (in fact look at how many dialects they have; if you were to put two Chinese people from completely different dialects in the same room they wouldn't understand each other at all).
To believe that a language is not affected by time, people and culture in general in any way is stupid at least.
@Y0k41
Sorry to break it for you but pan has a Portuguese origin, not French,
@03:31
WTF? no GIRUGAMESH!!
Well, China can and wants to prove it to the world.
Though I agree with you Anon 2:1322/12/2010. Once they start going against Higher Authority they'd end up ruining themselves.
Of all the things to copy why did they have to copy the académie française... T.T
Oh and somewhat related but the japanese word pan(bread) was also taken from the French..
And I'm getting the impression that names of foods in English tend to retain their foreign names....mmm like creme brulee or crepes or Enchilada...
That rather supposes that English was ever anything but a mongrel tongue. The only language remotely resembling modern English was already a mixture of French, German, Norse, Latin, Greek and various indigenous languages...
@Rashid,
To quote James D. Nicoll:
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don?t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
Current estimates are that more than two-thirds of English vocabulary can be traced back to foreign loanwords.
Oh Artefact I love how you use the sources and how noone even reads them :D
Arbitrary use of English words and acronyms is now prohibited and coined terms that are not intelligible to everyone are not allowed to be used, according to a notice released by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) recently.
I don't think the source is saying anything of a ban of all English words in media but hey, maybe MY reading comprehension fails
but you are talking about old English language... what about today? which foreign words are been added to English aside "burrito" and "Taco"?
And don't forget alot of english words are borrowed by the chinese language because they don't have their own word for it. Now what are they gonna say/do? Yes I speak 3 different chinese so I know.
What's so fail about that? The French and the Icelanders have been doing this for decades, both have very few to almost no English-derived words.
The French just change the writing of the word to a French style and use it as 'their own'... like turning CD-Rom into "cédérom"
They do restrict the amount of English content in Radio and TV though. They may only play a certain amount of English language songs in a certain amount of time. That's also why they give birth to a load of songs with the tune of an originally English language song with French lyrics.
In French class I learned "le weekend" and "le blue jean".
Yes yes, Duchy of Normandy, William the Conqueror, 1066 and all that. Actually most of modern English vocabulary is derived from French rather than Anglo-Saxon languages.
I would like to correct my previous statement; the French Académie frowns deeply every time a loan-word is taken from an another language, which really amounts to a non-enforced, inefficent ban.
But in Icelandic there really are very, very few loan-words.
all
that
most
of
from
than
would
like
my
the
deeply
time
word
taken
from
ban
All those are of norse origins. French may have the numbers, but not the most frequent usage.
Possibly because, once upon a time, france invaded england. There are also lots of french words in the english language because of this..
au pair, avant-garde, chauffeur, concierge, voilà, sans, mousse etc. etc. etc.
no english derived words ? in MY french ?
yet again an exemple of how people knows nothing about france but keeps saying shit about it
As far as I know, Le is for male and la is for female. In French they separate things to gender.
erm...say some examples then
...Hamburger is actually Mongolian, lol.
English influence on French has been pretty recent
Le garage --> garage
L'autostop --> hitchhiking
Le toast --> toast
Le week-end --> weekend
Le shampooing --> shampoo
Le look --> style
Les peoples --> celebrities
L'hamburger --> hamburger
Le chat/ Le e-mail --> internet chat
Le e-mail --> E-mail
And then of course theres the older words like
football, jet (as in jet set), bowling, pride, gay, club, rugby, happening (as in an event), market, and skate board.
France is very picky about allowing loan words, but that doesn't mean they completely refrain from the practice.
le means "the",am I right to guess that?