# Are any other countries as protective of their language as France?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-other-countries-as-protective-of-their-language-as-france/353986>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 24, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-other-countries-as-protective-of-their-language-as-france/353986 "2006-04-24T14:15:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-other-countries-as-protective-of-their-language-as-france/353986/41 "2006-04-25T18:23:32Z")

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**Slaphead** , that’s true. But I believe I never said that there’s anything odd or wrong with having “Fernseher” instead of “television”. Quite the contrary, it’s refreshing to see a fitting domestic word instead of a loan word like everywhere else. I was just using Fernseher as an example of domestically constructed German word being used in the place of a pseudo-Latin or pseudo-Greek word, which is a quite common phenomenon, and as one could argue also a way to protect the language from outside influences even without any official actions by the state.

> [@Cat Jones](#):
>
> I was giving an example of how - despite govt. policies the French use the Engilish word when a French alternative exsists

Of course, and I guess that government policies to specifically designate what words people should use isn’t probably the best way to go. Obviously if folks think “e-mail” is handier and more natural word to use than “courriel”, then they will use it no matter what, and there’s nothing wrong with that either. But I was referring to something that tends to come up in these discussions regarding language regulations and Académie française; namely the notion that since the word “e-mail” already exists, then even the idea that someone or some other language might use a non-identical word for the same concept is just unthinkable. What I was trying to say is that if enough people call “e-mail” “courriel” then that will be just as natural word as the original.

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**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-other-countries-as-protective-of-their-language-as-france/353986/42 "2006-04-26T16:26:55Z")

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> [@Eurograff](#):
>
> \<longer quote cut\> What I was trying to say is that if enough people call “e-mail” “courriel” then that will be just as natural word as the original.

Yes. For example, Welsh _cyfrifiadur_ means “computer,” an artificially constructed word which is based on the word _cyfrif_ “count, compute.” The word was created to prevent people from just using the English word, and it was successful. Absolutely nobody says “compiwter” even though if you did, you would be understood.

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