I know that some European countries have academies that have the authority to dictate their native language. I’m wondering how they do this. I would guess that at the time these academies were founded, they would have no problem with cutting off your head for uttering an incorrect usage, but what about nowadays? Does anyone really listen to the academies anymore? How do they control how you speak an write? My guess is that licences come in here somewhere.
Thanx.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board, Gjorp!
National language academies like the Academie Francais no longer have much of influence over the spoken languages of their countries. Some influence, maybe – but not much. For example, see this link for a “franglais” dictionary of the many popular French borrowings from English that the l’A.F. is powerless to stifle.
I’d suppose that the academies have greater influence over the written language of the popular media. Written media is somewhat easier to control, as such writing is regularly editted at several stages before it appears before the public.
But to control the speech of teenagers on the street, or of well-travelled college students? It’s well nigh impossible to reign in the linguistic innovations that the young introduce (and this happens in all cultures).
Read also this article: McDonald’s of Culture, or Why I Like MTV.
The Academie Francaise tells people what is and isn’t proper French. Most people ignore them, especially in spoken French. But they still exert some control over the use of written French in things like the media, official government documents, etc. I’ve been told that in order to find a French dictionary with the phrase “Le week-end” you’ll have to go to Belgium, as the Academie has blocked this phrase from French dictionaries despite its widespread usage.
I would imagine the elementary schools enforce the “proper” usage per the Academie, and that would be their main mode of direct transmission?
I’m sure they use some such methods to promote “proper” spoken forms, but those methods only have the effect of creating a “standard” and “colloquial” distinction of vocabulary in students’ minds.
So French children learrn to write “le fin de semaine” instead of the popularly-spoken “le week-end” when they write for their teachers. That conditioning in no way prevents French speakers from going on saying “le week-end” in conversation with their peers.
Consider the differences in the way you speak to your friends in English, and the way you write a research paper. Or a resume.
So, you’ve been told an urban legend. I opened my dictionnary, and not surprisingly, it contains the word : “week end”. I checked some additions of english words in the current edition of this reference dictionnary, which include : baby-foot, baffle, barmaid, bazooka,bermuda, blazer, blue-jean, blues,etc… All these words have been in use for quite a long time. I don’t know if week-end is included or not. Perhaps it still isn’t and its the origin of this tale about it “not being allowed” in french dictionnaries.
The dictionnary of the “academie francaise” is famous for being extremely slowly updated, due to the lenghty debates about each word. They’re currently working on its 9th edition since…1635! Which means roughly a complete update every 40 years or so…The previous complete edition dates back to 1935. Week-end doesn’t appear in it (it’s online)
According to the academie website (very poorly translated):
*Today, the academie act to maintain the qualities of the french language and follow its necessary evolutions. It defines its correct use. It does this by elaborating its dictionnary which define the correct use of the language, but also by its recommendations and its participation to the various terminology boards.
Its second mission is patronage. The academie grant each year around ninety litterary prizes.
littéraires.*
Originally, the academie has been founded essentially to define the french language, its grammar, spelling, etc…and also to “perfect” (whatever that would mean) it. The Academie never had any way to enforce anything, but could only make recommandations.
According to their calendar for the month of march, they had a meeting about the word “mastaire” on march 28, and another on the feminine forms of the names of jobs, grades and titles on march 21. The latter issue has actually been quite a serious one for several years in France. Since names in french have a gender, creating and using a feminine form or not (and sometimes also the way these feminine forms should be spelt) when a woman hold a prestigious job (for which there were usually no existing feminine form) is a heated debate. For instance, should a woman MD be called “le docteur”, “la docteur”, la docteure", “la doctoresse” (the last one being considered somewhat insulting to feminists for reasons I’m not going to explain)?
I noticed they have also a FAQ. Their “frequently asked questions” seem to be mainly about obscure grammatical rules. But it contains also a short text about the history of anglicisms in the french language, and the academy position about the introduction of new english words. Roughly, they say that english words should be introduced when “french has no existing equivalent, none can be easily constructed, there’s a need for them and their meaning is clear” but that some other borrowing are unuseful ( they’re introduced only because they’re “trendy” or snob, or/and they’re short-lived) and other harmful (because they replace an existing french word or modify it by imitation, or because their meaning is undefined). They give the example of the word “cool”, stating roughly (in a more diplomatic way) that it’s basically a generic word for teenagers too lazy to think about an actual world which would convey what they actually mean.
I must add that apart from its actual missions, being a member of the french academy has always been considered as a great honor. The members are elected for life by their peers, and usually are well-known writers. What you actually do when you’re an academician isn’t really important (a lot of academicians never attend a meeting, AFAIK) . What is important is knowing if you’ll be elected or not. Some famous writers spent their life trying unsucessfully to become academicians (Zola, for instance). I guess a lot of people would argue that the main purpose of the french academy is electing new members, which would be a kind of ultimate recognition for litterary talent. Academicians are often called “the immortals” though a lot of former members are actually totally forgotten now and some extremely famous writers never got elected or declined membership.
For us Latinos and Spanish Speakers, we have the
Real Academia Española which according to it’s web page it states:
There is per se no Laws that enforce whatever La Real Academia Española dictates, but in academic, journalistic, and intellectual circles the Real Academia Dictionary IS the definitive institution of Castillian Spanish.
XicanoreX
There is no such German academy, is there?