INTERVIEW
Fire epistolary exchanges, hello SMS smiled emoticons? If some people think that the French is dying, it is not the opinion of Lorànt Deutsch, invited Saturday of the show There is not a life in life . According to the author, passionate about history, who reissued an enriched version of his book Romanesque, the crazy adventure of the French language and even a spectacle, the French evolves but is far from withering.
Language, "what makes us French"
To be interested in the language was not a coincidence for Lorant Deutsch. History buff, he found in the language an anchor. "I am convinced that the words we use are what best and infallibly defines our origins.Today, talking about identity is taboo (...) The problem is that we come Anyway, from somewhere, what brings us together, I think it's our language, more than anything else, that's what makes us French, "he theorizes. point out that the ancestor of the French is much more to look for the Romans than the Gauls, no offense to Asterix and Obelix.
Heard on europe1:
Before to be serious, it was necessary to speak like Patrick Poivre d'Arvor
This digression carried out, the role of language remains "the use", he says. "In fact, it is the people who have always made their language according to their needs, it is true that we are in an era where everything is fast, it's the internet, it's frenetic, it's Immediacy is what best characterizes the impulses and aspirations of our time.Today, we have the time to have 25 appointments in one day, before we had one, two. " This acceleration has consequences "even in words, which are reduced, which contract, which compress, to the point of becoming sounds, tempos," he slips. "Formerly, we said 'Hello, how are you?', Today, we say 'Wesh'".
"What we lose in the background, we find in the form"
Those who consider this contraction much too pithy cry at the agony of language. "We lose the nuance, we speak with fewer words, we must recognize," nuance the actor. "But what we lose in the background, we recover in the form." "Before to be serious, it was necessary to speak like Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, but one is in the process of finding the accent, the muscle, the fishing, the vigor (...) One does not move away from the French language, it does not undo, it continues to be as it has always done (...) The French language is not dying, "he says.
Heard on europe1:
Most of the important words found in the English language are French words
"Half of the English vocabulary, it comes from bibi! It's French, we have it in advance.Thank you the English, finally, they work for us.It is true that there are Anglicisms, it is There are 1,500 English words about today in the French language.It is fashionable, it is the global language of communication, nothing can be done, "he resolves. But he insists on the impact of French on our former best enemies: "Most of the technical, important, official, legal words, such as -ion, for example, found everywhere in the English language, are French words: Jurisdiction, Election, Evolution, Revolution, Illusion ... ", he quotes in English with a French accent.