INTERVIEW
In his bestseller Romanesque: the crazy adventure of the French language (Michel Lafon editions), Lorànt Deutsch, actor impassioned by history, explores the evolution of the French language from Antiquity to today. At the microphone of Matthieu Noël, he returned on Wednesday to the etymology of a few everyday words and expressions, such as "poppy".
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"Poppy" or the improved version of "Cocorico"
In his book, Lorànt Deutsch evokes the role of onomatopoeias in the construction of the French language. Where does the "Cocorico" onomatopoeia come from, for example? According to him, it came from the rooster crowing. "There are even onomatopoeias which are at the origin of more constructed and elaborated words", details the writer. This is the case with the word "poppy". For Lorànt Deutsch, since "this red flower looks like the crest of a rooster", "we called the poppy in reference to the rooster who shouts 'Cocorico!'".
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"Good woman", misguided expression
Lorànt Deutsch then turns to the expression "good woman", a phrase that is now obsolete, used mainly by the ancients. Contrary to the current meaning of "good woman", the origin of this term has, according to Lorànt Deutsch, "nothing to do with women". It would rather come from Latin, and more precisely from the expression "buena fama", "la fama" corresponding to the adjective "famous". It is in fact an expression which originally means "of good reputation", according to the writer.
These English words that come from French
According to Lorànt Deutsch, the English were very much inspired by French to create new words. A genesis that took place at a time far away from ours. According to Lorànt Deutsch, the starting point for the arrival of French in the English language dates from 1066, during the Battle of Hastings which opposed the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold Godwinson, to the Duke of Normandy, Guillaume the Conqueror. From the victory of William the Conqueror, French will gradually become "the language of the king, of power, of the elite, of justice", explains Lorànt Deutsch. "This is why even today almost half of the English vocabulary comes from us."
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The history lover cites a few examples of words that have their roots in the French language. Among them: "all words in -ion" such as "such as' Constitution ',' illusion ',' revolution ',' evolution '" or "words ending in -ent such as"' Parliament ',' government ',' entertainment ',' management '", specifies Lorànt Deutsch.
If today, the trend seems to be reversing, with the arrival of many English words in our conversations, for the writer, this process is not worrying. This is even good news for French. "Anglicisms are part of a logical and permanent process. The language is not hermetic and closed, on the contrary, it is dynamic and in movement. If a language were dead and fixed, it would be like Latin. would speak more, "says the actor.
Language, "DNA of a nation"
If the knowledge of these etymologies may seem, for some, anecdotal, for Lorànt Deutsch, they are a mine of historical references. Because, according to him, language is "the DNA of a nation". "To understand a people, you have to speak their language," he said. "I think that language is what best characterizes all the journeys, uses, practices, interbreeding, marriages of a people. It is our DNA which takes place in our palaces. As soon as you speak, you summon an ancestor. The words we use today are real monuments in our mouths, "he continues.