Introduction

2007-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to this new blog. As a bilingual family, with a cross-cultural background, perhaps we notice more than many people a constant and even an accelerating increase in the use of American English expressions in British English and in French. Even in the latter, it has become increasingly fashionable amongst young people to use English words - or what they consider to be English words - in French sentences. We gather the same happens in other European languages, although we have less direct experience there.

For the British, the gradual encroachment of American usage passes almost unnoticed, thanks to media shifts. Twenty years ago, a British person whose job was to put fires out was a fireman, now, he/she is a firefighter. Another male person was a bloke to the British, now he has become a guy or even a dude.

Should Europeans be concerned about these developments? Should we accept them in the same way as the inhabitants of the Roman empire accepted Latin-based culture?

Whether or not these issues are matters of concern, when you get French people using English as she ain't supposed to be, the results can be bizarre. We'll illustrate this blog with actual examples taken from Francophone media - just one for now is the concept of female tennis players (in the plural) - les tenniswoman.

We'll be interested to hear examples, whether in French or English.

Linguistic imperialism

Introduction