Via Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufry [July 13] comes this glossary of blogging terms in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Galician, and German; Jez solicits your suggestions for additions and improvements. On the French front, La grande rousse not only links to Lexicoblogue, she has her own extensive (and, of course, fastidiously selected) list (en français, bien entendu). And speaking of French, this Globe and Mail story suggests the French are turning to Quebec for internet terminology, which should please La rousse (to be distinguished from Larousse):
Quebec has come to the rescue of its linguistic cousins in France, where the heirs of Molière have been left lost for words in the hunt for Gallic versions of some common terms on the Internet.
The guardians of the French language, galled by the remorseless encroachment of English words into everyday usage, have been scratching their heads for the best part of a decade in search of French-sounding alternatives for such words as “e-mail,” “spam” and “chat.”
Now, almost 10 years after plugged-in Quebec adopted it, France has embraced courriel as an official translation for “e-mail,” a Net-friendly version of the clumsy courrier électronique that authorities had been trying to enforce.
“It turns out that courriel went down well here and has started being used, so we’ve made the abbreviation official,” said Florence Desmoulière of the Culture Ministry’s official division that helps coin new words.
The use of courriel is obligatory for French public servants.
But France’s language gurus have turned up their collective nose at some of Quebec’s other offerings….
Rejected terms include pourriel for ‘spam’ and clavardage for ‘chat’; Ms. Desmoulière says “The language in Quebec is slightly more familiar than ours.” (Thanks to Jonathan Crowe of mcwetboy.com.)
I’ve been promoting blagueur as the English word. It seems quite appropriate in English, though it’s already in use in French. I used to bill myself a Le Blagueur Superbe.
I have yet to read the article, but after years of working under the empire of the Office, I can say that while I still quake in my boots at the mere mention of their name, the work they do is stunning. Methodical, fair and ever curious.
Taberouette, makes the Académie look like a bunch of reactionary wankers.
In Canada we say “lasagna” but we also use raccoon meat, and include a layer of zucchinis.
You say “lasagna” for e-mail?? and do you put the raccoon meat in the subject heading, the body of the message, or what? Now I’m really confused.
Of course the trouble with blogging and IT vocab is that it’s full of neologisms. Who is to say which words are right and which are wrong. We’ll see which words become common currency for bloggers as time goes by.