31 March, 2010

French buzz

France, in a bid to halt the tide of English words entering the language, has organised a competition for French sounding equivalents of modern words. For example buzz, the word which covers a rumour going round the internet, will be called ‘le ramdam’ (not really French, ramdam is the noise you hear in Arab countries during Ramadan when the sun has gone down and they can eat and drink).

A committee will then recommend the words for official usage and civil servants will have to use them.

Many years ago a law was passed in France limiting the usage of English words. As is common practice the law was named after the man who introduced it, Jacques Toubon. It was popularly known as ‘la loi Allgood’.

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