A stubborn prejudice about the purity of French has persisted for too long. How can such an opinion persist? Is there really a pure language?
Have you ever heard comments like “oh! What a beautiful language, such pure French! » or “this person speaks French with purity”?
Let us affirm from the outset that a pure language is a myth, a vision of the mind. Some would even argue that this opinion expresses the search for the absolute. No linguist has ventured to define what a “ pure language “, what is more, no observable element justifies the label of a “ pure language.”
For example: Molière would no longer recognize his language if he heard us or if he read contemporary French. And we wouldn’t understand the French of Molière’s time at all.
Here are some brief milestones in the evolution of French:
The past (history). Every language has a relationship with the past. Words have a history and some come from various languages. Let’s take the word “sugar”. It comes to us from the Sanskrit “sakara”, and it was the Greeks who brought sugar cane from India. We could list a long list of examples, but we’ll leave it to you to discover them.
Let us remember that certain words have their origins in Latin, Greek, Celtic, Etruscan and many other languages. We use ancient languages to name our realities. Thus the past becomes a source of inspiration.
The present (the new words). A stable and immutable language does not exist. French, like all languages, is transformed, modified, adapted to our relationship to the present. In this way, over time, we invent terms to name new realities. Here are a few: convenience store, email, snowmobile, computer, roll-and-roll, software, and many others.
The future (words to invent). According to scientists, there is water on the Moon and Mars. What will we call this water to distinguish it from earthly water? We will invent concepts that will help enrich the vocabulary and syntax. We will modulate the language as needed.
One fact remains: French combines the past (the origin of words) with the present (words to describe reality) and the future (new words, or neologisms). This is a living language!
We suggest no longer looking for the purity of the language, but observing its evolution.