Today begins the Francophonie week. Quesaco? To use this Provençal expression? This is an appointment, 27th edition this year, and which brings together language lovers French in our country and in 40 other nations where French is spoken and above all understood, isn’t it my General?
Oh yes that de Gaulle was an ardent defender of the language of Molière facing the language of Shakespeare. Suspicious as soon as a British showed up at a European meeting, as Alain Peyrefitte, General de Gaulle’s minister, reminded us.
So to promote the French language in the world, the French state has created a French-speaking ministry. The current secretary of state in charge of the baby is called Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, not well known to the general public. Others have left a more visible mark: Catherine Tasca, Jacques Toubon, Jean Marie Le Guen and especially the historian Alain Decaux appointed by François Mitterrand in 1988.
Molière’s language is in 6th place of languages spoken in the world, behind Mandarin, English, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi. And in the great steamroller of globalization, English dominates, it is the language of world administrations, of business and commerce. But this big business is not only a problem of language, it is necessary to resist this kind of mediocre infusion of Anglicism and portmanteau words. The actress Sylvia Monfort defended the cause.
So let’s erect the banner, let’s sing in French for Eurovision, let’s summon Hugo, Baudelaire, Saint Simon and Molière, Michel Boujenah is currently at the Théâtre des Variétés in the Avare, and let’s welcome the initiative of the Ministry of Culture and teaching during the operation at school aimed at teenagers “tell me ten words that clash”. So when you go to the “culture.gouvernement” site, you will read the 10 words that illustrate the theme, “kaï, kaï, the barking of a dog, prank, divulge, fuss, pinch me, saperlipopette, dumbfounded, quirky, dumbfounded and breathtaking”. Not sure that these little used words are of interest to teenagers, one wonders who is the nerdy, the lame, the null, the ball, the buche, the boloss, the buffoon, the victim who wrote that The guy is at the end of his life, he’s not a big guy. You will have noticed, I applied myself to using only French words to define this Trissotin de langue de Molière!