How Africans Are Changing French — One Joke, Rap and Book at a Time

THE NEW YORK TIMES: More than 60 percent of French speakers now live in Africa. Despite growing resentment at France, Africans are contributing to the evolution and spread of the French language.

French, by most estimates the world’s fifth most spoken language, is changing — perhaps not in the gilded hallways of the institution in Paris that publishes its official dictionary, but on a rooftop in Abidjan, the largest city in Ivory Coast.

There one afternoon, a 19-year-old rapper who goes by the stage name “Marla” rehearsed her upcoming show, surrounded by friends and empty soda bottles. Her words were mostly French, but the Ivorian slang and English words that she mixed in made a new language.

To speak only French, “c’est zogo” — “it’s uncool,” said Marla, whose real name is Mariam Dosso, combining a French word with Ivorian slang. But playing with words and languages, she said, is “choco,” an abbreviation for chocolate meaning “sweet” or “stylish.”

A growing number of words and expressions from Africa are now infusing the French language, spurred by booming populations of young people in West and Central Africa. » | Elian Peltier | Photographs by Arlette Bashizi and Hannah Reyes Morales | Reporting from Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Dakar, Senegal; and Paris | Tuesday, December 12, 2023

In a Nonbinary Pronoun, France Sees a U.S. Attack on the Republic

THE NEW YORK TIMES: When a French dictionary included the gender-nonspecific “iel” for the first time, a virulent reaction erupted over “wokisme” exported from American universities.

PARIS — Perhaps France was always going to have a hard time with nonbinary pronouns. Its language is intensely gender-specific and fiercely protected by august authorities. Still, the furor provoked by a prominent dictionary’s inclusion of the pronoun “iel” has been remarkably virulent.

Le Petit Robert, rivaled only by the Larousse in linguistic authority, chose to add “iel” — a gender-neutral merging of the masculine “il” (he) and the feminine “elle” (she) — to its latest online edition. Jean-Michel Blanquer, the education minister, was not amused.

“You must not manipulate the French language, whatever the cause,” he said, expressing support for the view that “iel” was an expression of “wokisme.”

Mr. Blanquer is seemingly convinced of a sweeping American “woke” assault on France aimed at spreading racial and gender discord over French universalism. Last month he told the daily Le Monde that a backlash against what he called woke ideology was the main factor in the 2016 victory of Donald J. Trump. » | Roger Cohen and Léontine Gallois | Sunday, November 28, 2021

Related :

L'idéologie woke à l'assaut du dictionnaire Le Robert »

‘Unacceptable’: Outrage as Air Canada Chief Gives Quebec Speech in English

THE GUARDIAN: Michael Rousseau’s decision not to speak French in Quebec address inflames longstanding grievances over linguistic rights

The head of Canada’s largest airline is facing public outrage and calls for his resignation after giving a speech in English to business leaders in Quebec – a misstep that has inflamed longstanding grievances over linguistic rights and protections in the country’s lone Francophone province.

The row began last week, when in his first major public appearance as head of Air Canada, Michael Rousseau chose to address the city’s chamber of commerce without speaking French.

Rousseau’s gaffe comes as the Quebec government attempts to dramatically strengthen protections for the French language amid fears English is overtaking it, especially in large cities. » | Leyland Cecco in Toronto | Monday, November 8, 2021

French Language Police Call Time on 'le binge drinking'

THE GUARDIAN: Culture ministry commission approves use of new phrase, beuverie express, which translates as 'fast drinking'

As long as it was seen as nothing more than an antisocial Anglo-Saxon habit, le binge drinking remained just that: an English term. As a sign of the changing times and the reported spread of the practice in France, however, the country's language police have decreed an official new term.

As of now, binge drinking does not happen in France. Instead, anyone consuming large quantities of alcohol in a short space of time with the intention of getting drunk is engaged in beuverie express.

The phrase, which translates literally as "fast drinking", was given the official approval of the culture ministry's general commission of terminology and neology on Sunday. The commission defined the term as "the massive absorption of alcohol, generally in a group, aimed at provoking drunkenness in the minimum amount of time".

Le Monde further qualified "massive absorption" as "more than 4-5 glasses in less than two hours", but failed to elucidate how big a glass or of what. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Monday, July 29, 2013