BBC: ’More or Less’: Are Half the Words in English from French?

Are almost half the words in the English language of French origin? It’s a claim one of our loyal listeners found surprising. Tim Harford talks to Dr Beth Malory, lecturer in English Linguistics at University College London, who explains why so many words derived from French have ended up in English.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Daniel Gordon
Series Producer: Jon Bithrey
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
(Picture: A French dictionary showing the entry 'Dictionnaire'…)

Click here to listen to the BBC podcast.

The Term ‘Oriental’ Is Outdated, But Is It Racist?

LOS ANGELES TIMES – OPINION: It is now politically incorrect to use the word “Oriental,” and the admonition has the force of law: President Obama recently signed a bill prohibiting use of the term in all federal documents. Rep. Grace Meng, the New York congresswoman who sponsored the legislation, exulted that “at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good.”

As an Oriental, I am bemused. Apparently Asians are supposed to feel demeaned if someone refers to us as Orientals. But good luck finding a single Asian American who has ever had the word spat at them in anger. Most Asian Americans have had racist epithets hurled at them at one time or another: Chink, slant eye, gook, Nip, zipperhead. But Oriental isn’t in the canon.

And why should it be? Literally, it means of the Orient or of the East, as opposed to of the Occident or of the West. Last I checked, geographic origin is not a slur. If it were, it would be wrong to label people from Mississippi as Southerners.

Of course I understand that some insults have benign origins. “Jap,” for example, is simply a shortening of the word Japanese, but that one stings. As 127,000 Japanese Americans were carted off to internment camps during World War II, they were repeatedly referred to by their fellow citizens and the media as Japs. It was meant as an insult and understood as such. Clearly context is important.

The problem with “Oriental,” San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jeff Yang told NPR, is that “When you think about it, the term … feels freighted with luggage. You know, it’s a term which you can’t think of without having that sort of the smell of incense and the sound of a gong kind of in your head.” In other words it makes Asians sound exotic because it was in circulation at a time when exoticizing stereotypes were prevalent. » | Jayne Tsuchiyama | Wednesday, June 1, 2016

I stumbled upon this article yesterday after a discussion I had had with a cousin of mine about the word 'oriental'. Apparently, she had used it in discussion with a friend of hers; and her friend cautioned her about the use of the word, and asked her if she should be using it at all! I was dumbfounded. Visitors to this website will have noticed that I use this word rather frequently, because I like the word. In fact, it is a rather beautiful word. I knew that some people were a little sensitive about the word, but I took no notice, putting it down to wokeness and/or political correctness. I am neither woke nor politically correct; and nor do I ever intend to be.

For your information, when I use the word 'oriental' or Orient, I use them in their geographical sense. No more, no less. In my humble opinion, they are lovely, benign words. By the way, I was never aware that anyone should ever think they were "outdated". That never even occurred to me. I shall continue to use these words in my writing. I am not giving them up to please the politically correct brigade. FYI, I also like the words occidental and Occident. The words Orient and Occident go hand-in-hand. This nonsense of banning words that might be offensive should and must stop.

Furthermore, while I am writing about this, I am totally traditional in my use of pronouns. I use the words 'he' and 'him/his' and 'she' and 'her/hers' unapologetically. I am not going to use 'them', etc., in order to avoid their use. You bastardise the language if you want to; I am not for bastardising the language. If you come across such usage on this blog, it will be either because they are the words of others or because I have used them inadvertently. Moreover, and for total clarity, I use 'he/him/his' for persons who have 'dangly bits' and 'she/her/hers' for persons who don't. For those transitioning, I shall await to be informed of their choices. But having never met anyone who has transitioned, I doubt that it will become an issue.

I hope I have made myself crystal clear. I also hope that no one will take any offence, because no offence is intended. – Mark

Swearing On Rise But Parents Still Don’t Want Kids Hearing It, Report Finds

THE GUARDIAN: Third of people say they use strong language more than they did five years ago, according to BBFC survey

Swearing in everyday life is on the rise, according to research, but parents do not want to see it increase in the film and television their children watch.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) published a report on Thursday into attitudes towards swearing and whether people want a more liberal approach in media content. » | Mark Brown, Arts correspondent | Thursday, June 10, 2021

How Anglophones Speak French without Knowing It

France a 'Rogue State' on Regional Languages

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Campaigners say Breton, Occitan, Corsican and others will soon cease to be living languages without formal recognition.

When Tangi Louarn casts his vote in next month's French presidential election he will be forced to do so in a language that he does not recognise as his own.

A resident of the rugged peninsula region of Brittany in northwestern France, Louarn is one of about 200,000 speakers of Breton, once the world's most commonly spoken Celtic language but now recognised as severely endangered by UNESCO.

Despite its precarious situation, Breton has no formal status in France. It is not offered as a language of education in the public school system, the state makes no provision for regional language media, and it is not used in government or public services.

Once home to a vibrant multitude of tongues, the monolingualism of modern France is enshrined in article two of the country's constitution, rooted in the revolutionary principles of 1789, which reads: "The language of the Republic shall be French."

Yet Louarn, the president of Kevre Breizh, a Breton language activist group, says that regional language speakers are still waiting for their human rights to to be respected.

"Breton is my language. It is a part of my identity. Yet 'Liberte, egalite, fraternite' is only for people speaking French. When you speak another language you do not have equality." » | Simon Hooper | Friday, March 30, 2012

REUTERS FRANCE: Manifestations en faveur des langues regionals : PARIS - Des manifestations en faveur des langues régionales se sont déroulées samedi dans une dizaine de villes de France, dont Strasbourg, Lille, Quimper, Toulouse, Perpignan et Ajaccio, à l'appel d'une coordination nationale. » | Gilbert Reilhac à Strasbourg, édité par Marine Pennetier | samedi 31 mars 2012

Children Who Speak English at Home in Minority
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Children with English as their home language are now the minority of pupils in more than 1,600 schools across England.

The number of these schools is rising by about one every week as the effects of migration into the UK are showing in the nation's classrooms.

Data now shows that close to one million pupils who attend schools in England do not have English as their first language at home.

There are 97 schools where children with English as their first language are in such a minority that they make up less than one in twenty pupils.

The statistics released by the Department of Education shows that in 1997, when Tony Blair first came to power, there were 866 schools in England where more than 50% of the pupils had English as a second language.

Last year that figure had ballooned to 1,638 schools, almost double the 1997 level. » | Thursday, March 22, 2012

My comment:

That we have allowed so many immigrants into our country that we now have an English language problem in our schools is nothing short of a national disgrace. Language is the buckle that binds a nation. The United Kingdom without English as its first and main language will be a disunited kingdom indeed. Shouldn’t the powers-that-be that have allowed this dire situation to come about be pilloried in the public square? My word, how this country has changed in my lifetime! So much for multiculturalism! – © Mark

Mandarin Overtakes English as Hong Kong’s Second Language
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Fifteen years after Hong Kong was handed back to China, Mandarin has finally overtaken English as the island’s second most widely spoken language.

According to census figures released this week, 48 per cent of Hong Kong residents can speak Mandarin, compared to 46 per cent who can speak English. Cantonese remains the island’s dialect of choice, with 96 per cent of the population able to speak it.

While the proportion of English speakers has risen slightly since a census in 2001, the spread of Chinese has been far more rapid: ten years ago, only just over a third of the population could speak Mandarin. » | Malcolm Moore, Beijing | Friday, February 24, 2012

Latvia Holds Referendum On Second Language
Latvians have been voting in a referendum on whether to make Russian the second official national language, after Latvian. The country's a substantial Russian-speaking minority has long complained of discrimination, as Harry Smith reports.

French as a Mother-Tongue in Medieval England
The Norman Conquest of 1066 by William the Conqueror marks the beginning of an era of French influence in England[1]. However, despite logical reasoning, French did not become either the official or unofficial language of England. William was not combining the lands of Normandy and England, and had no wish to replace language or culture. Latin and English were used for most documents and formal proclamations by William, and the English legal system was renewed, not replaced. After all, William was claiming legitimacy to his succession. Nevertheless, the upper class was almost completely taken over by (French speaking) Normans, and although the system was English, many of the legal proceedings and documents were in French.

It is important to know that there were various dialects of French being spoken on the continent at this time and throughout the middle ages. Norman French was distinct from Parisian or Continental French, and, with time, the French spoken in England by the Norman landed gentry became distinct. Scholars refer to the particular dialect of French as spoken by England-dwelling native French speakers as Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French.

One interesting question is how long these aristocrats kept Anglo-Norman as their mother-tongue. William’s wish to preserve English as the national language was successful and no doubt is directly (though not solely) responsible for the inhabitants of England speaking English to this day. Additionally, despite taking over the upper class and the legal system, the Norman descendants speaking Anglo-Norman were still completely outnumbered by the masses of English speakers in every other class. Modern scholars estimate that the initial migration of Normans into England after the Conquest was no more than 20,000 people including the army, a number that was roughly 1.3% of England’s population (Berndt 1965, quoted in Kibbee 1991). So how long did it take for the native Anglo-Norman speakers to give up their language in favour of English? » | Jacquie Heys | Copyright 2001

The Domination of French in England
The Norman Conquest. Toward the close of the Old English period an event occurred which had a greater effect on the English language than any other in the course of its history. This event was the Norman Conquest in 1066. What the language would have been like if William the Conqueror had not succeeded in making good his claim to the English throne can only be a matter of conjecture. It would probably have pursued much the same course as the other Germanic languages, retaining perhaps more of its inflections and preserving a preponderantly Germanic vocabulary..., and incorporating words from other languages much less freely. In particular it would have lacked the greater part of that enormous number of French words which today make English seem, on the side of vocabulary, almost as much a Romance as a Germanic language. The Norman Conquest changed the whole course of the English language. An event of such far-reaching consequences must be considered in some detail. » | Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable

Riz Khan - Linguistic Imperialism?

New York Town Orders Residents To Speak English
THE TELEGRAPH: A small town in rural New York state has passed a law that all town business be conducted in English, leading to accusations that it is stoking racial prejudice.

Jackson, a remote farming community of just over 1,700 people, has been attacked by civil liberties campaigners who say its new ordinance is unconstitutional and illegal.

However, it has already prompted a neighbouring town to pass a similar resolution and another will consider doing the same in June.

The Jackson law designates English as the town's official written and spoken language, insisting that it "be used in all official meetings and business conducted by the elected officials and their appointees".

Roger Meyer, 76, a town councillor and local sawmill owner, said he proposed the law to protect English and redress from the "grassroots" the federal government's historic failure to enshrine it as America's official language. "Everybody assumes that it is but it actually isn't," he said.

While successive waves of immigrants had happily adopted English in the past, "it seems like we're straying away from that now and people want to return to the culture of the country they came from", he said. "When people come to a country to improve their lot, they should assimilate into that country." He acknowledged that Jackson, which is 96 per cent white, hardly had a problem with cultural non-integration but he added: "A construction worker doesn't wear a hard hat because he's never been hit in the head. We just can't sit idly by and wait for something to happen." Despite his insistence that the ordinance was not aimed at Hispanic people, that is how its critics are interpreting it. >>> Tom Leonard in New York | Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Language Divide at the Heart of a Split That Is Tearing Belgium Apart
THE OBSERVER: Belgium doesn't exist, only Flanders and Wallonia as Dutch and French communites live apart. By Ian Traynor in Brussels

Twenty minutes north of Brussels, in Belgium's medieval royal seat of Mechelen, there's a science playground, just the place for the kids on a boring, wet Sunday afternoon.

Technopolis is stuffed with interactive gadgets and games, making education fun. There is also another message. When entering the complex, the paving stones are inscribed with a simple, direct statement. The message is in Dutch only, the language of Flanders, the bigger northern half of the country. You are told the size of Flanders in square kilometres and its population density.

There is no mention of Belgium. That does not exist. You are in a country called Flanders. That does not exist either, but if many of the politicians running this divided society get their way it is only a matter of time.

"Long live free Flanders, may Belgium die" was the battle cry ringing out in Belgium's federal parliament on Thursday as the 150 elected deputies cleared their desks and returned home to prepare to fight an early election next month, triggered by the latest collapse of the national government.

Following the last election in 2007, Belgium went without a government for six months because of the divisions and squabbling between Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south. Three years later, the same conflict has brought down the government again.

In most countries of western Europe, the third prime ministerial resignation in three years would be cause for alarm. In Belgium, the latest resignation – of Yves Leterme, the Christian Democrat prime minister – after only five months has instead been greeted with shrugs of indifference and expressions of relief.

"We are incredibly lucky to be here; this is one of the luckiest countries in the world," says a senior government official. "We are very successful." Which is true in many respects. But the political class running this wealthy state of 10.5 million people gives a very good impression of caring little for a country called Belgium.

"I'm Flemish, not Belgian," says Willy De Waele, mayor of the small Flemish town of Lennik, just south of Brussels. "There's no loyalty to a country called Belgium. There has never been a country that has lasted so long in conditions like this." >>> Ian Traynor | Sunday, May 09, 2010

Future of Belgium Under Threat Over Language Row
THE TELEGRAPH: The "survival" of Belgium as a unified country was called into question last night after a row between French and Dutch speakers brought the government to the verge of collapse.

The wrangle has already brought down the government four times in the past three years but the latest spat is the gravest yet and threatens to split the country into Flemish areas and French-speaking areas.

King Albert II warned politicians that the political crisis "seriously threatens" the country's role in Europe, after the Prime Minister, Yves Leterme tendered his resignation. >>> Henry Samuel, Paris | Thursday, April 22, 2010

Cultural Divide: In American Mosques, How Much English Is Too Much?
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Sana Rahim was born in the cowboy country of southeastern Wyoming, to Pakistani parents who had emigrated so her father could earn a doctorate.

She speaks Urdu with her family, but can't read or write the language. She recites prayers in Arabic, but doesn't know exactly what each word means.

Now a 20-year-old junior at Northwestern University, she, like many other American-born Muslims, is most comfortable with sermons and lectures in English, although they can't always find U.S. mosques that offer them.

"I don't really get the time to study Arabic," Rahim said. "With all the different groups in America, English is a unifying thing that ties us together."

Like Jewish immigrants who fought over English-language prayer and Roman Catholics who resisted the new Mass in English, U.S. Muslims are waging their own debate about how much English they can use inside mosques without violating Islamic law and abandoning their culture.

The issue is part of a broader discussion within the Muslim community about young U.S. Muslims and their alienation from American mosques. Houses of worship founded by older immigrant Muslims often held fast to the culture and language of their native countries. For them, English in the mosque threatened Muslim identity. Their American-born children, however, can't relate.

"This is a constant problem talked about — young people in mosques," said Shahed Amanullah, co-founder of salatomatic.com, which lists thousands of mosques and reviews from users. "It's not just about the Friday prayers. It's the response that mosques have to the cultural reality of growing up Muslim in America. If young people don't find what they need in the mosque, they'll find it on the Internet."

The language of obligatory Friday prayers, called juma, is not part of the debate; those prayers must be in Arabic, the language of the Quran. The disagreement focuses on whether that requirement should extend to the sermon, or khutba, on Fridays, the Muslim day of congregational prayer, and other assemblies in the mosque.

Imams and scholars who insist on using Arabic say it's mandatory because the Prophet Muhammad gave his sermons in the language. Others say that Muhammad used Arabic only because it was what he and his community spoke, and that Islam is a universal faith. >>> Rachel Zoll, AP Religion Writer | Saturday, February 20, 2010

Christmas Incident Was "Screw Up" - Obama Said
If Obama can’t speak better than this, he needs to go back to school! A “screw-up” indeed! This is mall-speak, and we expect better than mall-speak from the President of the United States of America. – © Mark

REUTERS: WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama told his security chiefs on Tuesday that the botched Christmas Day plane bombing was the result of a screw up by U.S. intelligence and that the country had barely dodged disaster, according to a quotation released by the White House.

"This was a screw up that could have been disastrous," the president said during a meeting in the White House situation room, according to the White House media office. "We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked and that is not acceptable. While there will be a tendency for finger pointing, I will not tolerate it." [Source: Reuters] Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, editing by Bill Trott | Tuesday, January05, 2010

More Balls from Ed Balls!
TIMES ONLINE: Labour will announce today that primary school children will be able to learn Mandarin and Arabic in a bid to keep up with other countries. Labour to offer Arabic and Mandarin lessons to primary pupils >>> Joanna Sugden | Monday, January 04, 2010

Does a People Make a Language, or Does a Language Make a People?
Many years ago, when I was learning German, one thing struck me more than anything else about the language I was then trying to learn. It was this: How precise one has to be when speaking the language. In German, you can’t get away with saying ‘who’ when you mean ‘whom’. It just won’t do. They mean two different things, and you’ve got to get your head around the difference.

Similarly, there are so many words for ‘the’ in German. It can be ‘der’, ‘die’, or ‘das’. It all depends on the gender of the noun. But to complicate matters still further, what is a ‘der’ in one case (nominative masculine singular) can turn into a ‘den’ in another (accusative masculine singular), a ‘dem’ in another case (dative masculine singular) and a ‘des’ in yet another case (genitive masculine singular), and so on. I’ll spare you the grief of the plural forms!

Then you have a similar problem when it comes to ‘a’ in German. That, too, depends on the case in point. It can at various times be ‘ein’, ‘einer’, ‘einen’, ‘einem’, ‘eines’, and so on. Add to all this the fact that adjectives have to be declined, and the fact that there are three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Believe me, it can be mind-boggling to the uninitiated.

But then, if you are like I am, you eventually get your ‘Eureka moment’, and from that moment on, it all becomes very clear, crystal clear in fact, and from that moment on too, it all starts to make perfect sense.

Where is this all leading, you may be asking yourself? Well, to cut the whole thing short, it leads to the following. The Germans are a pretty clever people. Hardly anyone can touch them when it comes to engineering. Who can manufacture a fine car like the Germans? Think of the elegance of a Mercedes or a Porsche. And then add to that elegance the downright precision of the car's construction, to say nothing of the performance of its engine. Such beautiful cars embody perfection and precision.

I therefore have to ask myself why the Germans are such fine engineers. One cannot help but think that there’s a link there between the precision of the language and the precision of the engineering.

English is not anywhere near as precise as German. It doesn’t really matter too much if you use ‘who’ when you should be using ‘whom’. Indeed, many an English-speaker goes through life without ever learning the difference! But he still gets by. And as for cases, I don’t think that the average English-speaker would recognise a case if one smacked him in the teeth!

But then, who in the English-speaking world can manufacture a sports car like the Germans? Who could make a car like the Mercedes Roadster, or a Porsche Boxster? Could it be that a people who have to be so precise when speaking are more likely to become precision engineers? In short, does precision in language lead to precision in engineering? And do those precision engineers become so because their language is so precise; or is the reverse true? In other words, do precise people develop a precise way of speaking, or does a precise way of speaking make a precise people?

It’s a very interesting question, and it is a question I have long pondered. The question, of course, is an easy one to pose; it is rather more difficult to answer that self-same question, however.

Which leads me to Arabic…

Now one thing has to be said. Arabic is a fine and elegant language. Calligraphically, it is art indeed. In fact, so beautiful is it when written that the Arabs have used calligraphy as art all over the centuries, especially since Muhammad, the prophet of most Arabs, forbade the depiction of the human form. So, instead of the statue of David (Michelangelo), you get the profession of faith, al-shahada (pronounced ash-shahada), ashadw an la illah ila allah, wa ashadw an Muhammadan rasul ullah (only demonstrating!), written, of course, in beautiful Arabic calligraphy. A Westerner prefers and appreciates the statue of David; an Arab, of course, the profession of faith.

So there is no doubt about the fact that Arabic can be a very elegant language, especially in its written form. Indeed, it can be as elegant as some Arabs can be in their snow-white dishdashas, or thobes. But although Arabic has influenced many other languages, especially due to the Arabs’ conquests in pursuit of their expansion of Islam, or Dar ul Islam. For example, there are said to be an estimated four thousand Arabic loanwords in Spanish alone; and Arabic has lent many words to other languages, too, since Arabic was a ”major vehicle of culture” in the Middle Ages.

One feature of Arabic, however, is very fascinating to me: It is written backwards.

Now this brings me right back to where I started. The Germans are precision engineers, maybe as a result of having such precision in the German language. Arabic is the language of a people whose one main characteristic is looking backwards. Indeed, it is the aim of Muslims to take us all back to a bygone age – back 1400 years to the time of their prophet.

So my next question is this: Can a people whose language is written backwards move forwards? That means to say: Is it necessary for a people to write facing the future to be progressive, or can a people be progressive in spite of the fact that their language is written in the direction of the past? Moreover, have the Arabs made the language, or has the language made the Arabs?

©Mark Alexander

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