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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
So the French Ministry of Culture is now O.K. with relatively new English words (e.g. software) becoming of common usage in France as opposed to native [French] words coined as alternatives? Or maybe that whole supposed effort was made into more here in the U.S. media than was ever reality? Or maybe it was during the whole “Freedom Fries” nonsense here in the U.S.?
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The Ministry of Culture does not make grammar rules. The only thing it did, and that was in the eighties, was make a law that says any foreign language words in an advertisement must be translated. That doesn't include foreign words that have been assimilated into the French language, it means mostly mottoes and catchphrases, such as "Just do it".
Many French intellectuals resent the "invasion" of the French language by English (American, really) words. Obviously this is all mixed up with political issues, and there are some romantic notions about defending the French culture and French language around the World, presumably as a way to counteract the American hegemony.
To get back to the language issue itself, it's only natural that American words are imported along with American-born ideas or practices. Often though, there is already a French word expressing pretty much the same concept, and that is the annoying part. But that's how languages live and evolve, and the interesting part is that a foreign word never takes the place of a local word (although I suppose that also happens, over several generations). Rather, both words coexist and take on slightly different meanings. That's what happened in English with many French words imported by the Normans. And that's what is happening to American words in France now.