FRANCE has been ordered to stop using the word “e-mail” and replace it with le courriel, in the latest attempt by language watchdogs to stem the invasion of American English.

A state commission that promotes Gallic technology and business jargon has decreed that le courriel should take over from le mail. The alien term, often gallicised as le mèl, is more popular than the indigenous courrier électronique.

The commission, which reports to the Académie Française, the arbiter of linguistic purity, hopes that le courriel will follow half a dozen recent coinages that have beaten off English terms.

Philippe Deschamp, a member of the terminology body, said yesterday: “We are fighting to ensure that the French language does not fall back. The use of English words by the French is ridiculous. The French pronounce them badly, change the meaning and that does not help communication between nations.”

Hardcore French web surfers, or les cybernautes as the State calls them, may mock the uncool official neologisms but the rearguard campaign has notched up genuine victories against Anglo-American. These have included ordinateur for computer, logiciel for software and numérique for digital. France is also one of the few countries where a Walkman is known by a local coinage — le balladeur, literally a wanderer or stroller. More recently, le texto has squeezed out SMS on les portables, or mobile phones.

The most successful has been l’informatique, coined in the 1970s for information technology (IT). In a reverse of the usual flow, some American corporations have sprouted informatics departments and vice-presidents for informatics. Microsoft and other logiciel firms have obediently adopted French. The French version of Windows has gestionnaires de péripherique when the French talk about le driver.

By law, civil servants are supposed to use the French terms in communications, but the language guardians accept that they have no power to force people to adopt their often lame inventions. Rarely, for example, does anyone forgo hacker to talk of le fouineur or insert une frimousse — smiley or emoticon — into a mèl. La toile (web) has made no inroads and no one uses un numériseur for a scanner.

The challenge for the language enforcers is that the Anglo-American term has often evolved from the irreverent, insiders’ culture of the computing and internet world. A French newspaper devoted paragraphs last weekend to explaining the origin of spam — or message non-sollicité. Techies adopted spam from the Monty Python sketch.

Finding an equally catchy French equivalent is tough, M Deschamp said. “I doubt, for example, that many people will ever use the word arrosage (spraying) for spamming.”

He has high hopes for le courriel. It is current in Quebec, where French Canadians have been aggressive in the campaign against English and has been adopted for the past year by French newspapers.

Successful French terms

Ordinateur: computer
Numérique: digital
Informatique: information technology
Logiciel: software
Télécharger: to up/download
Puce: chip
Bogue: bug
Agenda électronique: personal organiser
Site: website
Amorcer: to boot
Fenêtre: window
Planter: to crash
Moteur de recherche: search engine

Unsuccessful French terms

Toile: web
Courriel: e-mail
Arroser: to spam
Incendier: to flame
Causette: chat
Gestionnaire de périphérique: driver
Cédérom: CD-ROM
Fouineur: hacker
Frimousse: smiley
Logiciel de navigation: browser
Diffusion systématique sur la toile: webcasting
Numériseur: scanner
Souris: mouse

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Would you live on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall?
• Wish you were here, says Iraq tourist board
• Russian policeman’s corruption plea to Putin