A punctuation mark has become the latest cause in a campaign to preserve the elegance of the French language against apparently lazy habits from the English-speaking world.

Writers and linguistic patriots have supported a drive to save the point-virgule — the semicolon — from extinction because the media, authors and the French people no longer understand its use.

Fans of the semicolon were pleased by a topical April Fool's Day joke on an internet news service which reported that President Sarkozy had created a commission to save the punctuation mark. The mark would have to be used at least three times in official correspondence, said Rue89.com , an influential site run by journalists.

The article, which included a bogus mission statement on Elysée Palace stationery, initially took in many readers because of Mr Sarkozy's mania for intervention and the embattled mood that prevails over the French language.

The point-virgule, which allows a breathing space in a train of thought, is said to be falling victim to the brevity preferred by the English language. “To make long sentences, you need a nice fountain pen and a good piece of paper,” Claude Duneton, a writer and French teacher, said. “Short sentences come from the more direct, Anglo-Saxon style. That reflects the modern age and the need for speed,” he said.

Sylvie Prioul, an editor who has co-written a book on the art of punctuation, said on France-Inter, the main radio network: “The semicolon is disappearing like the bear. People do not like it; writers are frightened of it; newspapers no longer use it. It's a bit sad.” The plight of the semicolon, which was cherished by Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust and other great writers, was part of the wider destruction of Gallic punctuation by the “horrible” practices of English typesetting, as used by computers, Ms Prioul said.

Almost no journalists and few modern authors used semicolons, she added, although an exception was Michel Houellebecq, the author of bleak bestsellers such as Atomised. A classical Houellebecq example is: “He was unable to remember his last erection; he was waiting for the storm.”

Ms Prioul's campaign, along with Olivier Houdart, her co-author, has amplified a longstanding complaint from linguistic purists who are devoted to the clarity that a semicolon brings to multi-clause sentences. Their arguments are close to those of Lynne Truss, the British author, and her 2003 bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Their campaign received a boost yesterday from Alain Rey, a language expert who edits the Robert Dictionary. “Punctuation is not leftwing or rightwing; it transcends the political divide,” he said on the Rue89 site. “For me it is a symbol of a republic that reasons correctly.”

How to use the semicolon

The semicolon (;) ranks halfway between a comma and a full point. It may be substituted for a period between two grammatically complete sentences that are closely connected in sense; in a long or complicated sentence, it may precede a co-ordinate conjunction (such as or, and, or but)

From Punctuation in English since 1600, Encyclopaedia Britannica

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