* Julia Thompson [Sun, 16/03/2003 at 21:58 -0600]
> Erik Reuter wrote:
>
> > At the risk of ruining it, can you explain the joke? I know that "le" is
> > and article for "the", but what is "le weekend"? I thought the French
> > worked short weeks compared to Americans, so they would have at least as
> > long a weekend as Americans.
>
> The French adopted the term "le weekend" from the American, and there are
> enough people trying to protect the language and keep it pure that they were
> upset by it. Many words that just get co-opted and whatever-ized in other
> languages are given their own French version that doesn't resemble anyone
> else's (but if you know enough French, they make sense on some level, at
> least). "Le weekend" is the pretty much the only bit of purely borrowed
> vocabulary I remember from 3 semesters of college French. ("Jeep" might
> have been a vocabulary word as well, but I don't put brand names on the same
> footing as generic nouns, for example.)
There is a large subset of French words that comes from foreign
languages. Some since centuries. Off the top of my head and only From
English :
Redingotte <- riding coat , the word coat coming on its part from old
French cotte, the piece of cloth for the upper body.
Biftek <- beef steak
Rosbif <- roast beef
Pullover <- jumper
other are more recent :
Parking <- parking lot
Camping car <- camper van (I think US people says RV)
and so on.
Personnaly I've nothing against adding new terms in the french glossary,
provided they add a new meaning not carried by an existent word and that
we slowy modify its spelling to satisfy the prononciation rules.
Forbidding this kind of evolution that exists in every language (English
also have a lot of French words) is a definite prrof of brain sclerosis.
--
Jean-Marc
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