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Franglais

FRANGLAIS

Paris (AP) April 94: In its endless guerrilla war against Franglais, the government has armed itself with a new dictionary containing 3,500 translations aimed at 'user-friendliness.' Oops, make that 'convivialite.'

From 'airbag' (sac gonflable) to 'zoning' (zonage), the glossy red handbook seeks to counter the ever-wider use of English in business, sports, and science by providing French alternatives.

It remains to be seen whether the new terms, some of them long and clumsy, will catch on in a nation struggling with itself over how to be modern, high- tech and cool, yet preserve its rich linguistic tradition.

The Dictionnaire des Termes Officiels contains translations mandated by government ministries since France started fighting Franglais in the early 1970s. This year's edition adds about 100 new terms and has an English-to-French index. It also is available on Minitel, the telephone company's widely used screen-and-keyboard console.

"The idea is to be more accessible," said Anne Magnant, head of the French Language Delegation, which prepared the 462-page paperback. "The dictionary must be used by public officials," she said, "and we hope professionals, students, and teachers will use it." Words that do not catch on will be dropped from future editions, Magnant said.

Premier Edouard Balladur is trying to push a bill through Parliament that would toughen the language laws. During a debate in April, one Socialist senator ridiculed it as "a Maginot Line."

With annual revisions, the new dictionary can react more quickly to language changes than the multivolume lexicon published every few decades by the Academie Francaise.

New listings include 'navetteur' for commuter, 'ravitaillement' (catering), 'essaimage' (spinoff), 'numero d'urgence' (hotline), 'telemercatique' for telemarketing. Other terms such as 'disque compact' (CD), 'furtivite' (stealth), and 'remue-meninges' (brainstorming) have yet to achieve general use. While 'balladeur' has replaced Walkman, French TV showed an electronics salesman who didn't know what 'presonorisation' was until the interviewer said 'playback.'

"We find it a bit ridiculous," said Bill, a deejay (animateur) on Fun Radio, a rock station that tangled with the government over a sex-oriented talk show for young people. "'Hit Parade' exists since I was born, so 'palmares' would be difficult," he said. Bill, 25, who refused to give his real French name and shatter the mystery of his radio moniker (pronounced 'Beel'), said he was more open to the dictionary's French-spelling adaptations of English words.

"We use those in French, tuiteur, boomeur, that's okay," he said, referring to the tweeters and woofers in stereo speakers. "French is a very beautiful language. But using all those words in Franglais has become habit."

Americans say 'a la mode' without fear of prosecution, though some who are upset by the onslaught of Spanish want a law making English the official language. 'Toochay,' one might say.

The new French language law would not and could not outlaw street Franglais, like 'Je suis destroy' for "I'm wiped out." It would require advertising and officially sanctioned conferences to use approved translations. State-owned agencies, media and other companies, as well as official documents, already are required to avoid English terms.

Most troubling to many officials is the increasing use of English in technical fields. Leading scientific publications are in English, and executives say they must use English terms in business.

"The financial culture is mainly traditionally Anglo-Saxon," said Jacques Charbit, spokesman for the Banque Nationale de Paris, but acknowledged the need for French equivalents. "It's also a question of habit," he said. "People who said 'debt equity futures' are now used to saying 'contrats a terme.'" One English word that remains, Charbit said, is 'swap.' It takes too long to say the French equivalent, 'echange financier.'

"As much as possible, they make us speak French," said Michel Nico, spokesman for the state-owned computer company Groupe Bull. "But in computers, there's a whole jargon that comes in American. In our meetings, we speak of 'le soft' (software)," he said, even though the dictionary says 'logiciel.'

Where English terms will die hard is in sports. "I think they're probably going to bomb my apartment," said George Eddy, a native of Orlando, Fla., who has become a popular play-by-play announcer for basketball and other sports on the private Canal Plus television network. "If they've been using 'tie-breaker' for years, it's going to be hard to start using 'jeu decisif,'" said Eddy, 37. "Obviously I think it's stupid when you have to replace something with three or four words. And you can't tell kids how to speak. They create their own language."