« L’anglais n’est pas la langue mondiale »
Mister Ed West à editor@spectator.co.uk,
Traduction libre de l’anglais :
Je me permets de vous écrire parce que j’ai lu avec intérêt votre article sur cette page :
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-long-defeat-of-the-french-language/Cependant, je tenais à vous signaler que l’anglais n’est pas du tout la langue mondiale. Cette idée, véhiculée par la propagande mensongère des Anglo-saxons, est fausse et totalement grotesque. En effet, l’anglais n’est qu’une langue internationale parmi d’autres, d’ailleurs inconnue pour 90% de la population mondiale. De plus, la grande majorité des habitants des pays non anglophones n’ont pas besoin de cette langue pour vivre et travailler. La Chine, par exemple, qui sera la future première puissance économique mondiale, est à l’avant-garde des nouvelles technologies et elle se sert de sa langue (qui n’utilise d’ailleurs aucun anglicisme). La connaissance de l’anglais est d’autant moins importante qu’elle n’est plus la langue nationale d’un seul pays de l’Union européenne et qu’elle est donc appelée à décliner au sein des institutions européennes. Son poids géopolitique dans l’Union européenne est désormais nul, le nombre de locuteurs natifs étant de 1 %, un pourcentage dérisoire. La tentative d’imposer l’anglais comme langue néocoloniale s’inscrit dans le discours néo-colonialiste anglo-saxon, très bien décrit par le professeur australien Alastair Pennycook : https://www.imperatif-francais.org/francofete/francofete-1999/une-langue-universelle-ou-une-langue-coloniale/
Ils nous auront fait rire « English is NOT the global language » – False and grotesque propaganda of the Anglo-Saxons
Version originale complète ci-dessous extraite du journal Spectator
Mister Ed West à editor@spectator.co.uk
I would like to write to you because I read with interest your article on this page :
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-long-defeat-of-the-french-language/However, I wanted to point out that English is not at all the global language. This idea, conveyed by the false propaganda of the Anglo-Saxons, is false, totally grotesque. Indeed, English is only one international language among others and is moreover ignored by 90% of the world’s population. Moreover, the vast majority of the inhabitants of non-English-speaking countries do not need this language to live and work. China, for example, which will be the future world’s leading economic power, is at the forefront of new technologies and uses its language to do so (which, moreover, does not use any anglicism). Knowledge of English is all the less important as it is no longer the national language of a single country of the European Union and is therefore likely to decline within the European institutions. Its geopolitical weight within the European Union is now zero, with a number of native speakers of 1%, a derisory percentage. The attempt to impose English as a neo-colonial language is in line with the Anglo-Saxon neo-colonialist discourse, very well described by the Australian academic Alastair Pennycook:
I would add that in France, for example, the use of English in business is illegal, whether the companies are public or private. Indeed, all working documents, including software, must legally be available in French. Companies that provide documents in English to their employees or that make them work with software in English are therefore illegal. Here is what the labor code says:
“Any document containing obligations for the employee or information necessary for the performance of his work must be written in French.“Following the promulgation of the Toubon law, companies were heavily sanctioned for illegal use of English. For example the American company GEMS in March 2006, sentenced to a fine of 570,000 euros for having transmitted documents in English without translation to its French employees. The same goes for the companies Nextiraone and Europ Assistance, also condemned for having wanted to impose on their employees software in English without translation:
http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/111/article_79206.aspThe same also applies to Danone, sentenced in 2012:
https://www.20minutes.fr/france/967329-20120706-danone-salaries-obtiennent-traduction-francais-logiciel-interneMore generally, the use of English is prohibited in many fields in France, and this type of offense – illegal use of English – gives rise to legal action by the association for the defense of French Francophonie Avenir, which often lead to convictions:
https://www.francophonie-avenir.com/fr/L-anglomanie-traitee-sur-le-plan-juridique/434-Affaires-gagnees-par-l-AfravThe French government itself is being sued in several cases:
https://www.francophonie-avenir.com/fr/L-anglomanie-traitee-sur-le-plan-juridique/433-Proces-en-cours-contre-l-anglomanie (cases 3, 4, 5 and 9)And he was sentenced on October 20 for illegal use of the Health Data Hub brand:
https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/4006812-20221024-francophonie-terme-health-data-hub-pourra-plus-etre-utilisation-gouvernementSimilarly, nearly twenty legal actions were launched in March for the illegal use of anglicisms:
https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/pass-my-provence-let-s-cagnotte-la-croisade-du-collectif-osez-le-francais-contre-les-anglicismes-dans-l- public-space-20230320The use of English is all the more ridiculous and inappropriate since this language now has zero geopolitical weight within the European Union since it is no longer the national language of a single country of the EU. As for French, it is a great international language with a future, which will have one billion speakers in the world in 2060 and will overtake Chinese by the end of the century:
https://www.20minutes.fr/monde/4028919-20230321-nombre-francophones-monde-devrait-depasser-milliard-2065Kind regards,
Daniel De Poli
France