To stop the use of English, the government is planning to use a 25-year-old law that makes French companies use translations of foreign words, according to an article in The Times. France’s culture minister, Franck Riester said: “In this linguistic globalisation, our duty is to refuse any tendency to move towards a single [world] language, [and] any weakening of the diversity of languages, as of cultures, in France and elsewhere.” He said that he wanted to adapt the law for “the digital era”.
Riester added: “We are going to work at this and mobilise all those involved around a simple message: “French is everyone’s business”.
President Macron regularly uses English idioms, such as the phrase “Start-Up Nation” to promote French innovation and technology.
The slogan for the 2024 Paris Olympics, “Made for Sharing”, has been deemed “unlawful” by a professor of linguistics at a Paris University.
Professor Bernard Cerquiglini, said the phrase sounded like a “pizza slogan”.
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He also called the continued use of the English language “distressing”.
In 2006, French President Jacques Chirac walked out of a European Union summit briefly as a form of protest, when the French head of the EU’s industry lobby addressed leaders of the bloc in English.
The company Air France were criticised for using the English language by the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The newspaper complained about the slogan “France is in the air”.
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Last year’s annual report of the Authority of Professional Advertising Regulation said that it had analysed 19,323 advertisements and found that 4.8 per cent contained English terms.
The English term had either not been translated into French at all or the translation was in such small letters it could not be read.
The authority highlighted a Saint Valentine’s Day advertisement by a florist with the hashtag #love, which officials said ignored the law.
The report also noted the spread of such English words as by, replay, team, showcase and playlist.
But advertisers have argued they use the words to show young people they are trendy.