The decline of French, the triumph of English

Lionel Meney's work, Le naufrage du français, le triomphe de l’anglais. Enquête (The Wreck of French, the Triumph of English. An Inquiry), Québec-Paris, Presses de l’Université Laval-Hermann, 2024.

This book offers a detailed sociolinguistic analysis concerning the current state of the French language in the face of overwhelming pressure from English.

Central Thesis and Objective of the Work

The author, Lionel Meney, who is also known for his research on Quebec French, asserts that French is undergoing a true invasion of Anglicisms, which are visible and audible everywhere in France. He states frankly that French is faring "mal, très mal" (badly, very badly), having lost its vitality and, more seriously, its utility.

The phenomenon is so extensive that yesterday's franglais is nothing compared to the New French of today. The author defines New French as French in a process of hybridization, deeply marked by lexical, phraseological, and grammatical interferences from English (Anglicisms).

The main objective of the book is to describe in detail this double competition exerted by English on the French language. This competition affects both its corpus (its internal structure, including lexicon and grammar) and its status (its use and influence). Ultimately, Meney puts forward a series of proposals to try and slow this engaged decline before the complete "wreck" (naufrage).

Part I: The Visible Part of the Iceberg (The Inquiry)

The book is founded on a methodical investigation conducted by the author, who observed the streets of Paris, Nice and other French cities, analyzing displays in major chains (Carrefour, Monoprix, McDo), websites (Air France, Renault), and media programs.

This section reveals that English is ubiquitous in the visual and auditory environment. Concrete examples show:

• Anglicisms entering common vocabulary: Black Friday, booster, fake news, streaming...

• Major national companies (EDF with Linky, Renault with Care Service, Carrefour with drive piétons) and small local businesses (Beauty Hair, Prestige Barbershop) prioritize English for company, product and service names.

• Major dictionary publishers like Larousse and Le Robert legitimize a new harvest of Anglicisms every year in pursuit of buzz.

• Even the State and public institutions are affected, exemplified by names like France Services (English syntax), Choose France, and Health Data Hub…

• Film titles are often kept in English or re-translated into a simpler English title for the French public, rather than being translated into French.

• Commercial messages often use hybrid wordplay (e.g., HomeSchmidtHome).

• The widespread adoption of English commercial names suggests that the French have lost the capacity or, worse, the desire, to name modern things in their own language.

Part II: Penetration into the Corpus of French

The analysis delves deeper, showing that English influence is not limited to simple vocabulary borrowing but affects the core structure of French.

The lexicon is submerged not only by borrowings of form (e.g., kit, set, week-end) but also by borrowings of sense (anglicismes de signifié), where French words take on an English meaning (e.g., contrôler [to verify] used in the English sense of "to master/control").

An entire section is dedicated to corporate language, a hybrid jargon combining French and English elements that is essential in international professional settings. This language is rich in borrowings (nouns: feedback, deadline, workshop; verbs: booster, checker, forwarder; abbreviations: ASAP, FYI).

English influence also appears in morphology and syntax:

• Adoption of English prefixes and suffixes (e.g., the prefix e-, the suffix -gate).

• Calques of syntactic constructions, favoring the English word order (determiner before determined), resulting in forms like Sorbonne Université or Lorraine Aéroport (a hybrid form with French vocabulary but English syntax).

The author estimates that at least 10% of the lexicon of the general French language is composed of Anglicisms of form. The simple and brief nature of English terms (hotline, podcast) favors their adoption, adhering to the "law of least effort" that governs language evolution.

Part III: The Downgrading of French Status

The most severe problem identified is the loss of status and influence of French on a global level.

• International Institutions: French is less and less the effective working language. At the UN in New York, English accounted for 84.86% of words received for translation in 2017, compared to only 2.44% for French. In the European Union (EU), English massively dominates document drafting (92.46% at the General Secretariat of the Council). French is often relegated to a second-tier language requiring constant translation.

• Research and Higher Education: The share of French in scientific publications has plummeted from 27.2% in 1880 to 0.4% in 2015 in SCIE publications. English is increasingly imposed as the language of instruction in higher education, even in France, to attract foreign students.

• Internet: Despite optimistic assertions from the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), French often ranks lower than 4th online, far behind English and other languages. The OIF often relies on high "optimistic" figures for the number of Francophones based on broad definitions of the "capacity to express oneself", which obscures the reality of daily usage and genuine fluency.

Conclusion: Saving What Can Be Saved

Meney concludes that Anglicisms are only the symptom of the true danger, which is the power of English itself. He warns against the State's passivity and criticizes European legislation that indirectly facilitates the introduction of English, often to the detriment of clear information in the national language (e.g., product labeling and instruction).

Instead of simply criticizing American imperialism, he calls for a pragmatic attitude and the organization of linguistic coexistence. This includes revising the French Toubon Law to impose the primacy of French on French territory, drawing inspiration from the successful linguistic planning policies implemented in Quebec. The author suggests that the decline of the language is closely tied to the decline of France's power in various sectors (economic, scientific, cultural).

Keywords: sociolinguistics, language competition, English vs French, France, anglicization, loss of influence, law of language utility