Viktor&Rolf haute couture fall-winter 2018-2019 show (Paris, July 4, 2018) Getty
The Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language is taking seriously the topic of English expressions adopted by the fashion world, publishing a list of French equivalents.
Is the fashion world sabotaging Moliere’s language? There is no doubt for the Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language. the drift must therefore largely be echoed as well. In a note published in the Official Journal on January 25, the council under Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne points out that there are many English word equivalents that have settled into industry jargon. And goes so far as to give a number of suggestions to combat systematic idiom borrowing.
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Thus, the anglicisms that frequently appear have been carefully scrutinized. Therefore, a French alternative is proposed. it’s a girl becomes a “fashion icon” lifestyle “lifestyle”, a word corner “advertising space”, bag“bag” that bag , “balcony bag”, or must-haves translate as “indispensable”.
fashion under the influence
The phenomenon is not recent. Translator Marie-Alice Rebours reports this in her thesis on ready-to-wear language borrowings from English since the 1950s. He explains that one of the two terms in the fashion vocabulary is influenced by English. A tendency that he does not reduce to simple linguistic coquetry, because for him the few borrowings are not justified. In 2021, at the “Dire la Mode en français” conference organized by the Culture(s) de Mode research network, the researcher returned to xenisms, terms that referred to objects belonging to another culture, such as the kilt. Less inevitable in appearance, other borrowings, such as it girls and others bags pointed out by the Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language also seem to meet different needs.
“Brands need to find a new name for the product to drive sales, […] adopt the terminology of international leaders for young brands or declining brands,[…] to stand out from previous generations, from different communities…” explains Marie-Alice Rebours. According to the expert, the use of English is largely due to commercial and image purposes. Significant challenges for the industry, which represents 3.1% of France’s GDP (French Fashion Institute, 2018). Should we fear the elimination of French in fashion slang?
Irrevocable “frangles”?
For the researcher, English incursions into French remain fleeting and as cyclical as fashion can be. “There was a big wave of borrowing in the 1960s, another wave in the 1990s and a big wave for 10 years,” notes Marie-Alice Rebours. Still unable to comment on the stability of this new wave of Anglicanism, he notes that this thirty-year period represents roughly one generation. And suggests that each of them may need their own terminology to establish themselves. Even if it means doing it by getting rid of Moliere’s language.
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Source: Le Figaro
