Iranian leader bans usage of foreign words

[unblock]

kinda reminds you of "freedom fries", don't it?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060729/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_foreign_words

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.

The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported.

The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used in Iran, mostly from Western languages. The government is less sensitive about Arabic words, because the Quran is written in Arabic.

Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to official Web site of the academy.

[Joanne98]

1. Elastic loaves? They need more creative word police.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. How about "sauce and cheese discs?"

:rofl:

[unblock]

6. they should talk to the french.

i remember when i was a kid, they replaced "pipe-line" with "pipeline".

:rofl:

[Solo_in_MD]

23. Indeed

They have long had language police. Most of us find it amusing.

[ixion]

12. mmmmmmmmmm...elastic loaves

tasty. :evilgrin: :sarcasm:

[jayctravis]

41. It probably makes a lot more sense natively.

I mean...what the heck does "pizza" mean?

Could say the same about "bread stick"

Someone once told me that English is the only language that has different terms for an animal and the meat that comes from it.

[cornermouse]

3. Another idiot in a position of power.

We seem to have a surplus these days.

[AlinPA]

4. Exactly. Or "English only". Look for rpigs to follow suit, by eliminating

all foreign phrases, especially French from our dictionaries.

[MrPrax]

28. Touche!

Gotta love that racist self-righteousness and 'freedom' fries...

US Congress opts for "freedom fries"

French fries in the House of Representatives' cafeterias will now be known as "freedom fries" as part of a Republican protest at France's opposition to a war on Iraq.

Republican representative Bob Ney, whose committee is in charge of the eateries, said the action was "a small but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France".

BBC


Oh, Say Can You Sing ... the National Anthem?

May 8, 2006 — "The Star Spangled Banner" — our national anthem — is under attack. Or so you would think by the rush to defend it on Capitol Hill last week.

As millions marched for immigration rights, the U.S. Senate introduced a resolution to ensure that the national anthem would be sung only in English. A day later a similar measure was introduced in the House of Representatives.
ABC

Shit Americans can't even handle English words...

[RoseMead]

5. I always enjoy seeing proof

that idiocy is international.

[LiberalVoice]

7. Idiot nt

[Connie_Corleone]

8. Reads like an Onion article. What a nutjob.

Elastic loaves. :eyes:

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. Actually, it reminds me of the English Only nuts

:rofl:

[Gully Foyle]

10. Wake up

Sounds like a Psyop to me. You no make the Iranians sound CRAZY to justify invasion.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

15. that's my thought too

With all this shit going on in the ME, I don't think they would be wasting their time on something like this.

[Greeby]

11. This has gotta be the Onion, right?

I take this story as being as credible as the one about Iranian Jews being forced to wear markers. The propagandists are lining up their catapults :eyes:

[rodeodance]

13. sorry Iran--but you cannot put the Jeanni back in the bottle.

[C_U_L8R]

14. Jihad Fries ???

[Mnemosyne]

16. Anyone remember the story "Iran Makes Jews wear symbols"?

Just saying.

[cobalt1999]

17. reminds me of the French

Shoot, they have a whole government department dedicated to keeping foreign words from slipping into use. They dictate what the new French word should be, and people ACTUALLY follow their advice.

[tocqueville]

20. this is BS, sorry

the Academy (which is not a governmental organisation but a gathering of scientists) proposes alternatives, somme are followed, some not depending of the context. The advice has legal value (Loi Toubon) only for official texts since using a foreign language towards the citizens would anticonstitutional ("The language of the Republic is French"). At the same time it would be anticonstitutional to tell private citizens or companies (even media) "how to speak" (freedom of expression). So it doesn't apply to them.

Most of the time the English word represents a new phenomenon mostly from the computer world, therefore it can be difficult to find an equivalent.

Quebec has a very tough legislation about that, Iceland and Norway too. In France when some purists do it for sole linguistical reasons, most of the time it brings a smile.

Of course the Anglo-Saxon press like to blow up stuff like that when in reality it's nothing.

What is true is that the amount of English speaking music has been limited to max 60% on radio stations (law of cultural exception - UN ratified). But this is a way to promote the own culture and the example has been followed by many other countries among them Germany, Canada, Spain, Italy and plenty of African and Asian countries. It hasn't limited the sales of big American or English artists, but promoted plenty of "local music". A similar regulation applies to films.

Another very little known fact is that Jazz is very big in France. A lot of American Jazz artists move to France or come often to perform, because Jazz has been losing enormously specially to the younger generation. Jazz renewal is more a French phenomenon than an American one, specially after Katrina, where a lot of local musicians got French support.

There is a very big difference into having measures to protect your cultural identity and the Iranian measure aimed to simply defy and piss off others.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

27. where would English be without French phrases

which started creeping into the language around 1066--

one of my favorites-
rendezvous

[cobalt1999]

30. well, it's a fine distinction at best.

"The advice has legal value (Loi Toubon) only for offical texts"...sounds official and governmental to me. As for citizens, the ones I work with DO listen and follow (strange since the French try to have a reputation of being independent).

Yes, I work in the computer industry and it's funny to be doing business in France, talking French with people you've dealt with many times, and suddenly they'll pretend they don't understand a word we've used dozens of times in the past. You know why? The Academy has gotten to it.

I find the whole thing silly and not really any different than the crazy Iranian law.

[tocqueville]

37. I'll take your word for that, but really doubt it

and it sounds very strange to me and unrepresentative since I work into web design (and not with governmental officials).

"At all events, there is no doubt that contemporary French writing in the journalistic register (newspapers, magazines, topical non-fiction books) is strewn with words and phrases deriving from English, whether they are genuine British and/or American forms or pseudo-anglicisms. Indeed, a fairly recent book, Non merci, Oncle Sam! ('No thanks, Uncle Sam!', 1999) by Noël Mamère, a Green politician, and Olivier Warin, a television journalist, which consists entirely of anti-American polemics, proved, on my own detailed examination, to contain, over its 187 pages, a total of 57 anglicisms (words or phrases, excluding repetitions), making an average of almost one fresh anglicism every three pages, including such gems as: 'les téléspectateurs zappent' ('TV viewers zap'), ' surfent sur le Web' ('they surf the Web'), 'de confortables portefeuilles de stock-options' ('comfortable portfolios of stock-options'), or 'le record du monde des serial-killers' ('the world record in serial killers')15. The phenomenon affects most areas of public discourse (with the major exceptions of domestic politics and, above all, the law, where the difference of legal systems acts as a effective barrier to anglicisms), and is especially prevalent in the semantic domains of management and information technology."

...............

We may go on to consider, again in detail, the use of anglicisms in a longer article in the IT field, taken from the 10-22 December 1999 issue of the magazine Le Nouvel Économiste. This text, entitled 'La France bascule dans l'Internet' ('France moves on to the Internet'), exhibits a total of 25 anglicisms. While the core terminology used displays a certain oscillation ('Internet' alternates with 'le Réseau', 'le Web' with 'la Toile') and certain specifically French terms such as 'internaute' ('websurfer') do get a look-in, more often than not the authors take the line of least resistance and borrow the English term nearest to hand. Thus, we find: 'Ils sont des centaines de milliers ... à échanger des e-mails, ... à rechercher un job sur les sites d'emploi' ('In their hundreds of thousands ... they exchange emails ... and look for jobs on situations-vacant sites'); 'ils veulent juste des snacks ouverts 24 heures sur 24' ('they just want snack-bars open 24 hours a day'); 'tee-shirt, haut débit et fun' ('T-shirt, high performance and fun'); 'le directeur du marketing' ('the marketing director'); 'cette start-up star de la Bourse' ('this start-up star of the Stock Exchange'); 'leur business plan' ('their business plan'), etc. These examples reveal two tendencies, both relating to the uncritical replication of transatlantic attitudes. One is the wholesale assimilation of free-market values, as reflected in 'business plan', 'marketing', 'job', 'start-up star', etc. The other, equally insidious, is what might be called 'Disneyfication', the naturalisation of the 'entertainment' values of US mass culture, as manifested in usages like 'fun' (why not the native 'divertissement'?), 'snack' (adapted from 'snack-bar'; as if France did not have its 'brasseries'), and, indeed, 'tee-shirt' (with a curious variant spelling)19. Article texts like this may be found in the French press every day of the week, suggesting that Pivot and Laroche-Claire will have their work cut out to make their anti-anglicisms crusade succeed.

http://seikilos.com.ar/Anglicisms.html

all facts tend to prove that except for official texts the presence of English word in modern French is very visible, besides the fact that a lot of people use "franglais" which is a mixture of French and English and hardly understandable for a normal English speakers. The later is pure snobism.

the defenders of the "purity" of the French language are a tiny minority, and their battle is already lost. At the same time a lot of those "new English words" (maybe even the majority) have their roots in Middle-Age French or Latin, so it doesn't really matter. More than a third of all English words are derived directly or indirectly from French, and it's estimated that English speakers who have never studied French already know 15,000 French words.

http://french.about.com/library/bl-frenchinenglish.htm

The Iranians have a completely different agenda

[Retrograde]

42. Can't reach L'Academie on le weekend

The Academie had some initial success with "Ordinateur" for computer and "logicel" (which I'm sure I misspelled) for software, but when I saw a billboard in Paris advertising low rates for "le surfing" I knew they were fighting a losing battle. The Iranian experiment will probably end the same way.

[tocqueville]

18. Ban all Persian words from the English language

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-english-words-of-persian-origin

among them :

Paradise
Check
Chess
India
Lemon
Magic
Orange
Pajamas
Peach
Rose
Serendipity
Sherry
Sugar
Tiger
Tulip

all these words can be found in French with a somewhat different spelling

[unblock]

19. serendipity is persian? i thought it was from sri lanka

or did the persians give sri lanka its earlier name of "serendip"?

on edit:

wiki says it's an old arabic name for sri lanka

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendip

[tocqueville]

21. the toughest for fundies is Paradise....

naah on second thought it's only Hell that count for them

[AliceWonderland]

29. No thanks, I don't think I will.

I find the Persian words above sensual and pleasing and see no reason to give them up. In fact, I think I want to go find my mate and create some rose tulip magic in our pajamas, perhaps with the help of some sherry. It's serendipity.

[sgxnk]

22. france does the same thing

france's ministry of culture can fine businesses that use american phrases in advertising, etc. and they have done so

an example would be "le weekend" and other americanisms

cites available if requested

"ministries of culture" are positively orwellian

[Flagg]

31. Chose to completely ignore post #20 huh ?

[sgxnk]

36. nope

just saw post #20

and it supports my post

france's ministry of culture DOES fine businesses for using americanisms (or other countryisms) in their advertising etc.

which i find totally orwellian

so, where is that refuted?

[tocqueville]

38. I have a different reading than yours

"The advice has legal value (Loi Toubon) only for official texts since using a foreign language towards the citizens would anticonstitutional ("The language of the Republic is French"). At the same time it would be anticonstitutional to tell private citizens or companies (even media) "how to speak" (freedom of expression). So it doesn't apply to them."

The only way a private company could be regulated is if it's hired by the state in a public service mission. The law cannot apply to medias or individuals. The motive is a constitutional motive. The text of the law must be writeen in a language that ALL French can understand. If the anglicism is part of the French language, it's an official anglicism.
This kind of criticism against France is very unjustified, specially when coming from people that normally would go ballistic if their national anthem is sung in Spanish or because a Mexican flag is waved in a demonstration. Those same people that don't know a fuck about France should know that we don't mind having our anthem sung in another languages and accept foreign flags in demonstrations when it's not done in an anti-French purpose.
We invite other armies to parade in uniform on our National day and open the ceremony, even Germans, to show a non-hostile attitude to our allies. Every 14th of July the President invites to a "garden-party" and that's what everybody calls it, not a "déjeuner sur l'herbe".


Those people still go on TV (an even sometimes on DU) and chant "The French would never tolerate..."

They don't know a fuck and ought to know better

[sgxnk]

39. here are three cites to support my claim

here's several cites. including the guardian UK. clearly a RW shill site :) and Wired. and stuff

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1031712,00.html

Within France, the language benefits from a veritable battery of protective laws, decrees and directives. Radio stations must play mostly music with French lyrics, and advertisements in English are, with few exceptions, outlawed unless accompanied by a translation.

Most of the legislation stems from the 1994 "loi Toubon", which briefly threatened jail for anyone using words like "le weekend" or "le parking". Even today, companies are occasionally prosecuted - although not as often as organisations such as the Committee for the Defence of the French Language, one of a myriad of similar militant bodies, would like - for using anglicisms in ads and brochures.

Few other countries have a 400-year-old institution like the Académie Française, whose main duty is to act as linguistic watchdog, chiding bad French and approving good. The general commission on terminology and neology, a government body responsible for creating acceptable Gallic alternatives for Anglo-Saxon interlopers, is also highly active, last month banning the word "email" from all official usage in favour of the ungainly "courriel".

But that term is no more likely to find popular acceptance in France than previous complex and wordy commission coinages intended to replace - to name just a few of its 8,000 most recent recommendations - la start-up, la stock-option, le golden boy, le debriefing, le happy few, and le show business.

"We have a plethora of means of protecting the language," insisted Bernard Cerquiglini, the head of the unit within France's culture ministry charged with promoting French.



http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.05/culture_pr.html

http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/articles/frenchflame.html
The 1994 Toubon law, named after the then-French minister of culture,
requires that all advertising of goods and services in France be in French or
at least include a French translation.

Until this week, the law has been applied mainly to restaurant menus or
labels on products, starting with English-labeled Bambi stuffed toys in the
Disney outlet on the Champs Elysees. But the new lawsuit tests whether
the law also applies to information on the Internet.

"The Toubon law covers all advertising of goods or services in France. There
is no reason why the Internet should escape," says Marie-Helene Dumestre,
who supervises application of the Toubon law for the French Ministry of
Culture.

[leesa]

24. This should sound familiar and comforting to the Republicans

Freedom is on the March.

[shadowknows69]

25. I guess Ahmadinejad has read 1984 too

The world is being run by morans and psychos.

[mcscajun]

26. Does he want any "freedom fries" with that?

Ultra-maroons exist in every country, in too many governments.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. exactly! language police = theocracy

the patriotic republicans tried to clean up our language too, but by shoving in an "in gawd we trust", and "under gawd", and 'christian nation' into every bit of history, especially if it does not belong. .

[Miss Chybil]

33. One pepperoni and sausage elastic loaf, please. And can I get extra

spoiled milk on that?

[BayCityProgressive]

34. If this is true this

is truly pathetic and shows the mindset of the Iranian leadership. Let me guess..the word "pizza" is part of the zionist plot against them?:eyes:

[MGD]

35. Good for you Ahmedinejihad, isolate your country from the world even more

Save us the effort.

[Minstrel Boy]

40. You mean like Quebec?

There are a lot of good reasons to object to Ahmadinejad's rule, but this isn't a very serious one.

[slackmaster]

43. Diet Cola?

Any Firesign Theatre fans out there?