page_title: Franglais
section_title: In France
hierarchical_section_title: Franglais / In France
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Carte de la Manche avec la situation des caps principaux, des îles et des villes importantes. Projection de Mercator, données de 2005. Fond de carte provenant de [www.aquarius.geomar.de www.aquarius.geomar.de] (défunt). English: Channel map with main capes, islands and cities. Projection of Mercator, data as of 2005. Map background from [www.aquarius.geomar.de www.aquarius.geomar.de] (defunct).
context_page_description: Franglais is a French blend which referred first to the overuse of English words by French-speakers, and later to diglossia or the macaronic mixture of French and English.
context_section_description: After World War II, a backlash began in France over the growing use of English there. "Corruption of the national language" was perceived by some to be tantamount to an attack on the identity of the country itself. During this period, ever greater imports of American products led to the increasingly widespread use of some English phrases in French. Measures taken to slow this trend included government censorship of comic strips and financial support for the French film and French-language dubbing industries. Despite public policies against the spread of English, Franglais is gaining popularity in both writing and speaking.
  In recent years, English expressions are increasingly present in French mass media:
  TV reality shows often use English titles such as Loft Story, Star Academy, Popstars, and Secret Story.
  A leading national newspaper, Le Monde, publishes a weekly article selection of The New York Times entirely in English and uses anglicisms such as newsletter, chat, and e-mail instead of French substitutions (bavardage/clavardage for "chat" or courriel for "e-mail").
  Note that saying bavardage to a French person instead of Internet "chat" may confuse them, since bavardage refers in France to real-life conversation and is rarely used in an Internet context. The word clavardage (a blend of clavier 'keyboard' and bavarder 'chat') is hardly known outside of Canada. The word chat in writing can be confusing as well since it natively means 'cat' in French, thus the unique respelling tchat is occasionally seen.
  In James Huth's blockbuster movie Brice de Nice (to be pronounced as if it were in English), Franglais is used in a satirical way to make fun of teens and other trendy people who use English words to sound cool.
  Most telecommunication and Internet service providers use English and Franglais expressions in product names and advertising campaigns. The leading operator, France Télécom, has dropped the accents in its corporate logo. In recent years, it has changed its product names with trendier expressions such as Business Talk, Live-Zoom, Family Talk. France Télécom's mobile telecommunications subsidiary Orange SA runs a franchise retail network called mobistores. Its Internet subsidiary, formerly known as Wanadoo (inspired by the American slang expression wanna do) provides a popular triple play service through its Livebox cable modem. The second-largest Internet service provider in France is Free, which offers its freebox. Set-top boxes that are offered by many other providers are also following this trend (e.g. Neuf-box, Alice-box, etc.) and the word box by itself is gradually ending up referring to these set-top boxes.
  SNCF, the state-owned railway company, has recently introduced a customer fidelity program called S'Miles. Meanwhile, Air France has renamed its Fréquence Plus frequent flyer program to Flying Blue. The Paris transportation authority RATP has also recently introduced a contactless smartcard ticketing system (like the Oyster card in London) called NaviGO.
  Public authorities such as the Académie française and the Conseil supérieur de la langue française generally propose alternative words for anglicisms. The acceptance of such words varies considerably; for example, ordinateur and logiciel existed before the English words computer and software reached France, so they are accepted (even outside France in the case of ordinateur). On the other hand, vacancelle failed to replace weekend or fin de semaine (the latter being in current usage in Canada). The word courriel, equivalent of "e-mail", coined and used in French-speaking Canada is gaining popularity in written European French. However, most French Internet users generally speak about mail without the prefix "e-". Note that English words are often shorter, and they are usually coined first (the French alternatives are generally thought of only after the original word has already been coined, and then they are debated at length before coming into use). This is partly why they tend to stay in use.
  Alternative words proposed by the Académie française are 
caption: Map of the English Channel, a natural barrier between French and English speaking communities
exif: {}