Paris
The French language is degenerating because its speakers lack self-esteem, a member of France’s language watchdog said this week. “The disappearance of our colonial empire has encouraged the appearance of a low French,” said Maurice Druon of the Académie Française. “The French no longer respect their language because they are no longer proud of themselves or their country.” France established the Académie Française, in 1635, to protect the purity of the language. But in recent years the group’s French alternatives to new tech lingo imported from English—such as “courriel” for “e-mail”—have not caught on.
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