English is not a language, it’s just badly spoken French

A new book by a Gallic linguist has started a war of words. By Henry Samuel in Paris and Flora Bowen

Few would deny that English has conquered the world. But the French have always refused to take this linguistic victory lying down. For centuries, the guardians of French at the Académie Française, France’s linguistic authority since 1634, have been struggling to contain the invasion of anglais.

Now, however, a new book has challenged claims of English dominance with a beautifully simple premise that may risk putting the Académiciens out of a job: the English language doesn’t exist, it’s just badly pronounced French.

That’s the argument of a treatise, published in France this week by French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini. He says that “the real power of English and its universal prestige, its value, its ability to deal with everything, is due to the massive use of one particular language: French.”

He argues that French has given English “an abstract vocabulary, the lexicon of commerce and administration, its legal and political terms, etc. Everything that has made it a sought-after, used and esteemed international language.”

A touch provocative? “Evidemment, I make no bones about that,” he says. “This is a book written in bad faith. It’s a French book. So (it is) arrogant.”

Thus the global rise of English is nothing more than “a tribute to the French-speaking world, the payment of an age-old debt to our language.” Touché.

Cerquiglini is no mere pamphleteer (another word pilfered from French). He has spent his career on language wars’ front line, defending his native tongue as former director of the National Institute for the French Language. He has even written an “Autobiography of the Circumflex”, on the accent mark used in words such as “hôpital”). According to Cerquiglini’s research, more than 80,000 terms – a third of the English vocabulary – are of French origin.

Some 40 per cent of the 15,000 words in Shakespeare’s works were of French origin. The same percentage can be found in the current English version of the Bible.

“English, full of French, Norman and Latin, is more of a Romance language than a Germanic one,” writes Cerquiglini.

Such revelations may come as a surprise to Anglophone speakers.

Widespread ignorance of English’s French ancestry may be summed up by George W Bush’s notorious alleged complaint that, “The trouble with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur.”

The influence of French over English reflects the relationship between the two countries.

Naturally, the rot started in 1066. After the Norman conquest, French became the language of the ruling class. “The Anglo-Saxon people and their language were under the yoke” for two centuries, until a descendant of William could muster enough English to address Parliament, says Cerquiglini. Germanic words were used for livestock tended by the poor, like oxen, sheep and swine or pigs, while noble French words were used for the same animals on plates: beef, mutton and pork.

As Cerquiglini puts it, “Without the Normans, English would be a second Dutch language today.”

Words of Saxon origin are concrete and linked to experience, while those of French origin are more “abstract and intellectual”, he says, comparing, say, “to ask” (Saxon) and “to demand” (French). In addition, English incorporates Latin as a noble third means of expression, giving rise to “weary” (Saxon), “fatigued” (French), and “exhausted” (Latin).

While French ceased to be a mother tongue in Britain after the Hundred Years War, it was a second language in education, commerce and law.

In that time, it became what Cerquiglini calls “insular French”, turning English into a “museum” of Old French and giving rise to many “faux amis” (false friends), expressions existing on both sides of the Channel but meaning subtly different things.

For example, “cave”, from the Old French word “cave” (meaning cavern) kept its meaning in English but morphed to cellar in modern French.

However, Dr Christophe Gagne, a Fellow in French at the University of Cambridge, says English has also significantly influenced French vocabulary. “From the 19th century onwards, we see the English influence in French more.”

Cerquiglini does also praise English, which he says “has no problem adopting foreign words, whether they be Chinese or Viking. It’s flexible. French has a harder time of it because it has always been a state language where a foreign word is almost viewed as the enemy.” And he says he hopes mother-tongue English-speakers will not take offence at his claims.

“I really mean to say the French have helped enrich English and say so using British-style humour with a stiff upper lip. I hope I have succeeded.”