Date:  Wed, 16 Mar 1994 00:42:01 -0500

From:  "Gregory J. Pulliam" <HUMPULLIAM[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MINNA.ACC.IIT.EDU>

Subject: French linguistic legislation



Regarding Mike Picone's point about the French perception that their ways

of thinking may be losing ground to anglo-style ways, well all I can say

is good riddance! ;-> Their condescending attitude toward tourists who

try to use French but screw it up seems to be unique in the world, and

probably accounts in large part for the ascendancy of English and Spanish,

whose speakers seem to think in ways that are much are accepting and

encouraging. One of the in-jokes on the new Star Trek series is that

French is a dead language in the 24th century. In all seriousness, it

does seem to me that if the French academy continues to prescribe usage, the

official and vernacular versions of the language are bound to diverge ever

more greatly, which could make official French a modern-day Latin.

GPulliam

humpulliam[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]minna.acc.iit.edu