France Bans the Term 'E-mail'

Dyre Straits · Jul 18, 2003, 02:31 PM

PARIS - Goodbye "e-mail", the French government says, and hello "courriel" — the term that linguistically sensitive France is now using to refer to electronic mail in official documents.

The Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the use of "e-mail" in all government ministries, documents, publications or Web sites, the latest step to stem an incursion of English words into the French lexicon.

The ministry's General Commission on Terminology and Neology insists Internet surfers in France are broadly using the term "courrier electronique" (electronic mail) instead of e-mail — a claim some industry experts dispute. "Courriel" is a fusion of the two words.

"Evocative, with a very French sound, the word 'courriel' is broadly used in the press and competes advantageously with the borrowed 'mail' in English," the commission has ruled.

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~~HawK~~ · Jul 18, 2003, 02:49 PM

Yeah, way to go France, this wil surely unite europe

~~DriveEuro~~ · Jul 18, 2003, 03:02 PM

Crazy french..

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jul 18, 2003, 04:28 PM

french are tards

~~craig588~~ · Jul 18, 2003, 04:55 PM

Who cares about the name of something? This is just as dumb as the freedom fries thing.

ToshiroOC · Jul 18, 2003, 05:58 PM

They have an institute for the control of the French language... French hasn't changed much over the years, for the better or worse, thanks to them... its something they've always done. Not a big deal.

starboy · Jul 18, 2003, 06:49 PM

What's wrong with the 'Email', french?

A curse or something?