English Sans French
The Franco-American
dispute
falling out over the best
approach
way to
disarming Iraq
take away Iraq's weapons has resulted in perhaps the highest
level of anti-French feeling in the United
States
Lands since 1763.
A French-owned
hotel
innkeeping firm, Accor, has taken down the
tricolor
three-hued flag. In the House of
Representatives
Burghers, the
chairman
leader of the
Committee
Body on
Administration
Running Things has
renamed
named anew French fries "freedom fries" and French toast "freedom toast" in House
restaurants
eating rooms.
To which the
question
asking arises: Why stop with Evian, Total gasoline, and the Concorde (
just
only the Air France flights)? Let's get to the heart of the
matter
thing: A
huge
big percentage of the words in
modern
today's English are of - gasp! - French
origin
beginnings. What if, as a result of the
current diplomatic dispute
today's falling out between lands, the French
demand
ask for their words back? We could all be linguistic
hostages
captives.
It is time for English-speaking
peoples
folk to throw off this cultural
imperialism
lording-it-over-others and
declare
say our linguistic freedom. It is time to
purify
clean the English
language
tongue. It will take some
sacrifices
hardship on everyone's part to get used to the new
parlance
speech. But think of the
satisfaction
warm feeling inside on the day we
are all able to
can all stare the
Académie Française in the eye and say without fear of
reprisal
injury: "
Sumer is icumen in...."
|
CSMonitor.com
The Christian Science Monitor