New French words for buzz and chat
Chat becomes 'éblabla' and newsletter 'infolettre' as jury agrees on new French words for English terms
A JURY of French-language defenders have agreed on a new set of words to replace five anglicisms commonly used by young people.
A competition was launched to ask students to come up with suggestions for French words for "chat", "talk", "tuning", "buzz" and "newsletter".
The jury, which included Académie Française members, MPs, journalists and rapper MC Solaar, agreed on the following:
buzz - ramdam
tuning (modifying a car) - bolidage
chat - éblabla
newsletter - infolettre
talk - débat (not a new word, but considered the best option)
The junior minister in charge of promoting the French language, Alain Joyandet, said the annual exercise was worthwhile.
"Ten years ago everyone was talking about the walkman or software," he said. "These words have now been naturally replaced in our language by baladeur and logiciel."
The new words will be added to dictionaries shortly. The students who came up with them each win a placement in a French cultural centre overseas.
Quebec has already introduced new French words for other technological terminology including baladodiffusion for podcasting and numériseur for scanner.
Maximo Sanz - Fotolia.com
