Long ago I remember hearing that said Commission declared that "weekend" was to be replaced by "fin de semaine".

Yeah right. Everybody says weekend.

I'm guessing this new publication will only be important in the offices of those who wrote it.

Long ago I remember hearing that said Commission declared that "weekend" was to be replaced by "fin de semaine".

The thing is just literally translating the words doesn't change the fact that France has no concept of "the weekend" in the way the UK does. So they still need "Le Weekend" for that.

Interested to know what this concept of the weekend is that "fin de semaine" doesn't convey and how come other romance languages manage to struggle on with "fin de semana" (Spanish), "fim de semana" (Portuguese), "fine settimana" (Italian) without needing to import "weekend" from English.

Most Slavic languages adopted weekend without any translation:

Víkend, Vikend, uïk-end, weekend, vikhidni, vykhadnyja.

French guy here : when you say "fin de semaine" you're talking about Friday afternoon/evening basically. Whereas "weekend" is the word used to describe Saturday and Sunday.

We don't have a word, except "weekend", to describe what happens between Friday evening and Monday morning.

Also, "une semaine" (~a week) covers the seven days period, whereas "la semaine" (~the week) is mostly about the Monday to Friday period.

So, yeah, saying that further on we need to say "fin de semaine" to describe what we are calling "weekend" won't work because we already use "fin de semaine" for something else.

So there is an existential void where Saturday and Sunday should be... sounds pretty French as well.

It's worth remembering that a "week day" in English means the working week Monday to Friday and excludes Saturday Sunday which are also part of a week but not week days.

> Long ago I remember hearing that said Commission declared that "weekend" was to be replaced by "fin de semaine".

Well, at least they aren't calling it dernières deux jours hebdomadaires

I'm guessing this new publication will only be important in the offices of those who wrote it.

Some moon ago I was running a training class in France (its an American company so training is in "English") and over lunch one of the company's top performance consultant who was from Paris told me that the following week he had to attend a French class.

I looked confused, "But you're French"

Yes, but next week I need to go on a special "learn French" course to learn all the French words for things to do with computers. I need to go and sort out some problems on a government site and if I use any American word I will be banned from the site and I won't be able to solve their problems for them.

Like so many cases, technical ability counts for nothing, they are just interested in the ability to jump through hoops.

Ok, I get it. Someone who makes money out of playing games. And good luck to them.

But to call sitting on your arse infront of a telly, pressing a few buttons and maybe twiddling a joystick a "sport"?

Seriously?

In that case, if I sit further from the bar and make more frequent trips to said bar for more beer, then that should surely qualify me as a marathon runner?

Cheers... Ishy

It's that old argument of sports vs games again. Darts, Bridge, Snooker etc etc.

Bit I find odd is that people want to watch other people play video games.

Darts - one of the few sports where the viewers are often fitter than the contestants!

Thanks, I will have my 7 pints now =>

"There are only 3 sports, mountain climbing, motorsport and bull fighting; all the rest are merely games" (Hemingway).

(I'd add rugby personally, yes more of a game, but still plenty of potential for life-altering injury)

I get his point completely, and agree that watch someone play a pc-game would seem dull as ditch water, but then plenty of people watch things like golf or football.

Bit I find odd is that people want to watch other people play video games.

Even before "e-sports" was a thing, I enjoyed watching my friends play video games. I'm not into esports btw, but I do enjoy watching other people play video games. It's far more enjoyable to me than watching a football match.

E-sports, nope. No interest in bad twitch shooters; especially those being played by caffeinated, sugar-rushed 17 yr olds.

However, the speedrunning / glitching communities can be incredibly entertaining. Kaizo mario is a whole rabbit hole all of it's own. Try "Summer games done quick 2019 SMW Blind Kaizo Race" and you will see why it's worth a watch.

Another one I'd recommend is Heinki's speedrun of Deus Ex (SGDQ 2018).

The old Gamesmaster show had quite an audience in the 90's for people watching people play games (sometimes).

Shooting and archery are Olympic sports, darts isn't particularly different in the physical requirements. In fact I have a huge respect for the mental arithmetic capabilities of darts players, who can manage to break down any number < approx 150 into (1..3)x + (1..3)y + 2z before I've even had time to register what the number is.

With respect to snooker, anyone who's had to deal with a cue ball on the opposite side of the table knows that snooker requires a remarkable agility in certain situations, and with respect to 20-30 years ago all the top professionals are exceptionally trim, if not exactly 'fit'. Of course as in any other sport, you get the ultra-talented using their talent to get physically lazy eg Ronnie O'Sullivan just switching hands instead of reaching over the table with his 'stronger' hand.

I don't know anything about esports but surely it requires at the very least a very high level of mental concentration and stamina, which in turn is greatly helped by physical fitness.

But to call sitting on your arse infront of a telly, pressing a few buttons and maybe twiddling a joystick a "sport"?

Amen, brother! I'd call that watching porn, not sport.

I know ... computer games are a sport?

Whatever you call them, they're big business.

This story just scrapes the surface of the bigness https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/16/lenovo_esports_services/

There are plenty of properly Freecell professional players out there. Playing it during working hours counts as such, doesn't it?

Maybe this is oversimplifying things, but the way I see it is:

Game = Something you play.

Sport = Something you watch.

Sport = Hunting Animals.

Game = The animals that are hunted.

Strange language.

un animal de compagnie, simply for pet...

Unfortunately certain groups over here want to call pets just that - companion animals - because 'pet' is 'demeaning to the animal'. So if I want to stroke one of my cats, I now have to refer to it as 'animal companioning' instead of 'petting'?...!

Twats.

I know, right? And just think of all the swimming pool signs which would have to be changed - "no running, no dive bombing, no heavy animal companioning". It's madness!

It seems that previous people replying missed the joke : in French "pet" stands for "fart".

It's not that bad, since, at least, the words are meaningful in french, even if they are really straightforward.

They particularly didn't re-invent terrible terms like "bogue" for "bug" or similar non-sense.

I don't even think I've read anyone use this awful word "bogue" anywhere, but I'm sure this is still the "regular" french term for "bug".

An esteemed academic colleague of mine - who had lived in France for many years - maintained that the mere existence of the organisation, and its predecessor(s), was clear evidence that French is a dead language.

The interesting thing is that while "official" French increasingly resembles an unopened Hammer Horror crypt, festooned with dust and cobwebs, your actual French (to borrow a phrase) is rather more inventive, especially amongst the younger people in the técis , which no doubt leaves their ramps somewhat vénères .

France is by no means the only country to have an official body that determines linguistic orthodoxy - it's actually quite common. In most cases, though, their main function is to keep the official version in line with current practice - which ensures everyone a perpetual job as all languages change over time. It does seem that the French - and more particularly the Quebecois - have a particular missionary zeal in their endeavours.

This commission's origin can be traced back to the [1]Académie Française created in 1635. Claiming that French is a dead language since four centuries is clearly an academic-type joke: it's trying to be witty with no sense of reality.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_Fran%C3%A7aise

I wonder what the Icelanders do with this stuff. They are possibly even hotter than the French on preservation of the language against loan-words. I also get the impression that Icelanders largely support that, in contrast to the average personne française.

Of course the Icelanders are probably far more sensible than to indulge in professional computer game-playing.

Of course the Icelanders are probably far more sensible than to indulge in professional computer game-playing.

"The 2021 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the eleventh iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament was held from 5 October to 6 November in Reykjavík, Iceland."

Mind you, they've never quite struck me as a [1]sensible bunch.

;)

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oeJjzdlTuI

"Go stick your head in a pig"?

I've got a fifty mile high neon sign ready to half-bury in mud & I need to get the "accidental" electrical shorts in the right order. =-)p

Va mettre ta tête dans un cochon.

We're an odd species really.

Language is the thing we use to communicate with each other, to convey our ideas, thoughts and emotions, you'd think we'd all be madly rushing towards some kind of commonality, especially with the globalisation of communications. (Imagine, just being able to talk to anyone.... no matter where they were...)

However, we don't, we become nostalgic about it, as though it's the only way to maintain a specific cultural identity (despite that being an ephemeral thing that's constantly changing and differs from person to person), we romanticise it and jealously guard it.

All so we can be less well understood by each other. How strange.

Iechyd da!

That's an interesting way of putting things.

But don't worry, if [1]Serenity is anything to go by, soon all Earthlings will be bilingual Chinese/English and there will be no other languages.

Well, maybe on Mars . . .

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/

Gurps Terradyne postulated the future common language would be "Janglish", though I have to admit Chinglish seems rather more likely a future.

$DEITY help us all, because literal translations between the two usually go horribly wrong.

...if Serenity...

I think you mean [1]Firefly .

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303461/

English is the defacto common language. When two foreigners who don't speak each other's language meet, they generally get by with English.

Four hundred years ago French occupied this role, and basically they're still angry about it.

"Sacre Bleu" => "Sacrebleu".

Considering the way governments seek to eliminate the local languages of people in countries they have invaded and/or groups they don't like, maybe such languages do have some importance ?

PS: programmers complaining about too many languages ??

They even went through the process of "let's make one language without all the arcane syntax and grammar", and created a simple language that's easy to learn. Esperanto failed to catch on, and everyone carried on using existing languages instead.

Could the same thing happen to Python?

This is the country where "après-midi" is shortened down to "aprèm". And they don't even say "bon weekend", everybody around here says "bon week"...and an awful lot of things are known by abbreviations and acronyms - Sécu, CAF, etc.

So I would contest that people aren't speaking English words because "English is cool", but rather it's partly because tech words likely came first in English, and mostly because it's less of a mouthful than whatever the académie française might dream up.