Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 15:22:50 CST From: Dennis Baron Subject: French propose law to ban English On p. 1 of today's NYTimes (midwest edition) there's a story about a proposed law banning all foreign words for which there is no local French equivalent. The law is more sweeping than its predecessors, and the government, according to the article, means business this time. They've even got Claude Hagege behind it, which frankly surprises me a bit, since I thought he was big on language variation. A "Delegation for the French Language," appointed by the culture ministry, is supposed to publish a dictionary of equivalent terms this week. I've written to the French consul in Chicago to try to obtain a copy of the dictionary. If anyone has info about this publication, or sees it somewhere, let me know. Dennis -- debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu (\ 217-333-2392 \'\ fax: 217-333-4321 Dennis Baron \'\ ____________ Department of English / '| ()___________) University of Illinois \ '/ \ ~~~~~~~~~ \ 608 South Wright St. \ \ ~~~~~~~~~ \ Urbana, IL 61801 ==). \ __________\ (__) ()___________)