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Software to translate foreign words into English as and when Britons or Americans are spoken to abroad has been envisioned by Bill Gates as a sharing tool for the future. Officials in France have brought his dream one step closer to reality, by creating a computer program that automatically replaces Anglo-Saxon terms into their native tongue. But unlike the philanthropic Mr Gates, the French government hopes its software will serve not as an enabler - but as a barrier, to stop English spreading further into its prized parlance. Details of the program, obtained by a national newspaper, reveal it will be installed on all French ministry word processors for civil servants to use by the end of the year. The Terminology Corrector – Le Correctuer Terminologique - will activate when, for example, the word ‘e-mail’ is typed by popping-up the official French alternative ‘courriel.’ Alfred Gilder, software lead at the finance ministry, told the Daily Telegraph that the program will help because official French words are often less known than their English equivalents. The defence of national language is generally accepted as being taken much more seriously in France than in other countries, amid concern it has lost influence by being diluted. French unions staged a protest last year against the nation’s businesses using English over French in their communications – a move they said helped relegate the language to a local dialect. The protection of French is also championed by Jacques Chirac who, during his tenure as President, once walked out of a meeting in Brussels when a Frenchman began his speech in English. Mar 12, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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