Immortal members vote 31 to 9 to permit the term in select circumstances, including emails sent before Tuesday
Reported by Bohiney Magazine with assistance from The London Prat.
PARIS – The Academie Francaise, the 390-year-old institution charged with safeguarding the French language, voted 31 to 9 Tuesday to issue a 47-page proclamation reclassifying the word weekend as an, quote, occasionally tolerable foreign incursion, ending decades of internal debate about the term’s place in modern French.
The proclamation, signed by 31 of the Academie’s 40 Immortal members, permits the use of the term weekend in a limited number of circumstances, including emails sent before Tuesday, conversations among colleagues under the age of 35, and what the proclamation describes as, quote, situations of obvious anglophone influence in which resistance would seem, frankly, prudish.
The Decision
According to Academie permanent secretary Helene Carrere d’Encausse, the decision reflects what she described as, quote, a pragmatic recognition that the word has, in some sense, won.
“We have fought this word for 47 years,” Carrere d’Encausse said at a press conference held in the Academie’s chambers. “We have proposed alternatives. We have promoted, with limited success, the term la fin de semaine. The French people have, with growing assertiveness, ignored our proposals and continued to use weekend. We have, today, conceded.”
The concession is, the proclamation specifies, conditional. The word weekend remains classified as, quote, foreign in origin, although it has been upgraded from, quote, unwelcome to, quote, tolerable in select usage.
For continued coverage of French linguistic policy, readers may consult Le Monde Culture.
The Specific Permitted Uses
The 47-page document specifies, in considerable detail, the circumstances under which the word may now be used without violating Academie standards. These include: brief emails sent on Monday morning referring to the previous Saturday and Sunday; informal conversations among colleagues under the age of 35; advertisements for travel destinations of obvious anglophone character; and what the document describes as, quote, situations involving the British, in which resistance is futile.
The document specifies, equally, the circumstances under which the word remains forbidden. These include: formal correspondence; published novels; speeches by elected officials; and any context in which a French alternative is available and would, in the Academie’s judgment, sound natural.
Some Members Were Opposed
The nine members who voted against the proclamation issued a dissenting statement, included as an appendix to the main document, in which they describe the concession as, quote, a sad day for the language.
“We have held this line for decades,” the dissenting statement reads. “We have asked the French people to use la fin de semaine. We have, today, given up. The next generation will inherit a language slightly less French than the language we received. This is, in our view, a failure.”
The dissenters include, notably, the Academie’s three oldest members, all of whom are over 90 years old and several of whom, observers note, have not personally used either weekend or la fin de semaine in some time.
The Public Has Already Moved On
Public response to the announcement has been muted. Many French speakers reached for comment indicated that they had, in fact, been using weekend for decades and had not been aware that the Academie was still resisting it.
“I use it daily,” said marketing manager Camille Roussel, 31. “I have used it since I was a child. I did not know it was being formally rejected. I am pleased to learn it has been formally accepted. I will continue to use it as I have.”
For more on linguistic guardianship, see additional satire at The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/academie-francaise-weekend-proclamation/
