gendarme
mistral
midi
b.
deraciné
façon
de parler
soi-disant
mauvais quatre
d’heure
mauvais sujet
longueur
We would probably recognise this as code-switching.
The problem is that many words in the category of [10.10] are not totally foreign, although they are not
fully Anglicised either. Words may resist nativisation to a greater or lesser degree. Even after a long period
of use in English some words fail to become fully adopted. Instead, they remain on the fringes, as tolerated
aliens with one foot in and the other foot out of the English lexicon. For the rest of this section we will
consider in some detail ‘les mots français’ in English which, to different degrees, resist assimilation.
Archetypical examples of such marginal entries in the English lexicon are the expressions
billet doux and
esprit de corps
which still feel foreign despite having been in use in English since the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries respectively.
A complicating factor in all this is that English speakers’ judgements are not uniform. Some people may
regard a word as foreign which others consider nativised. We will use a few rules of thumb to determine
whether a foreign word is Anglicised or not. But always bear in mind that they are very crude rules. There is
no
set of exact, scientific principles that can enable us to infallibly separate foreign words used in code-
switching from nativised borrowed words.
(i) Foreign grammatical properties may be ignored when a borrowed word is assimilated into the
grammatical system of English. Thus grammatical gender inflection gets ironed out since it is not
relevant in English. Contrasts like
naïf (masculine) as opposed to
naïve (feminine) disappear. In
English both men and women can be simply
naïve. I have heard people say either in English. My
impression is that conservative, older, highly educated speakers who are aware of the origin of this
word are the most likely to treat this word in this fashion.
(ii) If a word is not perceived as foreign any more, writers stop giving it special treatment. Any foreign
marks and diacritics used in its spelling disappear. They stop italicising it or putting it in inverted
commas, or offering a gloss, or doing anything to draw attention to it any more than they would an
indigenous word. Contrast the spelling of the fully Anglicised words in [10.11] with the spelling of
those in [10.12]; the latter are not yet fully Anglicised, so normally retain their French spelling.
[10.11]
French
English
French
English
théâtre
theatre
détour
detour
bâton
baton
débris
debris
bric à brac
bric-a-brac
dépôt
depot
café
cafe
élite
elite
châlet
chalet
rôle
role
décor
decor
simplicité
simplicity
détente
detente
naïve
naive
140 ENGLISH WORDS
[10.12]
French
English
à
la rigueur
à la rigueur
appliqué
appliqué
démodé
démodé
déshabillé
déshabillé
engage
engage
glacé
glacé, glace (cherries)
grandes écoles
grands écoles
(iii) In the spoken language, the more nativised a borrowed word is, the more it is made to fit in with the
standard rules that govern the pronunciation of words in the host language. If a
French word containing
sounds not found in English is Anglicised, such sounds are modified or replaced. If it contains sounds
which do also occur in English, but has them in awkward combinations, changes are made to make the
word conform to the phonotactic requirements of English. Stress is changed, if necessary, to fit in with
the stress patterns of English. Thus, even the most pedantic person would not try to pronounce a French
borrowing like
parent [peee
However, when words are only partially assimilated there is considerable scope for variation. Rarely is there
unanimity in the way such words are treated. Compare the English pronunciations of the words in [10.13] with
the French pronunciation. It is likely that you will disagree with what I say:
[10.13]
French
English
a.
buffet
[by`f ]
[by`f ]
~[bU`feI]
b.
garage
[ga `Ra]
[ge:]
~[`gær:d] ~
~ [`gær:] ~
~ [`gærId]
c.
impasse
[`pas]
[æm`p:s]
~[`Imp:s]
d.
ensemble
[sbl]
[:n`s:mbl]
~[:n`s:mbl] ~
[:n`s:mbl]
e.
débâcle
[de`bkl]
[de`b:kl]
~[deI`b:kl] ~
[dI`b:kl]
Do you have any strong feelings about the ‘correctness’ of these pronunciations? Do you believe that
remaining as close as possible to the original French pronunciation is highly desirable? Personally, I am
agnostic. My opinion is that whereas such questions might provide useful topics for the chattering classes to
occupy themselves with on a dull day, they are not particularly important for most language users. As
foreign words become fully integrated in a language, the pressure to make them conform to the standard
rules is often irresistible. But until they are fully assimilated, it is to be expected that speakers will treat them
differently.
A LEXICAL MOSAIC 141
