Language Purity

Never before had I really considered the fact that a language can be "polluted," in a sense, by other languages. The thought had never occurred to me until it came up in class in reference to the French. Then I saw this article about the Chinese government banning the use of English acronyms such as GDP and MBA from their television broadcasts. The acronyms are supposed to be replaced with what are most often much lengthier explanations in Chinese. I find this new rule to be surprising on multiple accounts.

First of all, China is most definitely a world power. But it is also a huge language power simply based on the sheer number of people who speak it. (As an aside, the article did not specify whether it was referring to Mandarin or Cantonese. I looked up the two languages and discovered that Mandarin is the official language of China and is used in most schools, universities, and television programming.) It seems like, as a result of this language prowess, the Chinese government would be less concerned about the occasional use of English acronyms in television programs. The other thing is that I'm surprised that these acronyms are considered to be of such great import. I don't really understand how they have a big impact on the overall integrity of the Chinese language.

As we discussed in class the other day, the French are also very strict about the use of English words in their language. They even have a whole governmental commission whose purpose is to invent French words for these English counterparts. They are clearly very controlling about the use of their language. This seems a little bit more reasonable to me because French seems to be a language with a little less vitality, just considering it's use is much less common.

Unsurprisingly, this control of language in France extends beyond the use of English acronyms. I went to France this summer with my family and noticed that they play a lot of American music on their radio stations. Actually, the majority of the music was American. But occasionally you'd hear a French version of a song and they played some music by French artists. As it turns out, France actually has a law that states that a certain percentage of a radio station's music must be in French. By law, they are not allowed to have a completely English radio station. At least 40% of the music must be by French artists. This poses a problem for some radio stations when there is not enough French music of a certain genre being produced in France. The appeal to the listeners can decrease because then stations must replay the same French songs over and over again.

I find the subject of language purity fascinating. I understand why many languages with smaller populations of speakers are concerned about pollution from English. Still, why is China so worried? Are there other language powers who are implementing similar measures?

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/04/07/fyi-to-cctv-no-english-acronyms/

http://khuang.com/chinese/dif.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/20/business/worldbusiness/20iht-radio.t_1.html?pagewanted=1