In our monthly French language column, intrepid Douglas Campbell scours the media and tracks down Pipolisation, the broken window theory and ATAWAD, whatever that is...

Pipolisation : rebelote et fin

Positively the last word on this word, for a few months at least, since I have mentioned "people", "pipolisation" and related words several times in recent columns. However, two good reasons to return to it: seen in a Martin Amis piece in The Guardian (2 June 2007), quoting Bob Geldof: "It's a bit naff, isn't it? What happened? The politicisation of celebrity or the celebritisation of politics?" Although I’m more inclined to think of a normal English equivalent of "pipolisation" to be something like "the influence/encroachment of celebrity (culture)", if you want a snappy journalistic one-word equivalent, then "celebritisation" is there.

Secondly, on the France Inter site, another sign that not everyone agrees with the Libération-style gallicisation of "people" and words derived from it: website info on a 20 June programme included this: "La schizophrénie des hommes et des femmes politiques. Raconter ou non leur vie privée en fonction d’intérêts politiques ou narcissiques, refuser certaines photos, mais tomber dans les pièges de la peopolisation." The use of the word, whatever the spelling, seems to me to be a sign of the rude good health of the language, helping itself from a global pick-and-mix of words, and bending English words to French pronunciation and usage.
 

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New phenomenon, new word

I was delighted to learn from Les Inrockuptibles (12 June, p. 20) of the existence of rogue/pirate subtitlers, fans of foreign TV and cinema — "les fansubbers" — who produce their own subtitles, essentially of mangas and of American series which have not been issued in France, and then make them available through peer-to-peer networks. Since this is in breach of copyright and is considered to be incitement to illegal downloading, the police have become involved and sites such as series-vo.com have closed down. However, the demand is there, so this glorious notion of illegal underground subtitling will continue; will we see offences such as "possession of a French-Japanese dictionary with intent to translate a manga"? "Dictionary-trafficking"? "Possession of Pardon my French with intent to translate Black Books"? A quick google with "fansubbers" will open up a whole new world.
 

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When is a window not une fenêtre?

Astonishing and wonderful, how even apparently simple words can show that simple word-for-word vocabulary lists are not enough. The American notion that police and the authorities can stop a district going downhill by stepping in to stop apparently trivial bits of misbehaviour or signs of urban decay is the well-known "broken window theory". Sometimes plural — "broken windows theory". The French is always singular, and because it’s the window-pane which is broken, it’s "la théorie du carreau cassé". Heard in the past week on France Culture, whose stupendously good, clear and generous podcast system continues to put the BBC to shame.
 

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ATAWAD : kesako ?

New to me in American English, as an acronym at least: ATAWAD, seen in Libération, 16 May, and with a neat explanation but no abbreviation: "Anytime, anywhere, any device". Quand je veux, où je veux, sur tout support... in an article about the availability of films and music on mobiles, computers, Ipods, anything.
 

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Bonjour les franglaisants

Heard on France Culture, on the excellent Saturday-morning Masse critique of 26 May 2007, an intelligent weekly look at the media, and also available as a podcast: "On avait parlé du teaser, du trailer et du pitch, trois mots anglais parce qu’on ne sait pas parler français quand on parle du cinema et du marketing du cinéma."

They then went on to use "ces bandes-annonces..." and "ces films-annonces" for "trailers" and "teasers", but with an extra explanatory gloss on "teasers", all the same. As for "le pitch", "C’est quoi, le pitch ?" seems to have become a verbal tic in hip cinéphile circles, and it is in the 2007 Petit Robert as "bref résumé du scénario d’un film" or in the world of commerce "présentation succincte". The date given is 1994: surprisingly early? I don’t think I heard "pitch" on its own (as opposed to "sales pitch", around for decades) until quite recently. Beigbeder and his chums were no doubt using it long before I was.
 

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Deranged subtitling

I was watching the DVD of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off with French subtitles added for extra entertainment, and came upon the following: the theatre director, talking about an actor, says "I cast him." The subtitles read "Je l’ai insulté." Did they think they hear "cussed"? "Cursed"? Is there some other sane explanation? Mis-hearing is clearly behind the surreal translation of "her 18th birthday" by "son 80ème anniversaire" a few minutes later. Much of the subtitling is in fact fine, especially given the speed of the dialogue; I rather enjoyed "On reprend dans la joie et le sang" for "On we blindly struggle", for example.

Next month: will be plundering several books, including Conversations sur la langue française by Encrevé and Braudeau, which is fascinating, informative and emphaticially not an example of doom and gloom — la sinistrose — about the language.
 

Dougal Campbell, French language tutor at Glasgow University 
 
Please contact the author with any comments and similar amuse-gueule snippets of French, at D.Campbell@french.arts.gla.ac.uk