French drug dealers regretfully announce 'temporary closure' A bunch of French drug dealers demonstrated a touch of Gallic narcohumour earlier this week by announcing the "temporary closure" of their regular public point of sale. According to local paper Le Dauphiné Libéré, a poster taped to a concrete pillar under a block of flats in Grenoble's rue Albert-Thomas informed punters: " …
Even though "revendeur" would be the correct literary translation, it would be more common to hear people actually use the word "dealer".
Example : Il achete un peu de "shit" chez son "dealer".
Les anglisicms are rife in France et meme s'il faut pas mixer words from different languages, des fois, it is difficult not to.
To be fair, a great deal of English (or its barbaric derivative from across the pond) speakers seem to think that words like "chef", "entree", "deja-vu" etc are English words; "dealer", "shit" and "parking" (used for parking lot) are bona fide French words now, too. Language does evolve, and borrowing foreign words is part of the process. Lunchtime now, you'll excuse me, my pork chop is waiting for me. Or is it a pig chop? Ha-ha!
Certainly French needs to lighten up and evolve a bit. And as you say, that's exactly what's happening. Le weekend is just more convenient. And no language should be forced to stick with quatre-vingt-dix. The Belgians do perfectly well with nonante.
I must say though, there are quite a few horrible imports. 'Le ferry boat' sounds like the childrens' TV writers have taken over the announcements and sign-writing.
You forgot Brussels, probably on purpose, but this was not your point. Lets say "the french speaking". Then probably the english word "french" itself derives from the flemish "franse" as said in West Flanders ("frensje").
+The best translation for dealer is "distributeur" which it can be used in wider contexts. Or "donneur" for those playing card games.
> Language does evolve
But not all languages evolve equally.
In English Words get added, and changed through usage. This is why the word gay has gone from meaning carefree and happy to meaning homosexual to meaning rubbish or stupid.
In French they have an academy that decides what is and isn't a French word and what the definition is. They also come up with there own versions of anglicised words that are appearing in their language.
> seem to think that words like "chef", "entree", "deja-vu" etc are English words;
They are English words. Their origin is French but they are now part of the English language. This doesn't stop them from also being French words.
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The following text has been shamelessly copied from the officiel website. It states the primary mission of the Academy.
La mission confiée à l’Académie est claire : « La principale fonction de l’Académie sera de travailler, avec tout le soin et toute la diligence possibles, à donner des règles certaines à notre langue et à la rendre pure, éloquente et capable de traiter les arts et les sciences. » (Article 24 des statuts.)
Cette mission doit se traduire par la rédaction de quatre ouvrages : un dictionnaire, une grammaire, une rhétorique et une poétique ; seul le Dictionnaire sera réalisé par l’Académie. Les autres points du programme seront remplis en dehors d’elle, par des ouvrages qui, à leur manière, feront autorité.
Badly translated by me as follows:
The mission entrusted to the Academy is clear : The principal function of the Academy will be to labour,
with care and with all possibile diligence, to provide the necassary rules for our language
in order keep it pure, eloquant and capable of handling the arts and sciences.
This mission should be interpreted by the editing of four works: a dictionnary, grammar, rhetoric and poetic licence; only the dictionnary shall be created by the Academy. The others will be fulfilled externally to the Acadamy, of which these works, in their own manner, will become authorative.
> to provide the necassary rules for our language in order keep it pure, eloquant and capable of handling the arts and sciences. [...] The others will be fulfilled externally to the Acadamy, of which these works, in their own manner, will become authorative.
Not quite. The real translation would be as follows: "to provide clear rules for our language, and to make it pure, expressive and capable [...] The other points of the programme will be fulfilled outside of the academy by works which in themselves will be authoritative".
The spirit being to establish gather language uses and habits across the french-speaking world to provide a "catalogue" of recommended use for people who wish to be understood by everyone (this part is made abundantly clear in the foreword and the first articles of the statutes). It's just a formalization of the worldly uses; it expressely doesn't concern itself with slang and regionalities (again, clearly stated in the statutes), but doesn't condemn them either. The last part you cite is actually pretty clear (although your mistranslation means the opposite!)
> What is the correct French term for a 'dealer'.
Dealer. :)
Please note that those "linguistic conservatives" that Lester writes about would not include the Académie, as they are quite informed about linguistic processes (http://www.academie-francaise.fr/la-langue-francaise/questions-de-langue#12_strong-em-anglicismes-et-autres-emprunts-em-strong).
Agreed, it is difficult to imagine but there are definately "ghetto neighbourhoods" even in the French Alpes.
In the following link, even if don't understand French, you can see the housing scheme known as "La Villeneuve" which is proximity Echirolles, it has become a place of residence for those on a very low income even though intially it was designed for people from all social classes.
http://www.francetvinfo.fr/france/video-la-villeneuve-a-grenoble-radiographie-d-un-quartier-difficile_151117.html
Villeneuve wasn't so much designed for all social classes, it was the cheap'n'cheerful accommodation thrown up for the 1968 WInter Olympics. When it was "re-purposed" as housing afterwards it was so poor that it quickly became the low-rent district, no-one else would live there. It's now a small immigrant ghetto not safe to visit at night. It's part of a very ugly ring of 60s/70s concrete architecture around the much nicer centre, and separating it from the expensive suburbs. The rest of Grenoble is fine, the town centre is a very safe area, my female friends have no worries about walking around there alone at night. It's a small but lively city, with 60,000 students in term time! Just a pity the local council are so anti-car that the city is a permanent building site for the next new tram extension.
"The rest of Grenoble is fine"
Grenoble is a polluted toilet of a town: Too hot in summer, too cold in winter with a perpetual industrial high-level smog.
All that anyone who lives there goes on about is how they can go skiing at the weekend.
(Like a dozen other places in France that aren't so dull/nasty.)
Hope the dealer gets back soon to help the denizens of Grenoble cope with the day-to-day.
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