After long fighting the increasing use of English in advertising, music, and movies, French MPs have proclaimed a new battle: preserving their home Olympics this year free of Anglicisms.

In a resolution passed on Thursday, the lower house of parliament urged the organizers of the 2024 Paris Games, as well as competitors, trainers, and journalists, to use French as much as possible.

The conservative proponent of the resolution, Annie Genevard, voiced concern to fellow MPs that "the Olympic Games reflect the loss of influence of our language."

She recalled the much-criticized tagline used for Paris' previous bid for the Games — "Made for Sharing" — as well as other recent government-backed campaigns to promote the country such as "Choose France" or "Made in France."

During last year's competition in France, the French rugby team's uniforms read "Rugby World Cup" rather than "La Coupe du Monde de rugby."

"All of these examples demonstrate that the fight for the French language … is never finished, even in the most official spheres," Genevard said in a statement.

The global spread of English has long enraged French governments, which have fought to preserve the integrity of their language at home while encouraging its use abroad.
For three centuries, the Academie Francaise has produced state-sanctioned dictionaries that document and certify new phrases or expressions, many of which are translations of regularly used English words.

"Let's hope that 'planche à roulettes' replaces skateboard and 'rouleau du cap' point break (a surfing term), but I have my doubts,” added Genevard.

Language row -

The 1994 Toubon Law, enacted by French lawmakers 30 years ago to defend French, made the language required for advertising, product labelling, and public announcements.

It also required radio stations to play at least 40% of French-language songs.

However, the cultural influence of English, which has recently been boosted by American streaming services such as Netflix, means that new phrases are continually infiltrating French, particularly in sports.

"You can't overlook the fact that many global sports events that are broadcast globally have chosen to use English for communication, in their titles, slogans, and advertising," Culture Minister Rachida Dati told lawmakers.

She emphasized that Thursday's resolution, which was supported by the ruling centrists and right-wingers but opposed by the left, was not legally enforceable.

Instructions for overseas visitors to the Olympics from July 26 to August 11 and the Paralympics from August 28 to September 8 would be offered in English as well as other languages, she said.

The Paris Games have already been mired in a linguistic controversy following reports that Franco-Malian R&B sensation Aya Nakamura was supposed to perform during the opening ceremony on July 26.

The mega-star, the world's most streamed French singer, incorporates French, Arabic, and West African dialect words into her songs like "Djadja".

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused her of "vulgarity" and mispronouncing French in a series of very personalattacks that were denounced as racist by Dati at the time.

“France is not and will never be ‘Djadja’,” far-right MP Julien Odoul said on Thursday.

– Historic dominance –

The English supremacy at the Olympics is especially galling from a French perspective, given that the contemporary Games were invented by a French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin, in the late 1800s.

French was the lingua franca in the early editions and is still one of the official languages of de Coubertin's successors at the International Olympic Committee, which is led by former German fencer Thomas Bach.

Bach speaks French rather well, although he prefers to communicate with foreign journalists in English.

The French MPs' decision may also reverberate at the Paris 2024 organizing committee's offices, where numerous executives, including CEO Tony Estanguet, frequently use anglicisms in their French.

He has condemned "le JO-bashing" – criticism of the Olympics — and occasionally uses the English “challenges” rather than the French “defis”.
When the committee’s communications director proposed “un QnA” to journalists at a recent press conference, she was upbraided by an outraged French journalist.
“We have a French term for this: questions-responses,” he said.