The recent sudden change of the French four-century-old linguistic policy has been stunning. Such followed the declaration by France’s Minister of Culture, Fleur Pellerin, that attempts to keep the English words out harmed the French language. Insisting that French was not in danger, Ms. Pellerin argued that the battle to resist the incursion of English words was futile and misguided.

Notably, the initial efforts to protect the French language date back to King Louis XIII’s era from 1610 to 1643 to control the variations of French. Nearly four centuries later, there has been a French academy striving to meet this noble and elusive goal but with less enthusiasm. However, the current debate largely centers on English technology terms even though the backlash against English encroachment had been ongoing even in the pre-computer age. The backlash has led to the formation of various laws and commissions to govern the French language. However, vexing the “hashtag” problem has remained challenging. There is a commission to find French replacements for new words of foreign influence. However, the tendency of the French to be verbose disadvantages them especially in the Twitter age, as the commission comes up with mouthful replacements which do not succeed in replacing the words of foreign influence.

All along success of the commission has been elusive due to its insensitivity. It is as a result that Ms. Pellerin, who is fluent in German and English as well, was viewed as having a broader perspective than her predecessors were. Importantly, she acknowledged that most of the world’s francophones live outside France. Such steps moving away from the near-obsessive adherence to doctrine made Ms. Pellerin’s declaration on French allowing English words so radical.