New French Dictionary Edition Completed After Decades, Faces Criticism

After a forty-year undertaking, and almost four centuries since its initial mandate, the scholars in Paris have at last completed a new version of the authoritative French dictionary. The complete ninth edition of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie Française was officially unveiled to President Macron today in the opulent setting of the 17th-century Collège des Quatre-Nations, situated on the Seine’s left bank. The 40 distinguished members of the French Academy, known as “immortels” due to their significant contributions to French language and literature, have convened at this location since the institution’s establishment by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635. Their original objective was to “give certain rules to our language, to render it pure and eloquent,” which led them to commence work on their inaugural dictionary. Nevertheless, the process has been notably protracted – the initial volume was not published until 1694, and currently, more than a year is required to address a single letter of the alphabet – leading to growing doubts about the project’s contemporary utility. A group of linguists stated in the Liberation newspaper on Thursday that “The effort is praiseworthy, but so excessively tardy that it is perfectly useless.” This ninth edition succeeds the eighth, which concluded in 1935. The current undertaking began in 1986, with three earlier segments, extending to the letter R, having already been released. The final section, encompassing entries up to Zzz, was incorporated today, signifying the project’s completion. The Academy, in its official statement, described the dictionary as a “mirror of an epoch running from the 1950s up to today,” and highlighted the inclusion of 21,000 new entries compared to the 1935 edition. However, numerous “modern” terms introduced during the 1980s or 90s are already considered obsolete. Furthermore, due to the rapid evolution of language, many words commonly used presently are too recent for inclusion. Consequently, prevalent terms such as tiktokeur, vlog, smartphone, and émoji, all present in contemporary commercial dictionaries, are absent from the Académie’s publication. In contrast, its “new” vocabulary features forward-thinking terms like soda, sauna, yuppie, and supérette (mini-supermarket). In the most recent R-Z section, the authors have incorporated contemporary perspectives on the feminisation of job titles, providing female equivalents (which previously did not exist) for roles like ambassadeur and professeur. Nevertheless, printed versions of the preceding sections do not reflect this alteration, as the Académie resisted this change for an extended period. Similarly, the third part of the new dictionary, covering the letter M, defines marriage as a union solely between a man and a woman, a definition that no longer aligns with current legal status in France. The collective questioned, “How can anyone pretend that this collection can serve as a reference for anyone?”, pointing out that digital dictionaries offer greater scope and quicker updates. Chaired by its president, the author Amin Maalouf, the dictionary committee convenes each Thursday morning to deliberate and issue decisions on definitions initially drafted by external specialists. Among the “immortals” is Michael Edwards, an English poet and French language authority, who informed Le Figaro newspaper of his attempt to persuade the Academy to reintroduce the archaic word improfond (undeep). He stated, “French needs it, because as every English student of French knows, there is no word for ‘shallow’.” Regrettably, his endeavor was unsuccessful. Extensive discussions are already in progress regarding the initiation of edition 10. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content found on external websites. Information regarding our policy on external linking is available.