E-mail? The French beg to differ
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The word "e-mail" can now no longer be used in French official communication, including documents, memos, the internet and even e-mails themselves.
The General Commission on Terminology and Neology, part of the French Culture Ministry and affiliated to the Academie Francaise--which outlawed the word "Walkman" in favor of "baladeur" some years ago--prefers the French alternative "courriel."
The edict on "courriel," a shortened version of the phrase "courrier electronique," or electronic mail, is not expected to make a lot of difference to the common parlance of French technophiles.
"E-mail" has been in use in Europe for years, and the commission's decision will be largely arbitrary to French speakers, who are particularly fond of slipping the odd English word--"le meeting," "le cash"--into conversation.
The word "courriel" is French Canadian in origin, a French dialect considered a bastardization of the language by traditionalists in France.
Jo Best of Silicon.com reported from London.
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