English ‘doesn’t exist’ and is simply poorly pronounced French, linguists claim

A French linguist has controversially claimed that the English language ‘doesn’t exist’ and is merely ‘poorly pronounced French’.

Bernard Cerquiglini, a professor of linguistics from Lyon, points out that the English language uses thousands of words adopted from French about a thousand years ago.

Ironically, many of these have since re-entered the French language, but in a corrupted English form – such as ‘stew’, ‘people’ and ‘shopping’.

Professor Cerquiglini, adviser to President Macron, has already described the continued use of English words in French culture as ‘disturbing’.

His comments are reminiscent of the hopeless spy officer Crabtree from the 1980s sitcom “Allo Allo,” who is British but thinks he can speak fluent French with a convincing accent.

Professor Cerquiglini’s new book is called ‘La langue anglaise n’existe pas. C’est du français mal prononcé’

This translates as ‘The English language does not exist. It’s poorly pronounced French.’

“French gave English an essential vocabulary, that of law, commerce, spirituality, art and government,” says Professor Cerquiglini, as reported by the times.

‘If English is a prestigious international language today, it is thanks to French.’

In his book, Professor Cerquiglini argues that French has been the ‘official and common language’ of England for centuries.

In the Middle Ages, a variety of languages ​​were spoken by inhabitants of the British Isles, from Cornish to English to Norn – an extinct North Germanic language.

But after the Norman Conquest of 1066, led by William the Duke of Normandy, French became an important language in England.

Examples of English words with origins in Norman French include ‘accuse’, ‘bacon’, ‘enemy’, ‘surrender’, ‘people’, ‘chivalry’, ‘majesty’, ‘fashion’ and ‘wicket’.

However, many of the current spellings of these words differ from the original French, not to mention the pronunciation.

For example, ‘People’ comes from the Old French word ‘pueple’, which has since become ‘peuple’ – referring to a general population, a specific nation or an ethnic group.

The English version, ‘people’, has infiltrated the French language and is a word used in France to refer to celebrities.

Butler comes from ’bouteiller’, the name for a wine steward, while caterpillar comes from the French ‘cateplus’ – hairy cat.

Vintage comes from ‘vendanges’, coward is ‘couard’, tennis is ‘tenez’, enemy is ‘enemy’, majesty is ‘majeste’ and fashion is ‘façon’.

Wicket, the cricket term that conjures up images of Englishness, actually comes from ‘guischet’, meaning ‘counter’.

Many French words adapted by the English relate to cooking. For example, the English word ‘stew’ comes from the Old French estuver, meaning to cook with steam, while pudding comes from ‘boudin’.

Mushroom comes from the old Norman word ‘mousheron’, while beef comes from ‘buef’, toast from ‘tostee’ and porridge from ‘potage’.

And gin, one of Britain’s best-loved drinks, comes from ‘genevre’, the word for the juniper berry used in the drink’s creation.

According to the expert, up to 40 percent of all English words have French origins, which amounts to about 80,000 in total.

Professor Cerquiglini makes it clear that for many of them things have come full circle: they started out as French, were borrowed and adapted by the English, and the English versions have since been re-entered the French lexicon, albeit in their new, English form.

He argues that it would be appropriate to re-appropriate them, at least by pronouncing them in the French way.

Professor Cerquiglini is not the only Frenchman who hates English terms entering the French language.

Another language professor, Jean Maillet, has labeled his compatriots as lazy for allowing English words to enter the French vocabulary.

For example, the French use the English word ‘look’ as a noun, instead of French variants such as ‘aspect’, ‘apparence’, ‘kit’ or ‘allure’.

Professor Maillet, who taught English at a university in Paris, said: ‘There have never been so many Anglicisms in our vocabulary.

‘That’s a whopping ten percent, and it’s increasing exponentially.

‘The reason is partly due to linguistic laziness, as many English words are shorter and more user-friendly than their French counterparts.

“They don’t sound good to the ear, but we use them because they have become automatic.”