The changes had already taken place in the United States, they are now applied in France.
For the sake of being more inclusive, the company Mattel, owner of the board game Scrabble, has had around sixty words removed from its official dictionary, reveals
L'Express
.
Players, especially in competition, will no longer be able to use them to earn points.
Among them, racial, sexist and homophobic insults such as “nigger”, “faggot” or “bitch”.
These changes are part of the continuity of a movement that started in the United States, after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020. The parent company, American and concerned with being “more inclusive” is enthroning a new rule.
“All words constituting an incitement to hatred and discrimination are excluded”
, indicates a small booklet slipped into any new box of the game sold commercially since 2021.
62 words removed
The company now intends to apply this decision in France, in particular to the 16,000 players who participate in Scrabble competitions.
To do this, she sent a list of "sensitive" words to be removed from the game's dictionary – a work entitled
L'Officiel du jeu du Scrabble
, published by Larousse editions.
On January 1, 2022, the members of the editorial committee of this dictionary thus receive this list of 109 words to be removed.
With the French-speaking Scrabble championships in sight, the 50th edition of which took place in Belgium in July 2022.
“As a family-oriented brand aware of the impact of words and how they evolve, Mattel engaged an independent linguist to identify hateful words to review the official list of words allowed to be played during Scrabble competitions”
, argues the brand, questioned by
L’Express
.
Members of the game's dictionary editorial board oppose these deletions.
They argue the polysemy of certain terms, such as "bicot", which designates the little goat in addition to being a racist insult.
After some negotiation between the company and the editorial board, 62 words are finally deleted - actually 31, but their plural and feminine variations give a total of 62.
Some of these words considered insulting, among which "tantouse", "tafiotte", "schleu", or "travelo" still appear in the dictionary of the French language Larousse but no longer appear in
L'Officiel du jeu du Scrabble
, also published by Le Petit Larousse.
An inconsistency for the members of the editorial board, who see it as a form of censorship.
The new version of
L'Officiel du jeu du Scrabble
should be released in June 2023.
