He is the terror of French-language journalists who abuse Anglicisms.
His emails invariably begin with the same words.
“
I allow myself to write to you because…
”;
then follow one or more examples of the English terms used by the recipient journalist.
“I read your article published yesterday with interest, but nevertheless wished to make a remark concerning the use of Anglicism
think tank
”
, one can read in one of his e-mails.
“The equivalent and current French expression is
group of reflection”.
This defender of the language of Molière is called Daniel De Poli.
“I started writing my first posts about 25 years ago.
Today, I am surely several tens of thousands”
, estimates this polyglot of 54 years, who pounded the press rooms from the computer keyboard of his home, in the suburbs of Strasbourg.
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Kicking English with Québécois
In addition to the hunt for Anglicisms, this official from the Ministry of Transport also deplores the feminization of titles.
Many journalists have thus been criticized for the use of
"chef"
,
"author"
or
"agent"
, so many terms qualified as
"lexical aberrations"
.
This position is worth Daniel De Poli to be more royalist than the French Academy, which resolved to feminize the names of professions in 2019.
Quebecers are the best.
I never write to them
.
We feel that there is a real will to fight the invasion of English.
Daniel DePoli
The answers of his interlocutors are often "
positive
", assures Daniel De Poli, during an interview with AFP.
The lawyer for the proper use of the language inevitably provides
"a tool"
to journalists whom he pinches in the act of Anglicism
:
a link to his bible, the Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique of the Office québécois de la langue française, which suggests equivalents to English terms.
Instead of
“cloud services”
, the dictionary offers poetic
“cloud services”
just waiting to cross the Atlantic.
“Quebecers are the best.
I never write to them
, confides this son of Italian immigrants,
We feel that there is a real will to fight the invasion of English
.
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In addition to his daily reading of the press, Daniel De Poli has compiled a list of words that he hunts down as a priority.
We find there
“
big data
”
(say: big data),
“
joint-venture
”
(joint venture) or
“
blockchain
”
(chain of blocks).
Offenders expose themselves to receiving a message signed Daniel De Poli.
And this hype, sometimes, manages to flourish.
“
When I started to report
joint venture,
about fifteen years ago, almost nobody used
joint venture, recalls this inexhaustible champion, who measures the impact of his messages to the editorial staff.
Today, you will find more than a million results on a search engine.
It's a victory I'm proud of
."
dominance and understanding
His method
"can be useful"
, recognizes Armelle Domenach, president of the Association of French language correctors, who seeks to sensitize his colleagues to the question of anglicisms.
“Some do not recognize them and do not correct them, perhaps because they do not know English well,
she notes.
The problem is that some Anglicisms are so ingrained that it's a bit crap to use French words instead that we sometimes have trouble understanding
.
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"Learning English is a good thing, but English does not have to dominate the other languages"
, observes Daniel De Poli, who sent one of his children on a language trip to Ireland.
He who speaks French, Italian, English, German, Spanish and studies Hebrew and Chinese, is enthusiastic about China's ability to adapt foreign words, supporting ideograms: "instead of blockchain
,
the
Chinese say
qukuailian
, literally
blockchain
.
Chinese proves that we can describe modernity without using English”.
He is sorry to see French President Emmanuel Macron and a group of French-speaking leaders meeting in Gabon for a “One Planet Summit”.
“Where are we going if the French themselves abandon their language?
How can we expect foreigners to learn French?
Faced with an International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) that he considers absent subscribers, Daniel De Poli is delighted that the small Association Francophonie Avenir (Afrav), of which he is a member, manages to bend institutions.
Based on the Toubon law of 1994, Afrav obtained at the end of 2022 that the Administrative Court enjoin the Ministry of Health to rename its megafile “Health Data Hub”
.
The ministry has until April 20 to comply.
But sometimes those close to him find that he exaggerates.
"One day my son said to me: 'Listen Dad: with
leader
, aren't you going a bit far?'
And yet the synonyms are not lacking: there is leader, leader, leader, leader…”