On Monday France officials banned English gaming words that were making the Franch language less pure. This decision was made by Académie Francaise(French Academy), which is a council that makes decisions pertaining to the French language.
The changes were put in the government’s legal almanac which is called Journal official. This means this ban only applies to government employees. This means that the ban does not apply to the public. According to The Guardian, these words will be changed in official documents.
The English gaming words will be replaced with French alternatives. These words are Pro-gamer, Streamer, Esports, etc. The alternative words are joueur Professionnel which means pro-gamer, joueur Animateur en direct which means streamer, and appariement de joueurs which means matchmaking, and etc.
The ministry of culture told the AFP that anglicisms words that are being used could be,” a barrier to understanding” for non-gamers. This may not be the case because the highest bought games mainly use the English language. According to statista.com the games that were sold most in 2021 were FIFA 2022, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and more.
There is a list of English gaming words that are banned from being used in government documents according to the digital journal the ministry of culture claims that there were experts that searched to make sure that there were France alternatives to these English gaming terms.
This is not the first and won’t be the last time the Académie Francaise has changed words to more of France alternatives. According to theculturetrip the anglicism words that they banned are Buzz, deadline, hashtag, business, and more.The Alternative words for these are Faire parler sur l’internet, C’est vendredi le dernier délai, Mot-dièse Paris, and Un plan de développement.
For more information on the English gaming words that were banned and what the alternatives are go to legifrance.gouv.fr.