Txt msgng in Frnc
短信用语横行法国
Parlez-vous SMS?
法语短信你懂吗？
May 22nd 2008 | PARIS
From The Economist print edition
A new threat to the French language
法语要面对新威胁
THE baccalauréat exam season approaches, and with it ritual agonising over the standard of French spelling. These days, fingers are pointed not only at progressive teaching, the decline of the dictée or the legacy of May 1968. The new culprit is text-messaging.
法国高考日益临近，随之而来的是学生的法语拼写水平令人忧心忡忡。近日来，人们千夫所指的不再是教育改革问题，听写水平下降，或是1968年五月学潮的余波。最新的罪魁祸首就是短信用语。
“Look at what text-messaging is doing to the French language,”lamented President Nicolas Sarkozy in February. “If we let things go,in a few years we will have trouble understanding each other.” Mostsecondary-school pupils have their own mobile telephones, and they usean abbreviated phonetic language to communicate. A2M1, for instance, means à demain, or “see you tomorrow”. JTM is je t’aime (I love you). Or try: Ta HT 1 KDO? (T’as acheté un cadeau?, or have you bought a present?).
“看看短信用语给法语带来了怎样的影响，”二月法国总统尼古拉.萨科奇不无遗憾的表示道。“如果我们放任自流，总有一天，我们互相沟通都是问题。”法国大多数中学生都配有自己的手机，而他们之间则用一种音节缩写语言短信交流。比如，A2M1 就是à demain（明天见），JTM 表示 je t’aime （我爱你）。再来试试这个：Ta HT 1 KDO? （T’as acheté un cadeau? 意思是“你买了个礼物？”）
Text-messaging corrupts all languages. But the French are touchybecause theirs is so much an emblem of national identity. It is hardenough to protect French from the invasion of English; now self-destruction threatens. The use of English is tightly restricted inadvertising or on the radio, and all English-language slogans must bylaw be accompanied by a French translation. So Nespresso’s ad starringGeorge Clooney, with the catchline “What else?”, has “Quoi d’autre?” as a subtitle.
短信用语正在腐蚀各种语言。但是法国人却尤为感同身受，因为法语一直是他们民族形象的象征。事实上，人们已经很难避免法语遭受英语的侵袭，而现在法国人又要面临做茧自缚的危险。在法国的广告或是广播中，英语的使用是受到严格限制的，有法律规定所有的英文广告语都要伴随着法语翻译。这就是为什么乔治.布鲁尼主演的雀巢广告中那句英语“还能是什么？”（”what else?”）下面加了句法语字幕“Quoi d’autre?”。
There are no such restrictions on text-messaging, for now. Yet it is creeping into the marketing toolbox. C CHIC, a play both on C’est chic (It’schic) and the C series cars, is the name of Citroën’s exhibition on theChamps Elysées in Paris. Or take an ad designed to attract18-29-year-olds by BNP Paribas, a bank, which has the slogan: TA + K ENTRER (T’as plus qu’entrer, or you only have to come in). “It is designed to break the idea that the bank is austere and closed for the young,” explains BNP Paribas. “So it’s logical to use text-messaging language.”
但到目前为止，对短信用语还没有这么多限制。而且它们已经成为市场销售的手段之一。“C CHIC”在广告语“C’est chic”（这就是时尚）和巴黎香谢丽舍展示会的雪铁龙C系列命名中，都有所应用。此外，法国巴黎民生银行（BNPParibas）为了吸引18到29岁之间的年轻顾客，推出其广告语：TA + K ENTRER （T’as plus qu’entrer,即你所要做的只是走入）。“这种设计是为了打破人们心中银行那种死板的印象，从而更加贴近年轻群体,”巴黎民生银行解释道。“所以在此用短信用语是合情合理的。”
Some see this as a slippery slope down which “efficiency seems toauthorise all imaginable offences against our dear language,” as oneeducationalist grumbles. Others see it as no more menacing thanshorthand for telegrams or typing. Whether schoolchildren candistinguish between useful shorthand in the playground and correctspelling in an exam remains to be seen—or, rather, is a question for 2M1.
有人认为，这是法语的一场大崩溃，“让对我们美丽语言的所有可能侵袭变得更加堂而皇之”，一位教育工作者抱怨道。还有其他人则认为其威胁性并不比电报或打字速记高多少。学生们能否分清那些课外的用语与考试中要注意的拼写间的差异还不得而知，或者说，这个问题还要留待2M1（明天）解决。
译者：FEnix
论坛链接：http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=11587&extra=page%3D1