France bans words like esports, streamers and cloud gaming

France is known for going its own way when it comes to language, which critics see as language chauvinism. But the Grande Nation is fearless in the fight against Anglicism and has now banned several words that are taken for granted worldwide. It is not new that France wants to preserve the purity of its language and that it has wanted to ban English terms from common use for years and decades.

An ordinator instead of a computer is probably the most famous example. But the list of “forbidden” words is constantly updated and so the guardian reported, that there was an extensive update from the French Ministry of Culture yesterday. The language protectors currently focus on terms from the internet and gaming sector.

Stream ne va plus

Some terms are direct translations: Pro-gamer becomes “joueur professionnel” in French. Other terms, on the other hand, are rather far-fetched: Streamer, for example – and you have to take a deep breath – becomes “joueur-animateur and direct”. direct roughly translates to “live player moderator”.

Further examples of words and terms that are now banned from the point of view of the responsible authorities: “Cloud Gaming” is translated as “jeu video en nuage” and E-Sports is translated as “jeu video de competition”. Both are direct, if somewhat clumsy, translations of the respective English term. The efforts of the French-speaking guardians are based on arguments that the games industry is full of words that “are an obstacle to understanding” for non-gamers.

Of course, the government cannot dictate these words to society and the gaming world, at least not with ultimate consequences. However, these new terms are now mandatory for government employees and other officials.