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The ninth edition of the Dictionary of the French Academy was solemnly handed over to President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, devoting around forty years of work to this now contested work.
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November 14, 2024 – 5:04 pm
(Keystone-ATS) Founded in 1634 to harmonize the language, the Academy’s mission is to write from A to Z this dictionary which is more or less a reference. The latest edition, the eighth, dates back to 1935, while the first was completed in 1694.
The President of the Republic arrived in the afternoon at the Academy, where he gave a speech in front of the “Immortals”, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and guests, noted an AFP journalist.
“You are the guardians of our language. And you have to make it clear to its hundreds of millions of speakers all over the world,” he said. “Conservatives, revolutionaries, you are, allow me to say, both at the same time.”
“This authority is beneficial, which sets the benchmarks, the permanences, and at the same time the conditions for inventiveness,” said Mr. Macron.
“The pace of development of your dictionary protects you from this temptation to give in to tics and fashions. This edition welcomes the word zadiste, which Paul Valéry’s contemporaries probably did not know,” he noted.
This ninth edition has 59,000 words.
The Dictionary arouses very varied comments in the scientific community, between those who consider the tool obsolete and those who find merit in it, alongside its rivals published by private companies such as Larousse and Robert.
“That the nine editions are available free of charge on the Internet is also a service made unique in the world for the population sharing French”, underlines the linguist Jean Pruvost, unsuccessful candidate for the Academy in 2021 and 2022, interviewed by L’Express .
“The Academy’s current work on this dictionary no longer makes sense, both economically and scientifically. Academicians do not have the technical and scientific skills,” according to the Collective of Dismayed Linguists, in Libération.
On France Inter Thursday morning, a skirmish pitted a member of this collective, Julie Neveux, against an academician, Antoine Compagnon. One deplored the fact that, in the definition of “mail”, there was no mention of electronic mail. The second noted that there was a link to “Say, do not say” to advise against this anglicism.
Mr. Macron defended the work of academicians, rarely French specialists. “Those who define language are not necessarily linguists but also writers. (…) It is important that it is writers who take care of the language. They have the taste for it, the use of it,” according to him.
This Dictionary is sold in bookstores, published by the Imprimerie nationale and Fayard.
Volume 1 (A-Enzymologie) went through several editions between 1992 and 2005. Volume 2 (Eocene-Mappemonde) two editions, in 2000 and 2005. Volume 3 (Maque-Quotité) was released in 2011. Volume 4 ( R-Zzz) was published on Wednesday.
