The Académie Française decided today to Frenchize these and other game terms, according to news agency AFP† The Academy is a centuries-old organization dedicated to preserving the French language.
The Anglicization of French is a thorn in the side of the institute, which already indicated in February that it had several English terms in its sights. A decision by the academy is binding on officials, but is often not taken seriously by French society itself.
In addition to e-sports, there is now also a French word for a game streamer: ‘joueur-animateur en direct’. Gaming from the cloud is officially called ‘jeu video en nuage’.
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‘English terms stand in the way of understanding’
The French Ministry of Culture contributed to the language change. It fears that non-gamers will “have difficulty understanding game terms” if there is no French alternative.
In order to make the population “easier to communicate”, the ministry surveyed video game sites and magazines to see if French terms already existed. Apparently it wasn’t.
The Dutch language also has virtually no good translations for well-known game words. At the same time, the word ‘computer game’ has been slowly being replaced by ‘(video) game’ for years.
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