[pbadenski]

It's always been just a bit funny to me in case of French... A lot of these words are of Greek & Latin origin, some of them even come from French (eg. flame). I know I'm going to stir up a hornet's nest with this one... Are some French speakers nostalgic for when French had more influence?

[doukdouk]

More than French influence abroad, I think a lot of people do not like "poor English", for lack of a better term, replacing French in vernacular French. It seems to me that for most people, it's more about vernacular French becoming less fancy (random English words being sprinkled are a symptom, not the cause) than something specific about English, or French influence abroad.

Random examples:

- use of the word "digital" in the English meaning (number-related) when it already has a French meaning (finger-related, eg empreinte digitale - fingerprint) when there was alread a word for it - numérique.

- random English words to sound cool. The French Post Office launched an online-only bank called "Ma French Bank".

- English but with French words, i.e. using English sentences / idioms but in French. For instance, in French, you would say that something has or does not has meaning (ça n'a pas de sens !) but not that it makes or does not makes sense. Well, expect that now people took the English idiom and use it with French words - ça fait sens.

I think (but it is only my own opinion not backed by any kind of data) that there would be way less backlash if there was greater fluency and use of literate English rather than a poor use of globish.

People do not think watching a film in its original English version is bad.

But replacing _Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre_ by _Air France, France is in the air_ sounds super lame.

[mytailorisrich]

'digit' is interesting because its etymology is indeed 'finger' (latin 'digitus' that gave 'doigt' in French). In English it retains that meaning in specific cases like anatomy, but has otherwise shifted to meaning numbers below 10, probably from counting with our hands.

[outadoc]

"Ça juste marche"

[anticristi]

It might be a bit of that, but let me give you another perspective.

As a non-native English speaker, I see value in having local terms for IT. I witnessed how in the 90s my parents had to learn by heart terms like "file", "folder", "save". Needless to say, having to learn both an IT concept and a term, with no real-life analogy, significantly increases the barrier for learning how to use a computer. Image you got this device with a button called "cântă" which for some reason makes music play.

As an IT expert, local terms are pretty tedious, since they tend to appear late, after you already internalised the English ones.

[pbadenski]

Interesting.. In Polish this type of English influence I believe was largely constrained (although not entirely) to within IT profession. We have (and use) words for - "file", "folder", "save". Some exceptions that come to mind: "click" and "email". With concepts like "firewall" and "antivirus" we use English terms, but these are difficult to explain either way.

[anticristi]

Feels like a wise choice: Use local words when there is a real-life analogy, use English terms when the analogy is missing or less obvious.