The Inventor of “Franglais” Dies at 66

Miles Kington, the man who coined the term “Franglais” died at the age off 66 today. Mr. Kington had no official power over language. He could not tell people what to say, yet many people have adopted Franglais. I’m no sophisticate and don’t speak French, but I do mix in French words every once and a while when the 2.5 million words in the English language let me down or are inconvenient. For example, je ne sais quoi? is a lot easier than saying, “there’s just something about that person that I can’t put my finger on—do you know what I mean it’s just the way you know….?” Declaring détente with someone is a perfectly polite way of saying “I want peace with you but you’re still a jerk.” The French have more than returned the favor by adopting such English words as le weekend, le e-mail, and, most recently le rogue trader. However, such adaptations of the English language are not always flattering; I have heard that in France to get an American deal means you got swindled.

Mr. Kington’s death reminds me of Freidrich von Hayek’s description of language as spontaneous order. No one person or committee “invented” language, a lot of different people just kept experimenting with lots of different grunts and gestures, until they all used the same grunts and gestures. Eventually, people began assigning symbols to these grunts and gestures and voila!—written language. Mr. Kington picked up on how people tended to mix the two languages, wrote the phrases down or invented knew ones, and watched and listened as folks either ran with his ideas or rejected them. Franglais is a reminder that language is a product of ordinary people. The people decide what is a word and what isn’t—not the dictionary or the self appointed language police. For example, many people tell me that “incentivize” is not a word (spell check just did), but I think it is a word because a lot of people use and understand it. Rest in peace Mr. Kington, and thank you for your wit and insight into how the world around us really works.

Comments

[Andrew Abbott]

Random House and American Heritage Dictionaries agree that incentivize is indeed a word.

[Alastair Walling]

Thanks Andrew--this information will come in handy the next time I have a run in with the language police. Unfortunately, some thing tells me they will retaliate with the Oxford English Dictionary.

AL

[Dan]

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[judy]

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