Should English replace French as the international fencing language?

[Phaeton]

[QUOTE=betty]

ENGLISH OR FRENCH?

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Of course, English is nothing but German with an identity crisis, it wants to be latin, greek, and a whole number of other things.

Shame we had the great vowel shift all those years back, english sounded better with german pronunciation. For example of course, Chaucer.

"Bifel that in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde."

In all actuality I don't think language in terms of fencing matters all that much. I really see no compelling arguments to change it to English and move away from tradition. I recognize French no longer is the language of the majority of international communication, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work. After all, Olympic fencing is french....

Learning a few words doesn't matter all that much. A begginer level fencer who it would bother in the United States has to know, maybe, four words. And anyone competing in an international level should have the dedication to learn more. As a chess player, I had to know how to say I resign, would you like to draw and such in three languages. Besides, there are some actions for which English terminology is nonexistant.

Switching to English won't make fencing any more telegenic. If the FIE wants to become more telegenic it has a lot of work to do. Nonfencers don't see or apreciate fencing, partially because of the speed of actions, right of way in foil and sabre among other things....

For comedic purposes:
Euskera should become in the language of fencing: No lingual cousins, lots of X's, very hard to learn...and no one speaks it. (well except for the Basques)

That or Icelandic where the word for television translates literaly into english as: Sheeps placenta stretched across window.

[DHCJr]

Also, which English are we talking about? Let me give you a couple of examples. The 1st Harry Potter book was a translated version from the original language. They translated it from the "Queen's" English to American English, because they didn't think U.S. readers would understand what Tea and Crumpet were and various other terms.

Take our own rule book, in 2000 rule book I heard a number of complaints. Instead of translating directly from the French rule book, we took the British rule book and changed some of the rules. The trouble was there was some who didn't know what a spool was or earthing.

Now the French have the 'Language Police'.

[sleepyweasle]

I think the multi-lingual aspects of fencing are great! My english-speaking daughter, who admits to hating the study of foreign languages, has learned a smattering of French for the piste, some words in Russian from her coach, she has actually been listening to Polish language CDs to speak to her fencing friends, practices her high school Spanish with other fencing friends, and has even recalled some Hebrew to speak to another group of fencing friends!

Despite her best efforts - she has turned into a little polyglot! Can only be helpful on the international scene

[Gav]

Also, which English are we talking about? Let me give you a couple of examples. The 1st Harry Potter book was a translated version from the original language. They translated it from the "Queen's" English to American English, because they didn't think U.S. readers would understand what Tea and Crumpet were and various other terms.

Take our own rule book, in 2000 rule book I heard a number of complaints. Instead of translating directly from the French rule book, we took the British rule book and changed some of the rules. The trouble was there was some who didn't know what a spool was or earthing.

Now the French have the 'Language Police'.

Yeah! Let's translate the rulebook into Scots!

[Poulet]

Scots is just badly spelled English anyway. I'm sure fencingfrog could do the job.

[KD5MDK]

I think the official language of protests should be Russian, since they all seem to come mostly in that anyway.

[veeco]

Only one nation on the planet speaks French. It's France (as well as people in their former colonies, which the French, resolutely, are keen to forget or ignore).

Really? How about this:

http://www.unicode.org/cldr/data/dif...ory___language

Scroll down until you get to French on the left hand side column. You will see all the countries who speak French. There are plenty who aren't and weren't French colonies. As a matter of fact, French is spoken quite a lot in Algeria (one of our most "famous" colonies) and it isn't even on the list. You'll notice however that it is spoken in some parts of the United States (you might never have been to them...)

French is still quite widely spoken, and it is totally ignorant of you to make such claims.

This is actually completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand, but I thought I'd correct your falsely made point.

[keith]

French is still quite widely spoken, and it is totally ignorant of you to make such claims.

Of course in Quebec the French frequently speak in English to make sure they are understood.

[foilz]

Really? How about this:

[http://www.unicode.org/cldr/data/dif...ory___language]

French is still quite widely spoken, and it is totally ignorant of you to make such claims.

This is actually completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand, but I thought I'd correct your falsely made point.

It is totally OK for me to make such claims.

It's your survey. It looks like to me that more countries speak English than French.

I would also like to see a poll of students around the globe which asks: which language do you wish you spoke well in order to increase your chances for success in the world?

English, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Japanese?

Perhaps you know.

Anyway, I agree, your comment was irrelevant.

The question was whether English should replace French as the International language of fencing.

I seriously doubt there is a reason, a rationale, or a logic for French. How could there be?

[veeco]

Why do you need a reason? That's the way it is, it doesn't bother anyone but you, and changing it would probably be more costful for the fencing society at large than if you got of your high horse, went to a book store, and learned the 20 words or so that are required to know for those who fence internationaly, and be done with it.

[needle]

I think the official language of protests should be Russian, since they all seem to come mostly in that anyway.

Это было бы неплохо

[howtobrew]

My thought is: Whichever, as long as it doesn't become Chinese.
seriously.