New Delhi, Jan 27: A French government commission responsible for protecting the French language from anglicisms has banned the French twitters to use the Twitter term "hashtag" from all official correspondence. Instead the government now wants them to use a new, au français definition: mot-dièse (sharp word).
The decision was made by the Commission Générale de Terminologie et de Néologie, which is responsible for French-language equivalents to foreign-language terms found popping up in France.
Though Twitter users in France won't be penalized for using hashtags, all official French government legislation and correspondence will be required to refer to mot-dièses instead of hashtags. The government has urged teacher, schoolchildren and even media to avoid using the English word.
This is not the first time the French government has taken such decisions, earlier it has mandated French people to refer to email as courriel, and that too with some success. Other key English words that the country has listed on its website include 'blog', 'supermodel', 'take-away', 'chewing gum', 'parking', 'weekend' and 'low-cost airline'.
The country has been proactive in taking a protectionist approach to internet usage within the country by proposing various laws, including taxing Internet companies for data mining, and much more.
However, critics are of the view that the two words are of different meaning. While the English hashtag symbol leaning to the right and denoting an abbreviation for 'number', is equivalent to 'no', the 'dièse' - the French term for the 'sharp' sign used in music - is vertical.
The French government's decision immediately met with some resistance within the French netizens with some complaining that you can't hashtag mot-dièse because it contains a hyphen. Another noted the news with the mocking hashtag #fightingalosingbattle.
Similarly, the government has also told the television sports commentators to not use the word 'coach' or 'corner' for football matches. They should instead say 'entraineur' and 'coup de pied de coin'.
