France bans English game terms from government communications

The French government has published French alternatives to English game terms in the Official Gazette of the French Republic. Government agencies in the country should use these terms to avoid “ambiguity.”

The list of French game terms was drawn up by the Commission d’enrichissement de la langue française, the French ‘language enrichment commission’. The committee proposes, among other things, the French term contenu téléchargeable additionnel or cta as an alternative to dlc or downloadable content. Furthermore, French people should use de joueurs instead of matchmaking appariement and a streamer should be referred to with joueur and directly.

The French Ministry of Culture, involved in drawing up the list, reports AFP news agency that the Anglicisms in the game sector ‘a barrier for non-gamers’ and can therefore cause ambiguities. The increasing use of English terms has been a thorn in the side of the Académie Française, of which the Language Enrichment Committee is a part. Earlier this year denounced members of the institute the use of, among others, ‘Only Lyon’ and ‘Nantes City Lab’ by cities. It would be a ‘degradation that should not be seen as irreversible’.

According to Judge Hype, a French language site, the publication in the Journal officiel de la République française means that the use of the French terms becomes mandatory in government administrations and settings and should also be used in product documentation and software documentation translations.

English game term French preferred term