The Académie française, aka the French language police, recently surprised the francophone world with its choice for the official French translation of email. Deciding that the terms commonly used in France (e-mail, mail, and mèl) were too close to English, the Académie chose the Québécois word courriel. It surprises some and pleases others that Québécois French, which is sometimes belittled as not being "real" French, had the Frenchest word after all.
   By the way, in case you were wondering, the format of this page, called a blog in English, is known as un blogue in French, at least for now.
Part II -
As I announced on 12 July, the Académie française chose courriel as the official French translation of e-mail. Based on that decision, the French Culture Ministry has now formally banned the word e-mail in any government-related documents, despite the objections of some internet experts.
Source: CNN
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