] Goodbye "e-mail", the French government says, and hello ] "courriel" -- the term that linguistically sensitive ] France is now using to refer to electronic mail in ] official documents. ] ] The Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the use of ] "e-mail" in all government ministries, documents, ] publications or Web sites, the latest step to stem an ] incursion of English words into the French lexicon. ] ] The ministry's General Commission on Terminology and ] Neology insists Internet surfers in France are broadly ] using the term "courrier electronique" (electronic mail) ] instead of e-mail -- a claim some industry experts ] dispute. "Courriel" is a fusion of the two words. ] ] "Evocative, with a very French sound, the word 'courriel' ] is broadly used in the press and competes advantageously ] with the borrowed 'mail' in English," the commission has ] ruled. I'm told "computer" is a banned word as well. France really IS the butt hole of the western world. Laughing Boy France bans 'e-mail' from vocabulary |