If you've been following the news, Google is planning to launch an online library of texts that are now in the public domain (Google Print). Hey, it's looks like another free resource like Project Gutenberg. Sounds good to me. But not if you're a French librarian.
Jean-Noel Jeanneney, President of the National Library of France is upset about more evil American world domination and cultural infiltration of the rest of the planet. (Gee... pretty suprising to hear something like that coming out of France...)
BetaNews reports in Google Book Effort Draws French Ire why our endearing librarian is so miffed. Seems that Google isn't all powerful and has decided to start with the books that are most accessible to it, and not French books instead. Makes me wonder what our librarian would have said if Google came to him first... But he'd probably come off as the same obstinante complainer that he is now.
In John's article... oops... err... I mean Jean's article, he keeps rambling on about "anglo-saxon" and "Anglo-Saxons". What this has to do with anything I fail to see. Google is an American company comprised of mostly (or perhaps entirely) native English speakers. If they decide to create a resource starting in English, then what is his complaint? If he, or the rest of the non-English speaking world, doesn't want to use it, then don't.
This sort of complaint seems to be par for the course coming from the French speaking world. Quebec and France both have "linguistic purity" laws. Now what is that all about? What language anyone speaks shouldn't really matter, and pride in a language seems about as intelligent as pride in being able to breathe or defecate without assistance. Everyone speaks at least 1 language, and the important part is that we are able to communicate.
I'd hold English and Korean speakers as stellar examples of linguistic "Borgs". (There are many others though - a quick look at Asia will reveal many.) Neither English nor Korean speakers seem to care too much about the purity of their language. Both import, or borrow, words from other languages almost as easily as defecating without assistance ;)
Korean is especially dynamic with new words being adopted all the time. The Korean word for "bread" comes from Portuguese, "pork cutlet" from Japanese, "part-time job" from German, "remote control" from English, and there are many more examples.
English just happens to be the lingu-franca of the world today, and whether or not it remains that way in the future isn't particularly relevant. What will be relevant is that we will still be able to communicate with each other, and that Google is helping to extend our ability to communicate and access resources to further our communication skills.
Even if Google doesn't get cheers from the French librarian peanut gallery, they have my vote of confidence.
Cheers,
Renegade