In article <QMSdnUTEQe7ru0jYnZ2dnUVZ_sSmnZ2d@giganews.com>
clfr@adelphiadot.net "Cathy F." writes:

> [...] Which brings up something that's often baffled me,
> considering the historical anti-French feellng - the use of
> French words (more so than in American English) in the UK -
> serviette, par example. Andrew??

(Checks OT tag is firmly attached.) Wow, we are well off into OT
territory. <g> Okay, this is me, guessing madly...

Partly historical, mainly starting with Duke William and his 1066
mates conquering England. They established a strong relationship
between England and what became France, due to lingering blood- &
land-ties. (The Hundred Years War -- eg the early Henrys -- were
a relic of that: English kings thinking they still owned big bits
of France, while the French had other opinions.) Proximity makes
for frequent exchanges, across La Manche: regular trade, cultural
and recreational visits, invasions (actual or merely planned) &c.

The USians, after the Great Hissy Fit of 1776, began to develop a
divergent form of English. (See Bill Bryson's "Made In America",
which details this, often amusingly.) Utility would be important
in a country wrestling with tough practical problems. And people
learning the local English after immigrating from non-Anglophonic
regions wouldn't want to be bothered with verbal frills, like how
to deal in goods with confusing foreign alternative designations.

On top of that, the linguistic ecological niches once occupied by
English words began to be invaded by words and phrases from other
languages not (at the time) encountered often in the UK. Spanish
has supplied many specialised terms to US-English.

The UK custom grew up, among the gentry and persons desirous of a
rounded education, to do a Grand Tour of Europe: visiting widely;
acquiring the occasional Greek or Roman object for the decoration
of one's estate; plus learning what was the latest fashion abroad
so one could be a royal social pain at home with airs and graces.
(Hey, the ways of human beings do not change much.) A notion was
developed that the French knew something about Style and Cuisine.
(Actually, they don't even know how to boil their food properly.)

Maybe the French language is responsible. "They" say it's suited
to diplomacy. Easier to lie creatively in French? Dunno. I can
lie well enough in English so never needed a serious alternative.

And France has a strong colonial tradition (with less inclination
to sever ties than most former colonial nations), keeping them in
the flow of new blends of ideas, which can acquire French labels.

We mustn't overlook chauvinism. (Named for Nicolas Chauvin (1815
or so), a veteran, ridiculous for his over-praising of Napoleon.)
Being determined to protect one's culture, while others are more,
um, laissez-faire tends to push attributes of it outward. (Frex,
L'Academie Francaise, tasked with maintaining the integrity of La
Langue, constantly gets its knickers in a twist about "Franglais"
and its foreign loan-words -- eg "le parking", "le weekend". Not
to mention their official names list from which parents were told
to pick for a sprog about to be labelled; but I have not heard of
that one in a while, so maybe it lapsed.)

And sometimes it's just fun to (mis)use strange words. If we use
them wrong, we can always blame the French for making them wrong.
--
Andrew Stephenson