Re: Unamerican

There is no idea of "un-French" in French (*infrançais is juste
meaningless). We do have the word "anti-français", but it's mainly used
internly by a certain extreme right which is desintegrating itself since
its schism (well, better late than never).

The best equivalent of "unamerican" in French is not unique. We'd use
"anti-démocratique" to mean "against the concept of democracy" and
"anti-républicain" for "against the concept of a republic" (generally, they
are talking about the French Republic, with the three words: Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity). Those two terms are really different, and
"anti-républicain" would be the nearest you can find to "un-French", as the
Republic is really *the* concept that unites France (even if we have still
a few royalists). Incidentally, the "moderate" right is often opposed to
the extreme right by saying that it is "républicaine" (in a sense that has
nothing to do with the Republicans in America).

All those terms are highly political, except "anti-démocratique" that you
see used also by associations and the like. To give you an idea of the
political landscape in France (for Americans who don't know about it),
let's give you a comparison:
- The American Republican Party corresponds roughly to our RPR (which was
founded by our current President and claims to be the direct heir of the
ideas of de Gaulle), plus the few more rightist parties, except the two
parties of extreme right (which used to be one),
- The American Democratic Party corresponds to our UDF which ranges from
center-right to right.
- All the other parties of France are more leftist (we have center-left,
Greens, Socialists, Communists, plus a few others less firmly marked).

For a French person, a word like "unamerican" and the like is a mark of a
deep chauvinism (not that we're not chauvinist of course :) ) and is
considered quite silly. It goes against the general idea that liberty, free
speech, etc... are universal and are not the property of any nation,
especially not the US (anti-americanism is still alive and well in France).
We don't have a "French way of life" the same way as the "American way of
life". Or at least we don't name it.

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org
(ou : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepages/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html)