Émigrés - by Richard Scholar (Paperback)

About the Book

"This is a study of French words and phrases which, untranslated, have entered the English lexicon. Historians calculate that English, since 1500, has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. While it has naturalized many of these words, some have visibly retained their foreign roots, leading varied lives in the English-speaking world while eluding translation and resisting integration. Carrying traces of their French roots in the challenges of spelling and pronunciation they pose to native users of English, often set in italic type to distinguish them from the English surrounding them, they are, so to speak, âemigrâes: French foreigners in our midst. It was primarily in the 1660s that a cluster of phrases and terms with French roots - áa- la-mode, ennui, naèivetâe, caprice -came to prominence in English as Restoration England was Frenchified by Charles II and his court. More often than not these foreign words have been enthusiastically adopted by English users, as if they lent the language a certain je-ne- sais-quoi that would otherwise elude English expression and leave it tantalisingly incomplete, though occasionally the adoption of these words has met with fear and hostility, in a reflection of the ambivalent reception that has so often awaited the foreigners who count these words as part of their native language. Richard Scholar asks several interesting questions: What uses do French foreign words serve in English? To what extent have these uses changed the meanings of the words in French language and culture? And what does the study of these words reveal of the broader relations between neighbouring languages, cultures, and societies? In addressing these questions the author explores what meanings and associations these words have brought with them from the French tradition, and he places their emergence in English within the wider context of early modern social and cultural attitudes towards foreign cultures, their mediators, and the fashion for all things French"--

Book Synopsis

The fascinating history of French words that have entered the English language and the fertile but fraught relationship between English- and French-speaking cultures across the world

English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words and phrases--such as à la mode, ennui, naïveté and caprice--lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that would otherwise elude the language. Richard Scholar examines the continuing history of untranslated French words in English and asks what these words reveal about the fertile but fraught relationship that England and France have long shared and that now entangles English- and French-speaking cultures all over the world.

Émigrés demonstrates that French borrowings have, over the centuries, "turned" English in more ways than one. From the seventeenth-century polymath John Evelyn's complaint that English lacks "words that do so fully express" the French ennui and naïveté, to George W. Bush's purported claim that "the French don't have a word for entrepreneur," this unique history of English argues that French words have offered more than the mere seasoning of the occasional mot juste. They have established themselves as "creolizing keywords" that both connect English speakers to--and separate them from--French. Moving from the realms of opera to ice cream, the book shows how migrant French words are never the same again for having ventured abroad, and how they complete English by reminding us that it is fundamentally incomplete.

At a moment of resurgent nationalism in the English-speaking world, Émigrés invites native Anglophone readers to consider how much we owe the French language and why so many of us remain ambivalent about the migrants in our midst.

Review Quotes

"This is a rich and rewarding book with plenty of linguistic faits divers and an impressive array of cultural references. . . .An excellent case for reconsidering the cultural and political significance of terms that retain their foreignness, even in a language as globally dominant as English."---Emma Herdman, Forum for Modern Language Studies

"Émigrés . . . takes an approach informed by both French and English literature, and sets its findings in a cultural context which is wider still. This is pleasing, as the historical study of language perishes in a vacuum. . . . [A] humane and humanistic book."---Anthony Grant, French Studies

"[A] lively and always entertaining book. . . . Although Professor Scholar clearly has a wealth of learning at his fingertips, enjoyment of Émigrés need not be limited to academic readers. The book will be readily understood by academic and non-specialist readers alike. . . . The habit of using émigré words is infectious: for his sang-froid, savoir faire, and bonhomie in guiding us on this voyage through the complexities of our national love-hate relationship with French--and the French--we are all indebted to Richard Scholar."---Annette Tomarken, H-France Review

"A well-researched, convincing account of how our language has welcomed foreign words--but not always their native speakers."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

"Fascinating and informative. His research is excellent, he writes clearly, and the book is full of charming and memorable detail . . . .[Scholar] has written a captivating book in an accessible style. It would be good if reading him became de rigueur among students of language and literature, but perhaps ça serait trop beau."---Alan Dent, Northern Review of Books

"Like the émigré lexical items themselves, Emigrés crackles with hidden energy and is worth serious study."-- "Choice"

"Scholar . . . reflects thoughtfully and sometimes surprisingly on the use of French words in English. . . . Given the current interest in immigration, Scholar's book on immigrant words is erudite, witty, and surprisingly timely."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"The émigrés that Scholar highlights--à la mode, galanterie, naïveté, ennui, and caprice--don't assimilate and, in this act of resistance, reveal new ways of being."---Meghan K. McGinley, AmeriQuests

"The 'émigrés' of this engaging book . . . occupy an uneasy centre ground between donor and borrower language, being neither French nor fully integrated into English. This ambiguity, Richard Scholar argues, reflects a long-standing ambivalence in English cultural attitudes to things French, ranging from fascination to disdain. . . . The book takes us on an eclectic journey from Restoration comedy to Winnie-the-Pooh's companion Eeyore, John Le Carré and the Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine."---David Hornsby, Modern Language Review

"The dream of a primordial linguistic simplicity has a flip side: the fear of linguistic creolization followed by a loss of national identity. Richard Scholar's book exorcises this atavistic fear."---Maria Neklyudova, Shagi / Steps.

"This thoughtful summation of how much English owes to French, and other languages, has a certain je-ne-sais-quoi and cultural relevance."---David Caddy, Tears in the Fence

"Who needs ennui when we have old-fashioned boredom? . . . Scholar's émigrés often manage to be posh and phoney at the same time, while still carrying a kind of precision it would be hard to find without them. . . . [In Émigrés] words have historical lives and tell us stories we may not know how to hear."---Michael Wood, London Review of Books

About the Author

Richard Scholar is Professor of French at Durham University. His books include The Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi in Early Modern Europe: Encounters with a Certain Something and Montaigne and the Art of Free-Thinking.