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Author Topic: French is not a dead language  (Read 3566 times)
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Passing user

Delivery Boy
**
« on: 03-14-2004 08:04 »

Many of you probably think that in the Futurama universe, French is a dead langauge.  This is not true: it is used only by aliens!  I did not see this freeze frame gag already reported, so I'm posting it here.  It shows
1. French is now an alien language
2. Its spelling has changed.
In Season 2's Xmas Story, Fry buys a parrot for Leela.  Just after he walks out of the shop, he passes some sign in an alien language.  I noted this down, and decoded it: it read "Joyeux Noex".
Now, "Joyeux Noël" is French for "Happy Christmas".  However, in Futurama Christmas is now Xmas.  In the same way, Noël is Noex! Clever, eh?  So French is an alien language.
Teral

Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #1 on: 03-14-2004 11:52 »

"Joyeux Noël" is probably just one of those phrases common enough to be remembered centuries from now, like "bonjour" and "Je suis Napoleon". The slight misspelling (Noëx) support that this was written by someone who had heard about the phrase but didn't know French and thus made a spelling error, just like most people have difficulties getting Latin grammar correct when using Latin quotes and phrases.

Final verdict: French is the Latin of the future, ie. dead.

More French theories

Welcome to PEEL, Passing user. Enjoy it here.  :)
TheLampIncident

Urban Legend
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« Reply #2 on: 03-14-2004 12:34 »

Yeah, I mean voila is a French word and you could probably find that in any English dictionary.
Passing user

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #3 on: 03-14-2004 14:30 »

Hmm...true.

Oh, I'm not sure how the secong alien alphabet works (how can one icon mean different letters?) but in A Bicyclops Built for Two, the chatroom in the background is:
Codebreakers Chat Room

I found other freeze frames (apparebtly, the cinema in Raging Bender is named after a type of infinity - I love director's commentary) but most of them have been reported.
Oh well.  Au revoir!
Shaucker

Professor
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« Reply #4 on: 03-14-2004 21:57 »

"Noex", is NOT meant to be a French typo...it's a pun on the word X-mas. They did the same thing in the sign reading "Cerrado para Xavidad". Xavidad is Spaish for X-mas....sorta. About as Spanish as "Noex" is French.
EspanolBot

Bending Unit
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« Reply #5 on: 03-15-2004 07:37 »

Zoidberg speaks French "J'cuse!" in 'Bendless Love'
Teral

Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #6 on: 03-15-2004 14:38 »

He just know that one word, and it's approximate meaning. I can say "good morning" in Serbo-croatic, but that doesn't mean I speak it.
David A

Space Pope
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« Reply #7 on: 03-15-2004 14:46 »

Yeah, lots of people use Latin phrases.  (Some people even know what they mean.)  That doesn't mean that Latin isn't a dead language.
Passing user

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #8 on: 03-15-2004 14:48 »

Yeah, I think Noex is meant to be like Xmas.  Farnsworth didn't seem to recognise any of the French given out by his translator.  I would like to think that the French decided to all jetpack of Earth and start a new, designer, sexy life as aliens.  Mmm...Planet France.
El Scorcho

Bending Unit
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« Reply #9 on: 03-15-2004 15:01 »

Or maybe the French were aliens all along, and they decided to bugger off home. It would explain some things...
ActionLaPointe

Starship Captain
****
« Reply #10 on: 03-16-2004 00:04 »

french is a dead language.
Passing user

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #11 on: 03-16-2004 12:52 »

But why is it?
Teral

Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #12 on: 03-16-2004 14:15 »

Ironic fate.

The French are some of the most zealous people when it come to the purity of their language. Rather than using an internatinal accepted (usually English) word, they'd rather make a new French word and use that instead. I think it was an actual law at one point. The idea was to ensure French would survive as a lnaguage rather than being diluted by foreign words. And what's more ironic than having the language die out?

Plus it's an absolute bastard to learn, and your only gain would be the ability to communicate with French people. I mean, really...
VoVat

Bending Unit
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« Reply #13 on: 03-16-2004 19:26 »
« Last Edit on: 03-16-2004 19:26 »

 
Quote
I would like to think that the French decided to all jetpack of Earth and start a new, designer, sexy life as aliens. Mmm...Planet France.

Well, Earth still has the Nation of French Stereotypes.
Shaucker

Professor
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« Reply #14 on: 03-16-2004 19:56 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by VoVat:
  Well, Earth still has the Nation of French Stereotypes.

I think the death of the French language made that joke all the funnier.
Anyway, maybe the French words that are used are part of an evolved French language..."New French" as compared to "Old French". It happened to English in a period much shorter than a thousand years, but the roots and some words are the same. It could be like that for 31st century French.
Blackadder11

Starship Captain
****
« Reply #15 on: 03-16-2004 23:24 »

One thing does confuse me. The Professor, clearly the most intelligent and educated among the crew of Planet Express, doesn't recognise the French word for hello, while Bender understands the word with ease in his Napolean song.
TheLampIncident

Urban Legend
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« Reply #16 on: 03-17-2004 00:11 »

Yeah, but you have to remember that the Professor's a senile amoral crackpot.
Sil

Professor
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« Reply #17 on: 03-17-2004 17:32 »

Ah, but Bender is pretending to be insane, so there's a percentage in it for him in knowing a language no-one else can understand. *swish!*

Ah, the Nation of French Stereotypes - "everybody hates them!"
Young_and_Angry

Professor
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« Reply #18 on: 03-17-2004 17:44 »

Blackadder11, bonjour means "good day".I hardly know any, and frankly, I don't care.And if France (I'm assuming that if the language was dead, the country would be, too.)was dead,how would Bender know about Napolean?Or would Sil's theory apply to that, too?
Teral

Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #19 on: 03-17-2004 18:02 »

France doesn't have to an empty wasteland just because French is dead. Latin is a dead language, but Italy is still a very populated country.

Napoleon is pretty famous, surely people will remember him even if his nation seized to exist, just as we all know who Gaius Julius Ceasar is.
Sil

Professor
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« Reply #20 on: 03-17-2004 18:52 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by Young_and_Angry:
I'm assuming that if the language was dead, the country would be, too.

We know France isn't dead - we see it in the second SP3K countdown, in The Honking when they're looking for the were-car, and again in TMLH when Pazuzu is explaining to the baby gargoyle (who is almost unbearably cute, by the way).

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