One of the peculiarities about the Olympics, evident to many, was the prevalence of the French language as the joint language of the Games.
On first view, this seems utterly bizarre. French is now well outside the top ten most spoken languages worldwide, regardless of how you count it. French-speaking countries hold no particular economic, political or cultural prominence in the 21st century. The world language is undoubtedly English, so why add French in London?
Interestingly, “BBC Oddities” tell us that French is in fact the first language of the IOC, based in Lausanne in French-speaking Switzerland and founded by a Frenchman. That is why French retains this apparently pecular status.
For all that, is it really appropriate for a language from a relatively small corner of Europe to retain such prominence on the world stage in the 21st century? Thoughts…?!
Yes, even if it only serves to show that other languages DO exist. Thought: could Rio just use French followed by Portuguese? Don’t think so somehow but it will be interesting to see if they also use French for the reasons you give above.
Hi Margaret – they will definitely use all three. Which will be confusing, because I know of no one fluent in all of them…!
(At Barcelona ’92 *four* were used – I believe the closing ceremony is actually still going on…!)
Pity I’m almost certain to have really retired by then.
“..why add French in London?”
There was a report about the strict contractual requirement for French in the telegraph a couple of years ago.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/8190503/London-2012-Olympics-to-be-held-in-French.html
The French Language is the first language of the Olympics. That has been the tradition and I dont see that changing for some time. I dont think anybody is particularly bothered about it either.