I was listening to a podcast from a UK host where they casually noted that if a food has a French name, it immediately sounds like a sophisticated/fancy food.
I wondered if other countries in Europe consider French and products of French culture to be "high end", or if it's linked to the history of Britain's monarchy, upper class, legal and scientific language all being French for a long time.
What impression does French give in your country, and are there any languages/cultures that are considered similarly where you come from?
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I’m half French living in Denmark and laugh at the extortion going on lol. Standard shit you’d buy at the local Lidl equivalent in France sells for 5x the price in Copenhaguen. Danes think a fucking 1 euro baguette should cost 7 euros for some reason
It’s sad that once upon a time people identified British products as the highest quality, but not any more (possibly because we don’t make anything any more). You can see it in literature from the 19th century
French-speaking Belgian here. I would say if a food product has a name in Japanese or Italian, you know you’ll be overcharged. Especially if it has a perfectly fine translation
French used to be so fancy here that most of the elite spoke it exclusively, even the ones that lived in Flanders and came from Flemish families. Everything ‘official’ (law, politics…) was in French as well: Dutch wasn’t even an official language in Belgium until 1898, despite being spoken by 60% of the population.
This higher status of the French language gradually disappeared in the 20th century, but there are still some upper class old money families in Flanders who speak French.
Why of course French food is going to be sophisticated
In France, if you go to an Italian restaurant most of the stuff would be written in Italian, I guess it makes it look more sophisticated ?
I’m Irish and I don’t think there’s any particular culture or language that makes things fancier than any other. I think it’s more about particular brands.
I can’t think of any language for which that is currently true.
In the past it used to be French, which is large part why Brussels and Wallonia speak French now instead of Dutch in Brussels and Walloon, Picard, Luxembourgish etc. in Wallonia, but those times are gone.
As French is an official language in Belgium it is not seen as fancy in Flanders. If anything, it is the opposite, as French loanwords have slipped in the dialects and dialects tend to be seen as unsophisticated.
These are basically several questions your asking here.
One of them I will try to answer, because it is very common and it has to do with my former profession: being a chef*
*(Yes, also a French word)
Why is all food that is considered good named in French? Basically because the French revolution happened.
French nobility before that had dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of people working around their castle. They ate the best of the best whatever the cost.
Then someday 1789 that all ended and all of those extremely talented cooks became unemployed.
Then they simply ventured across Europe, spreading their knowledge. That’s why, untill today: French terminology is what you learn in Culinary school or Hospitality. Wherever you’re from
French – considered the “haute couture” of languages and of most things
Italian – stylish and cultured…in a more extravagant less refined way
In fact, it is Swedish that sounds the most sophisticated (according to me, at least). There are so many international products on the market today that if something has a Swedish name, you know it was probably made for Sweden.
The same goes for people. A person who speaks proper Swedish, without any Anglicisms, shows that they have a well-developed vocabulary and is therefore probably well-read and, possibly, well-educated.
When it comes to foreign languages, however, French is the old common answer. If it involves food, then it also includes Italian.
English can be seen as unsophisticated, as everyone and their aunt speaks it (mostly) fluently, and it is common to substitute English for words you don’t know in Swedish.
I don’t think I’ve seen many food product names with French names unless they are imported from France, which would typically be regional cheeses or wines. In these categories France has a good standing, but not necessarily higher than certain other countries.
The one class of products where I have frequently seen “French words used for the sake of luxury” is skin/beauty products, shampoos, etc.
We don’t consider other languages to be sophisticated. We do consider a lot of foreign language use to be pretentious though. For example, it’s a coffee, and only an utter cunt would call it a primo grande americano con latte or whatever the word soup of the day is.
Yes it’s French. The UK wasn’t alone in the posh people all speaking French, that happened in more places including here. Many loan words from French are considered to be the posh version of the regular word. Like if you’re being fancy you’ll walk on the *trottoir* (sidewalk) in stead of *stoep*. Go to the *toilet* in stead of wc. At home you have *avondeten* (evening meal) but at a restaurant you’ll have *diner*. Expensive *ondergoed* (underwear) becomes *lingerie*. A well-read child has a large *woordenschat*, an adult who knows a lot of niche words an extensive *vocabulaire*.
I do have to mention that we have a ton of French loan words and the majority of them are just every day language and we don’t have a Germanic word for them or there’s subtle differences in meaning. And you can usually tell the difference between ordinary and fancy loan words by how Dutchified the pronounciation is. If a French person wouldn’t recognise the word if you said it to them it’s likely a commonly used word.
French, which is the case in much of Europe. This was mainly because historical elites spoke French while Dutch was considered to be the language of the commoner. Minority languages like Frisian were seen as even lesser than Dutch.
Italian also has somewhat of a sophisticated and refined reputation, but significantly less so than French.
English (specifically Southern British English) is also associated with fanciness at times.
I would also say french. Not only the language but also the country and the people. If there is a country (in Germany) considered sophisticated I would say France (and Switzerland).
It’s not to do with language, but in Norway it is Norwegian food that is associated with quality and often costs more too.
Several female Finnish translators have told me how much they enjoy hearing French. Several male translators are enchanted by Hungarian. So it’s a toss up in the frozen north between õ õ õ and ő ő ő.
More of a personal opinion, but I always see written Danish as a posh version of Norwegian (mainly Bokmål) as it keeps a lot of words, constructions and spelling that are now archaic (+ much of the literature we learn from Ibsen etc. is written in Dano-Norwegian and it isn’t modernised because it’s supposed to be understandable)
I feel like for the German upper middle classes it would be Swedish/Nordic. There’s this Bullerbü/”Everything is better in Scandinavia” vibe. Sometimes you see products being given Scandinavian names to make them seem higher quality.
There’s actual Scandinavian brands that are popular in German for said reasons such as Fjällraven, Wasa, Arla, Holzweiler.
But there’s also occasional fake-scandinavian brand such as Mørteens.
[Here’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullerby_syndrome?wprov=sfla1) an article about the Bullerby-Syndrome.
The reason French is considered elegant and fancy is not to do with the French nature of the nobility – that ceased to be a recognisable thing centuries ago. It’s more because France for a long time managed to position themselves as the centre of culture and refinement in Europe. It therefore was the stylish thing to be fluent in French and to use it almost ceremonially for certain things. The exact same was done in France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Italy etc.
Over here, France and the French are also associated with being fancy, but perhaps in an overly pedantic way. “Jak francuski piesek” (like a French dog) – used to describe someone overly spoiled, pampered and choosy. If we’re talking about high quality products, then definitely Germany. Maybe Japan. Polish-made products have also gained some prestige domestically.
My answer to your question is an anecdote about emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (who was a member of the Habsburg family; his mother was Spanish):
“But a German reported that the same Charles V sometimes said:
If I had to speak with God, I would do so in Spanish, because the language of the Spaniards radiates seriousness and majesty;
if I speak with friends, in Italian, because the language of the Italians is intimate;
if I need to flatter someone, in French, because there is nothing more flattering than their language;
if I need to threaten or speak sternly, in German, because their entire language is threatening, rough, and powerful.”
This anecdote was from around the year 1601, so about 43 years after Charles V’s death.
If you’re curious, in France, I’d say Italian has some of that prestigious effect for hmmm music, food, art…
In the tech world, it’s different, with English-sounding stuff being more… not exactly prestigious, but highly regarded.
In France I’d say Italian is considered the most elegant and beautiful language while japanese stuff is super trendy and used to make something appear fancy
In the Netherlands, as was already posted, French is/was regarded as sophisticated. But, about 150 years ago, German was also known here as the language of philosophy and poetry. And science.