International Aviation Language
Pegase Driver
Joined: May 1997
Aviation Qualifications: ATCO
Posts: 4,454
Likes: 1,166
From: Europe
For the education and entertainement of our English colleagues .
A little Chrismas carol ( a bit late I know ) :
Once upon a time, two American brothers decided to fight gravity and succeeded for a few minutes with a machine made from bicycle parts. However they were not prophets in their own land and soon , to promote ( and sell) their products thay had to come to a Country, far away across the Ocean.
The first thing they did was to learn the local funny language.
They became so successful that they started to export their products, mostly manufactured in that country. Some models went as far as China, and guess in which language the maintenace manuals were.
Soon after came the great War (1914-1918) and real development of aviation started. Unfortunately for the Germans they lost the war and had to surrender in rather dramatic way.
The terms of reddition were known as the Treaty of Versailles, and its Annex contains the first rules of Civil aviation : guess what, as the French were the victoriuos party, and had almost the monopoly on manufacure, and held some important post at the International Telecommunications Union body in Geneva ( another bloody French speaking area ), they prescribed that the International radiophony language should be made of French words.
When that became difficult a few years later they invented the Q-codes, which was an international language in itself.
When the second world war started,the French aviation went into a debacle and soon the Germans on one side and the British and the Americans on the other took over the skies.
Just before the end of the war in 1944 ( but the cards were already played) the winning party ( i.e the Americans )called those cards , moved the PICAO body from Paris,called it ICAO ,and held the famous Chicago convention, where it was stated that,the language to be used when overflying a country shall be the language of the country overflown, but also that pending the introduction of an International language, English -based language should be used or made available, internationally.
As the war ended, the massive number of surplus aircraft coming from the States ( DC3, DC4 , Curtiss , etc..) and the fact that the Americans controlled much of Europe, made that R/T was immediately done in English.
The rules still say today ( in 2002 ) the same as what was written in 1944 to the comma.
The International language Working Group ( ILA) only met twice and only came up with 2 or 3 words (e.g. Roger, Wilco, )and took over some of the old french International phraseology (e.g.: Panne, M'Aider) to Amercicanise it ( Pan - Mayday.. )
For the Francophobes : Panne equals Engine failure and M'aider is Help me ).
Morale of the Story : Do not mix up Cultural prestige and reality : we speak some form of English language in the R/T today because of the Americans, not the British...
One always speaks the language of the victorious part ..
French language is after all a mixure of Germanic, Gaellic and mostly Roman ( or Italian )dialects.
English is a mixure of Germanic. Gaellic and Norman.. Norman is a French dialect.. we could go on ..
Today to fly the ISS you have to speak American or Russian... Every Space tourist has to start his training with 3 months of Russian language..
So Morale of the morale : It is a pity that the Germans did not win both world wars, as we we all be speaking German on the R/T today and we probably would not be debating this on Internet. (there probably would't be an Internet either )
Plus we would be flying in much more sophisticated Aeroplanes that those of today..
Eines Shones Neus jahr .
Bonne annee quand meme a tous mes amis Anglais, Ecossais et Gallois.
Bises.
P.S : mon cher PSI, Eurocontrol va bien, merci, j'etais juste un peu parti ces derniers temps.
[ 02 January 2002: Message edited by: ATC Watcher ]</p>
A little Chrismas carol ( a bit late I know ) :
Once upon a time, two American brothers decided to fight gravity and succeeded for a few minutes with a machine made from bicycle parts. However they were not prophets in their own land and soon , to promote ( and sell) their products thay had to come to a Country, far away across the Ocean.
The first thing they did was to learn the local funny language.
They became so successful that they started to export their products, mostly manufactured in that country. Some models went as far as China, and guess in which language the maintenace manuals were.
Soon after came the great War (1914-1918) and real development of aviation started. Unfortunately for the Germans they lost the war and had to surrender in rather dramatic way.
The terms of reddition were known as the Treaty of Versailles, and its Annex contains the first rules of Civil aviation : guess what, as the French were the victoriuos party, and had almost the monopoly on manufacure, and held some important post at the International Telecommunications Union body in Geneva ( another bloody French speaking area ), they prescribed that the International radiophony language should be made of French words.
When that became difficult a few years later they invented the Q-codes, which was an international language in itself.
When the second world war started,the French aviation went into a debacle and soon the Germans on one side and the British and the Americans on the other took over the skies.
Just before the end of the war in 1944 ( but the cards were already played) the winning party ( i.e the Americans )called those cards , moved the PICAO body from Paris,called it ICAO ,and held the famous Chicago convention, where it was stated that,the language to be used when overflying a country shall be the language of the country overflown, but also that pending the introduction of an International language, English -based language should be used or made available, internationally.
As the war ended, the massive number of surplus aircraft coming from the States ( DC3, DC4 , Curtiss , etc..) and the fact that the Americans controlled much of Europe, made that R/T was immediately done in English.
The rules still say today ( in 2002 ) the same as what was written in 1944 to the comma.
The International language Working Group ( ILA) only met twice and only came up with 2 or 3 words (e.g. Roger, Wilco, )and took over some of the old french International phraseology (e.g.: Panne, M'Aider) to Amercicanise it ( Pan - Mayday.. )
For the Francophobes : Panne equals Engine failure and M'aider is Help me ).
Morale of the Story : Do not mix up Cultural prestige and reality : we speak some form of English language in the R/T today because of the Americans, not the British...
One always speaks the language of the victorious part ..
French language is after all a mixure of Germanic, Gaellic and mostly Roman ( or Italian )dialects.
English is a mixure of Germanic. Gaellic and Norman.. Norman is a French dialect.. we could go on ..
Today to fly the ISS you have to speak American or Russian... Every Space tourist has to start his training with 3 months of Russian language..
So Morale of the morale : It is a pity that the Germans did not win both world wars, as we we all be speaking German on the R/T today and we probably would not be debating this on Internet. (there probably would't be an Internet either )
Plus we would be flying in much more sophisticated Aeroplanes that those of today..
Eines Shones Neus jahr .
Bonne annee quand meme a tous mes amis Anglais, Ecossais et Gallois.
Bises.
P.S : mon cher PSI, Eurocontrol va bien, merci, j'etais juste un peu parti ces derniers temps.
[ 02 January 2002: Message edited by: ATC Watcher ]</p>
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 987
Likes: 0
From: Normandy
Sliding thing
If only you were able to speak or read basic french, you would discover that we don't waste too much time, on the "French Forum", bashing our "english-only-speaking" colleagues;
We prefer to write and to read about sex, for example.
Why don't you start a classic "french bastards" thread in the main forum ?
Personnaly I don't give a s**t of your opinion.
If only you were able to speak or read basic french, you would discover that we don't waste too much time, on the "French Forum", bashing our "english-only-speaking" colleagues;
We prefer to write and to read about sex, for example.
Why don't you start a classic "french bastards" thread in the main forum ?
Personnaly I don't give a s**t of your opinion.
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,261
Likes: 1
From: Europe
Chers amis, deux questions:
1)pourquoi perdons nous du temps à repondre à un provocateur, et un provocateur imbécile en plus? Il a démontré plutot clairement qu'une discussion sérieuse n'était pas ce qui l'intéréssait.
2)pourquoi lui répondéz-vous en Anglais? Ici c'est le FF, s'il veut entamer une discussion en Anglais (j'ai plutot l'impression qu'il voulait seulement répandre de la ...) qu'il déplace son 12 de Q.I. au Forum "Questions".
Amicalement
Fabuleuse Flyblue
1)pourquoi perdons nous du temps à repondre à un provocateur, et un provocateur imbécile en plus? Il a démontré plutot clairement qu'une discussion sérieuse n'était pas ce qui l'intéréssait.
2)pourquoi lui répondéz-vous en Anglais? Ici c'est le FF, s'il veut entamer une discussion en Anglais (j'ai plutot l'impression qu'il voulait seulement répandre de la ...) qu'il déplace son 12 de Q.I. au Forum "Questions".
Amicalement
Fabuleuse Flyblue
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 987
Likes: 0
From: Normandy
Salut Ô Fabuleuse !
Je me doutais que ton silence était une manifestation discréte de ton mépris vis à vis de ce Sliding bidule...Nous n'avons pas ta force !
Honte sur ce provoc minable ! Honte sur nous d'avoir embrayé sur sa connerie !
Et copp ? On t'entend pas ? Vas y casse le bien avec ton accent belgichounet mignon tout plein.
Un jour , je l'aurai. (pas l'accent ! ...le provoc)
Je me doutais que ton silence était une manifestation discréte de ton mépris vis à vis de ce Sliding bidule...Nous n'avons pas ta force !
Honte sur ce provoc minable ! Honte sur nous d'avoir embrayé sur sa connerie !
Et copp ? On t'entend pas ? Vas y casse le bien avec ton accent belgichounet mignon tout plein.
Un jour , je l'aurai. (pas l'accent ! ...le provoc)
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 160
Likes: 0
From: Europe
Ab Fab, tu m'ôtes les mots de la bouche ! A savoir que je voulais juste faire remarquer en passant qu'ici, à ce qu'il me semblait du moins, c'était un forum où l'on parlait français.
Alleï alleï (content Porco ?
) les gars, ne sautez pas à pieds joints dans la provoc', il y a d'autres moyens pour user intelligemment son temps !
Bises à tous. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
Alleï alleï (content Porco ?
) les gars, ne sautez pas à pieds joints dans la provoc', il y a d'autres moyens pour user intelligemment son temps !Bises à tous. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
