I think English speakers just find it a bit strange because our own language is such a mess. In fact we don't even agree on how to spell basic words (maybe due to a deliberate political act by Noah Webster? not sure), and there is zero chance of international standardisation at this point, so we can't even imagine an official body that does this. Perhaps that's why some people seem to interpret it as "authoritarian". But in fact many other languages DO have a body like this, and I think it makes perfect sense. I'm not sure if any others have fancy swords and 17th century suits though...
> there is zero chance of international standardisation at this point
Well, the French language isn't really standardised internationally either, as many French-speaking countries have their own equivalent to the Académie.
The Office québécois de la langue française in Québec is the most active and influential one (as an example, their proposed word "courriel" for replacing "email" is the most common variant, even in France) and Belgium also has a Conseil de la langue française. Switzerland also has a Délégation à la langue française which is much less active, and the equivalents in Africa are mostly anecdotal for now though.
"In fact we don't even agree on how to spell basic words"
Yes the US seemed to go with Webster, while the rest of the anglosphere went with Johnson. Not quite as simple as that, as there were a few different waves of reform.
Just yesterday, I ran into trouble while searching for noise cancelling headphones because the site where I was searching had it spelled “canceling” for some of the products and the search wasn’t fuzzy enough to show both.
See also: “Inflammable means flammable? What a country!”
> Just yesterday, I ran into trouble while searching for noise cancelling headphones because the site where I was searching had it spelled “canceling” for some of the products and the search wasn’t fuzzy enough to show both.
'Canceling'? That looks like a spelling mistake :-)
The pseudo-official documentarians of the English language are the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). They don't prescribe or authorize English language use but generally accept new words and uses into the lexicon ... [1] briefly discusses their process.
Many native English speakers have a certain obsession with France and the French language that doesn't happen with other counties and their languages. It's really strange. For example, in the US, speaking French is considered a particular accomplishment and a sign of good breeding, much more so than with any other second language.
I'm not sure what it's about. Maybe a holdover from French being the language of the English aristocracy during the middle ages?
I think there are many reasons, including yours definitely true at least in the cultural unconscious in England. Other possibly more important reasons for Americans - whose white populations come from a wider cultural European base - includes the pre-eminence of French culture in the C17-C18th and through the C19th. Furniture, arts, music, food, wines and all sorts of things were particularly refined there, from before and especially during the courts of King Louis at Versailles through tothe golden decade in the late 19th century in Paris. Everybody who had aspirations to be cultured would speak French: it was the lingua franca after all! It was the language of diplomacy. Aristocratic Russians spoke French rather than Russian. I suspect in the Germanic states that was also this looking towards a rich and prosperous France as well, to the extent of invading it once they gaind some sort of cohesion and became a Prussian / German state in the late C19th. And remember that more white Americans come from Germanic stock than English stock, which is very readily observable in surnames and physiognomy.
I am not a historian and I'm quite happy to be corrected, but I'm suggesting these as factors.
> For example, in the US, speaking French is considered a particular accomplishment and a sign of good breeding, much more so than with any other second language.
As an American, my impression is that French is just considered more elegant and sophisticated than other foreign languages. I wouldn't consider it anymore difficult than another language, and quite a bit easier than some (e.g. Chinese).
...But I'm not a WASP, and if anyone has opinions similar to what you describe, my bet is they'd be WASPs.
It seems Romance Language academies love to squabble and love their "exclusive club". Though to be honest I haven't heard of a similar push to exclude people in other Academies
And I think that the Dutch is at least standardized in the same way for Belgium and the Netherlands. (Het groene boekje, regarding spelling, is definitely shared).
I can imagine a bunch of old people sitting in a room complaining about all the new words the young kids are using and how they are destroying the language.
