Banlieue
November 9, 2005
This word dates back to the Middle Ages and is formed of "ban" (the authority of a lord) and "lieue" (a distance of around 2.5 miles): it used to be the area around a town which was submitted to the lord’s power. Nowadays, it means the area and communities which surround a big town. The centre of a town is called "intra-muros", a latin locution meaning "inside the walls". It is particularly fitting in these days, where the centres of big French towns seem to be hiding away behind these imaginary walls, which protect them from the sound and the fury coming from their underpriviledged areas.
On a more positive note, this site has been shortlisted for an award in the Brighton & Hove Web Awards 2005! Ok, it’s in the "searchability" category, which means that Jemima, my web designer, and not me, deserves all the credit for it. However, searchability is a hugely important criteria for any website, so it’s great to hear that mine has been deemed successful in that respect. Thanks Jemima!
NaNoWriMo wordcount: 19,211
Posted by céline, in Words, on November 9, 2005"Jemima, my web designer, and not me, deserves all the credit for it"...
Well, yes. And as far as "searchability" is concerned, this blog deserves full marks. But it would be nothing without its content, so Céline has something to do with this shortlisting too.
Bravo! Now for the final results.
Fingers crossed!
Hi Celine, I've just found your site after a Google search for 'banlieue translation'. Thanks for your interesting article, but do you find 'suburb' to be the best translation, considering that the connotations of 'suburb' in English are
rather different to those suggested by 'banlieue'? I am struggling to find the best way to render this tricky word. Thanks very much.
Yes, as "banlieue" isn't necessarily negative (banlieue chic, banlieue riche).
Posted by céline on January 24, 2006 3:50 PM"Banlieue" is indeed translated with the word "suburb" quite often, and it did not take on its more negative connotation until recently; the uprisings, or "violences" as they have been called in the French press, of late last year (2005) were centered in the "banlieues", according to many American newspapers. As Céline has noted, the "lieue" was originally a measured "league" of distance; it will be noted that the "banlieues" having suffered from last year's violence were sometimes not so close to the centre-ville of any big city; indeed, they were more than a league away. French does have a genuinely negative term for low-class (in all senses) suburbs, though: bidonville.
A safe term for an area of a town or city might better be "quartier", fairly free of negative notions.
Posted by kwat on January 26, 2006 9:15 AMPrevious: November 7, 2005
Racaille and kärcher >>
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