Computer software to safeguard French

Software to translate foreign words into English as and when Britons or Americans are spoken to abroad has been envisioned by Bill Gates as a sharing tool for the future. Officials in France have brought his dream one step closer to reality, by creating a computer program that automatically replaces Anglo-Saxon terms into their native tongue. But unlike the philanthropic Mr Gates, the French government hopes its software will serve not as an enabler - but as a barrier, to stop English spreading further into its prized parlance. Details of the program, obtained by a national newspaper, reveal it will be installed on all French ministry word processors for civil servants to use by the end of the year. The Terminology Corrector � Le Correctuer Terminologique - will activate when, for example, the word �e-mail� is typed by popping-up the official French alternative �courriel.