Baladeeeee baladooooo
I was listening to the Radio-Canada Toronto stream at work today to see how far gone my French is, and I wondered if RC does podcasts. And what’s a “podcast” in French anyway?
Here’s the answer: Baladodiffusion.
A wonderful, Quebec government-approved word if I ever heard one. “Diffusion” is the word for broadcasting and “balado-” comes from “balladeur,” litterally, “wanderer,” the OQLF-approved word for Walkman and, now, iPod.
Of course, in reality, most French people call them “podcasting,” “Walkman” and “iPod.”
In Swiss French, by the by, it’s “podiffusion,” which cuts the number of syllables by a third.