From: clamen@CS.CMU.EDU (Stewart Clamen)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: GAZETTE: THE WORLD 'REMARKS' OUR FRENCH-INFLUENCED ENGLISH
Date: 18 Aug 92 04:26:41 GMT
Reply-To: clamen+@CS.CMU.EDU
Followup-To: alt.usage.english,soc.culture.canada
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Originator: clamen@BYRON.SP.CS.CMU.EDU


Someone suggested I repost this newspaper article to
alt.usage.english.  Enjoy.

---
Stewart M. Clamen			Internet:    clamen@cs.cmu.edu
School of Computer Science		UUCP: 	     uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu"
Carnegie Mellon University		Phone: 	     +1 412 268 2145
5000 Forbes Avenue			Fax:	     +1 412 268 5739
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, USA


-------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada
From: clamen@CS.CMU.EDU (Stewart Clamen)
Subject: GAZETTE: THE WORLD 'REMARKS' OUR FRENCH-INFLUENCED ENGLISH


Redistributed with permission from The (Montreal) Gazette, Saturday,
July 11, 1992.


				 -*-

	  The world 'remarks' our French-influenced English

			   by Ingrid Peritz

If you take the autoroute to reach your de'panneur, then visit the
caisse populaire en route to the CLSC, you are part of a distinct
group of North America.

   You speak Quebec English.

   For years, Quebec anglophones have been borrowing words from their
francophone confre`res and confounding outsiders.

   "The syndicate has your dossier," for example, has nothing to do
with organized crime, though it may mean your union job is on the
rocks.

   "The animator is in local 231" does not mean a cartoonist is at
phone extension 231, but that a group leader is in Room 231.

   Now Quebec English is getting international recognition.  The
prestigious Oxford Companion to the English Language publishes its
first edition next month, and it devotes a small entry to Quebec
English.

   So the English of _chez nous_ will take its place in the pantheon
of world Englishes, alongside Maori Engllish, Babu English, Queensland
Canefields English, Hawaii Pidgin English and Rasta Talk.

   The 1,000-page Oxford Companion, described as a cornucopia covering
every aspect of the English language, is edited by Tom McArthur.
He's a Scottish-born professor whose interest in Quebec English is
more than academic --- he taught English at the Universite' du Que'bec
a` Trois-Rivie`res from 1973 to 1983.

   His interest in the topic was twigged when a colleague of British
origin casually mentioned that he had recently "given a conference."

   "I was puzzled about what he meant," McArthur said in an interview
from his home in Cambridge, England.

   "I became aware that anglophones in Quebec speak a slighly
difference English, without knowing it," he said.  "If somebody draws
their attention to it, they become mildly embarrasesd."

   The companion concludes what most of us have known all along: "The
most marked feature of (Quebec) English is the influece of French."

   For example: English-speakers in Quebec say "give a conference"
instead of give a lecturte; "scolarity" instead of schooling; and
"collectivity" instead of "community."

   The saw Premier Robert Bourassa "passed on television" instead of
appeared.  They visit the caisse populaire, eat frites, and seak
government subventions instead of grants.

   These quirky English-speakers are often "anglos" -- and they get a
listing in the book too.

   Anglos grasp sentences that have entirely different meanings to
non-anglos.  Like this: "I was shocked by what she exposed at the
reunion."

   If you think it refers to trickery and the bold behavior of a
former classmate, then you are probably not a fluent speaker of Quebec
English.  Locals know it means you were disappointed with someone's
presentation at a meeting.

   McArthur has analyzed such terms as "to remark" "to demand" and
"confessional schools."  They are used instead of "to notice" "to ask"
and "denominational schools."

   "Because of its special circumstances, in relation to French," he
wrote in another 1989 study.  "Quebec English seems to me to be at
least as interesting as say, New York English in relation to Yiddish
or Hebridean English in relation to Gaelic."

   Quebec anglos think nothing of saying "I hope to work at a CLSC
when I graduate from CEGEP."

   That's because they make free use of these and other French titles,
including Hydro-Que'bec, Socie'te' des Alcools and, of course, Office
de la Langue Franc,aise.

   Political events have become a bonanza for "Frenglish" speakers.

   When they say "The commission president will attend the congress,"
they really mean "the committee chairman will attend the convention."

   The interplay of English and French is hardly new -- they have been
rubbing off on one another since the Normans sang the Chandon de
Roland at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.  It was an epic poem about
Charlemagne.

   In Quebec, the influence has always been perceived IN one way:
English words slipping into the French language, leading to dreaded
anglicisms.

   "Quebec's minority anglicisms community does not, however, appear
at present to be much concerned about avoiding or correcting
gallicisms," McArthur wrote.

   Yes the state of English in Quebec is comparable to English on the
Texas border or in Puerto Rico, where it is influenced by Spanish.

   "The Quebec and Puerto Rican situations have much in common,"
McArthur wroteee.  Two world languages meet in place place, giving
"special varieties" of both.

   "One of the languages, English, belongs to a powerful neighbour and
also to a significant minority."

   The Oxford Companion says the first significant English-speaking
settlers in Quebec were the British Empire Loyalists from the U.S.,
who arrived in the late-18th century.  Anglophones used to be a
majority in Montreal, but their decline to a minority has affected the
way English is spoken, he said.

   "Such facts explain why English as used in Montreal is not as
homogeneous as other Canadian regional English," the Companion says.

   "Rather it exists as a continuum, from long-established unilingual
anglophones broadly similar to anglophones in Ontario to bilinguals of
various kinds to francophones using English as a second language."

   The Companion sheds light on other Quebec creations.
English-lovers the world over will soon know that Alliance Quebec is
"a pressure group in the Canadian province of Quebec," and the
Equality Part was "founded to support minority language rights in
Quebec."  

   They will discover that Quebec's Bill 178 "allows non-French signs
inside stores but not outside -- an ordinance mocked by some
anglophones as 'the inside-outside law.' ".

   The Oxford Companion to the English Language, published by Oxford
University Press, sells for $61.95.  It will be available in Canadian
libraries --- oops, bookstores --- late next month.

				 -*- 

SIDEBAR: De'panneur means corner store only in Quebec French ---
         and Quebec English


Here is a glossary of some Quebec English words:

- ANGLOPHONE/FRANCOPHONE: English/French speaker.

  The terms "are now more or less pan-Canadian, but they are not
  negotiable currency in the United States generally, and hardly occur
  in British English although they have currency in West Africa."
  McArthur writes.

  In the U.S., anglo is a term used by Mexican-Americans to refer to
  English-speakers.  It is short for Anglo-Americano.


- ANIMATOR: a group leader

- AUTOROUTE: highway

- DEMAND (TO): to ask

- DE'PANNEUR: corner store

  "In international French the term refers only to someone who fixes
  vehicle breakdowns, not shortages of food," McArthur writes.  He
  said he did find the word de'pannage, with the Quebec meaning, in
  Haiti. 


- DOSSIER: file.  "I was seized with the dossier" means "I was given
  the file."

- INSCRIPTION: registration

- NOTES: grades, as in "I got a good note on my history paper."

- REMARK (TO): to notice, as in "Did you remark the way he was
  carrying on?"

- SCOLARITY: schooling, from _scolarite'_.

- SUBVENTION: grant, subsidy

- SYNDICATE: union, from the French _syndicat_.

  "The sentence, 'We talked to the syndicat people about scolarity' is
  well understoof in Quebec."  McArthur writes.  "In Britain it would
  make no sense at all, and in the United States, puzzled minds would
  turn, not unreasonably, to thoughts of the Mafia."


--
Stewart M. Clamen			Internet:    clamen@cs.cmu.edu
School of Computer Science		UUCP: 	     uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu"
Carnegie Mellon University		Phone: 	     +1 412 268 2145
5000 Forbes Avenue			Fax:	     +1 412 268 5739
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, USA