Look, if you’ve got even a passing familiarity with Canadian history, you can probably sort out for yourself why Quebec has an official commission dedicated to the preservation of French culture and language in the province. (Why they haven’t got a similar commission for, say, the Mohawk language is anybody’s guess, probably.)
This week, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) asked Montreal restauranteur Toby Lyle, proprietor of Brit & Chips (soon to be “Restaurant Brit & Chips,” because Francophones in Quebec have difficulty understanding what a restaurant is just by looking at it and need the French construction of restaurant names or else they will become confused and frustrated and lash out at the nearest horse-riding policeman) to change the name of his restaurant’s signature dish – which, for the record, is “fish & chips” – to “poisson frit et frites.”
He said removing “fish and chips” from the window will push customers away.
And, you know what? I can sort of understand where the OQLF is coming from here, since there’s plenty of people even in Montréal who only speak French (sort of the way that in Western Canada everybody gets confused by hearing more than four consecutive French syllables) and so a restaurant with an English-only name and English-only signage sticks out. It’s not really clear that the words “fish & chips” are symbolic of a systematic attack on Quebec’s distinct culture and traditions, but sure, okay, they can probably tell you what they’re cooking in French, English people know what “poisson” and “frites” mean, compromises can be made.
On the other hand:
Massimo Lecas, owner of Buonanotte said he was contacted by the OQLF on Valentine’s Day.
He said he was told the menu contains too much Italian.
Lecas said he wants his menu to retain a certain Italian flavour, but he says authorities told him words such as botiglia, pasta and antipasto should all have a French translation written next to them.
He said he was also instructed to translate the Italian words for meatball and calamari into French, even though the descriptions for each of those menu items are already in French.
Straight-up, what does this accomplish? Besides making native French speakers feel like morons, that is. I’m pretty sure a Quebecker eating at an Italian restaurant probably knows what “pasta” means. Suburban moms in Western Canada know what “calamari” is, despite the fact that the most they’ve ever seen of Italy is the establishing shots in the Pierce Brosnan-starring adaptation of Mamma Mia! Plus, these are both Romance languages, and “calamari” translates to “calamars.” There is nobody in Quebec dumb enough to know the word “calamars” and yet still not be able to connect that to the word “calamari.”
At press time, it was unclear that the OQLF was making the best use of its $400k budget increase in 2012, nor its 43 new staff.
via:CBC News image: The author once overcame the lack of English translation for “spaghetti” to make Italian food
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