National Geographic on our food
The National Geographic has a current culinary guide to Montreal which, as we all know, is “wedged between the St Lawrence and the Prairies Rivers” – but it was clearly written up before the pandemic.
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DeWolf 12:12 on 2021-03-28 Permalink
Funny how Back River is common, and people also say rivière des Prairies when speaking English, but Prairies River sounds ridiculous.
There’s an informal way of saying Montreal place names in English that has a real learning curve for any freshly arrived anglophone. A couple of years ago when an American friend visited he was amused to learn about the spectrum of names: there are those that are commonly translated (eg Park Avenue, Pine Avenue, Mountain Street), those that are usually said in an anglicized way (”Saint Catherine’, ‘Saint Urban’, ‘Saint Henry,’ ‘Gaai”) and some that are always said in the proper French way (Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Côte-des-Neiges, etc.). When it comes down to it, it all seems kind of arbitrary.
Ephraim 14:43 on 2021-03-28 Permalink
Well, some of those names actually used to be on the street signs. And there are a few that are sometimes used, though no longer on the signs, like Craig. And the Bank of Montreal head office is on St-James street. And there will always be a fight over Mountain/de la Montagne over if it was named after Jacob Mountain or Mount-Royal itself.
In the case of Guy, well, we really should pronounce it in French, since it is named after Étienne Guy (1774-1820).
Have you ever heard the francophone pronunciation of Maguire? (It’s in Mile-End)
Saint-Denis isn’t named after a saint, it’s named after Denis Viger, who Square Viger is also named, but Viger st. is named after Denis-Benjamin Viger, his son.
DeWolf 16:11 on 2021-03-28 Permalink
Yeah, how to pronounce English place names in French is a whole other thing. I live on Waverly and I’ve noticed that people who live in the neighbourhood tend to pronounce it the English way when speaking French (albeit with a French intonation), whereas people from outside the area (eg taxi drivers) say it as if it’s a French word.
GC 16:50 on 2021-03-28 Permalink
If I’m speaking French, I will say the French names in a French way–or at least as best as I can manage. In English, however, it is a real mixed bag. I will always say “Saint Laurent” for the street, but generally “Saint Lawrence” for the river…which is rather arbitrary. “Saint Denis” exclusively the French way–unless I’m giving directions to American tourists–but “Saint Catherine” almost always the English way…
Orr 23:03 on 2021-03-29 Permalink
When I was a young’un in the anglophone farm regions outside Montreal I’d hear the tv news talk about Pie-IX and it was a bit of a revelation find out what the words were and how it was actually spelled when I moved to Montreal and became bilingual. It still cracks me up, tbh..