French is/isn’t in decline
It made me sigh to see Robert Libman holding forth on how French is not in decline then turn to Le Devoir to read that French is sinking while English triumphs.
But it’s not as if a language has a will in itself. It can’t triumph. Nobody is pitting one language against another like a boxing match. The choice of one over the other is a collective impulse.
bob 15:11 on 2024-04-27 Permalink
It is the ressentiment behind nationalism. It is for narcissistic people who need to blame something for their feelings of inferiority. Generation after generation has been fed lines about past glories, and past treachery, and an imagined place in the sun. “You are on the threshold of greatness, but these impurities are holding you back.”
steph 17:29 on 2024-04-27 Permalink
Why does Quebec Nationalism HAVE TO be based on french monoculture?
Robert H 18:29 on 2024-04-27 Permalink
La question linguistique is simply a chronic part of life in Quebec, and it will never be entirely settled, but fated to succeeding cycles of heating-up and cooling-down. I believe this on going tension is the inevitable result of two languages coexisting in such a profound imbalance of proportion. Two groups have existential concerns, and even see their dilemmas through contrasting lenses: francophones feel beleaguered on this side of the Atlantic, and English speakers feel their very birthright as full citizens of Quebec is being challenged. And there is a limit even among anglophones and allophones supportive of the French Fact beyond which they risk crossing a line to self-abnegation. En fin de compte, la sauvegarde de la langue française en Amérique du Nord devra être un acte de volonté collective de la part des Québécois, c’est-à-dire des Québécois francophones.
FKA Orr 21:27 on 2024-04-27 Permalink
We could be the Switzerland of North America if the majority ethnic group would stop acting like Texas and Alabama are their minority-relation governing role models.
Meezly 11:06 on 2024-04-28 Permalink
This made me think of the cool drone footage of all the people gathered on McGill campus that was shared on FB. Some guy with a QC family name made a comment that was something like “Must be nice for an English university to have so much green space.”
Perhaps it was just an offhand comment, yet it was so telling. Many others like him who can’t even enjoy a rare cosmic event without making it about their perceived inequality and victimhood.
Meezly 11:08 on 2024-04-28 Permalink
oops I forgot to mention that the people were gathered at McGill to watch the eclipse!
Ian 15:08 on 2024-04-28 Permalink
U de M has tons of green space. Concordia’s downtown campus has none.. Weird flex.