The Quebecois are a bit touchy when it comes to the subject of
defending the French language — even more so than the French in
France. While “stop” signs in France have the word “STOP”, which is
considered to be a perfectly acceptable French word by the Academie
Francaise (here’s a writeup in English),
they say “ARRÊT” in Quebec. My sister’s old boyfriend, who came from
France found it laughable in the same way that men who exclaim “It’s
not a toupee, it’s a hair replacement system!” are.
The Quebec equivalent of the Academie Francaise is the Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise (Quebec Office of the French Language), and they have a suggested Quebec French equivalent for the term “script kiddie”. It’s…
As a script kiddie would say, in the argot of IRC and instant messaging: WTF?
(Thanks to Adam Hill for pointing this out to me!)
Have a good April Fools’ Day tomorrow, but be mindful about your pranking.
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Sigh... a company I worked for did a project for the OLF once.
A few weeks before launch they reviewed the code and then, shocked, insisted we rewrite it - because it was in English. We then had to rewrite all the damn code with French words and abbreviations in the names... I wish I was kidding.
I was around when the signs were changed from the STOP/Arret to Arret only terminology. Montreal's principal French university (Universite de Montreal) mounted a huge battle against the change, because they argued like you do that STOP is actually a French word, to no avail, for years all STOP signs on the UdM properties used the world STOP only. I think they were hoping to make their case in court (since its illegal), the "Office de la langue francaise" never, unfortunately, took the bait!
Ah, the OLF. The translation department at work recently did some housecleaning, and I retrieved some late 70s/early 80s pamphlets on their sanctioned translations for words from a range of topics, from pasta to elections. A few faves:
Jour de la declaration de candidature de la presentation des candidatures - nomination day
Pates alimentaires farcies - stuffed pasta
Groseille a maquereau - gooseberry
Planification des recettes fiscales - fiscal planning
...and many more tongue-twisters.
If they're so big on de-anglicizing French, how come they're the Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise and not the Bureau?
There's no reason that Quebec needs to make the same choices as France. France doesn't own the French language any more than England owns the English language. Your sister's boyfriend's comments sound just as ridiculous as if some English guy thought he was funny criticizing Americans for something they might say.
And as for the last comment, in case you didn't know, it was we who borrowed the word "office" from French, not the other way around.