serviette

[Victoria Neufeldt]

'Seviette' is traditional for 'napkin' in English-speaking Canada and
is still quite common, especially for the paper kind.  Nobody ever
blinks if I ask for a serviette in an eatery in Saskatoon (in the
middle of the Prairies).  This is true even of young servers, so
regardless of which term they themselves use, it's obviously totally
familiar to them.  I also see it in print from time to time and hear
other people of varying ages use the term too.  However, 'napkin' is
probably more common now, across the country as a whole.

As for French use in Canada:  an old (1962) Canadian French-English
dictionary I have, produced by the Lexicographic Research Centre of
the University of Montreal, gives 'table napkin' as the first sense of
Fr. 'serviette'.

Victoria

Victoria Neufeldt
727 9th Street East
Saskatoon, Sask.
S7H 0M6
Canada
Tel: 306-955-8910




> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Salikoko S. Mufwene
> Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 8:01 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: serviette
>
>
> At 05:49 AM 3/11/2005 -0600, J. Nihart wrote:
> >I have spoken French and English all my life and have
> never asked for a
> >serviette in any restaurant.  A serviette is a towel . In
> French a Cajun
> >calls a  paper napkin "a Nap- kin "(accent on the second
> syllable). A
> >serviette is either a wash cloth or a dish towel.
> >J. Nihart
>
> I grew up a Francophone and the term I learned for 'napkin'
> is "serviette."
> I just checked again with a Parisian friend of mine, a
> native speaker, and
> she says the term is serviette. Could it be that (your) Cajun French
> reflects English influence? Or maybe I missed an earlier
> thread of your
> remark?...
>
> Sali.
>
> **********************************************************
> Salikoko S. Mufwene                    s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
> Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor
> University of Chicago                    773-702-8531; FAX
> 773-834-0924
> Department of Linguistics
> 1010 East 59th Street
> Chicago, IL 60637
> http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene
> **********************************************************

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