Language policy in packaging

[Chris Harvey (languagegeek)]

Ysgrifennodd Harold F. Schiffman <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu> ar y  
2006-07-03 am 11:11:
> The English text said "easy to assemble" and the other language was  
> "facil
> reune" except that there was a grave accent on the [`a] in facil, and a
> grave accent on the final [`e], i.e. "f`acil reun`e" (or in html coding
> "fàcil reunè').

> This doesn't look to me like Spanish, since in googling for fàcil
> reunè I found facil with an *acute* accent [a']in many documents;
> some of the documents that come up are in Spanish and some in Portuguese,
> but none of them have the accents I describe here.  (In other words when  
> I
> google for fàcil reunè I get documents with "Facil and reune"
> but not with the accentuation I am describing.)
>
> Since language policy in packaging and product labeling in the US is
> (unofficially, of course) mostly in English and Spanish (and sometimes
> French), I can't understand which Romance language this is supposed to  
> be,
> or why someone would put this on the product if it's not "correct".

In Canada, the official policy is to have both English and French on  
packaging. Occasionally, especially with imported items, the package  
printers get the French accents wrong. I've seen graves instead of acutes,  
and acutes instead of graves. This is fairly typical.

My guess is that your package was either Spanish or Portuguese with the  
wrong accents. "Fácil reúne" is Portuguese or Spanish (I think) for "Easy  
he/she reassembles". This would be the literal translation. The only other  
option is for a 2nd sg. imperative "Hey you! Reassemble easily!" Unlikely.  
Note that the placement of the accent over reúne on your package was also  
misplaced. Again, I’ve seen this on French packaging here.

Chris Harvey
-- 
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
ᑭᑕᐢᑭᓇᐤ ᑳᓀᓱᐏᑌᐦᐃᓇᑿᐣ, ᑮᐢᐱᐣ ᐃᔨᐣᑐ ᐱᑭᐢᑵᐏᐣ ᐘᓂᑎᔭᐦᑭ
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