[lg policy] Canada: Quebec traditionalists resist French spelling reforms

[Harold Schiffman]

Friday, December 18, 2009



 Quebec traditionalists resist French spelling reforms
Laura Blenkinsop,  National Post


Traditionalists in Quebec fear spelling reforms to make the French
language more logical could prevent people from learning its true
complexities. "They fear that it is going to be something to put the
quality of the French language down," said Martin Bergeron,
spokesperson for the Office Québécois de la Langue Française, the
government body responsible for language policy in Quebec.  The
province's Ministry of Education took another baby step towards reform
this fall when it sent a notice to the school boards stating that
students writing their provincial exams this July would not be
penalized for using the new spellings. Students have the option of
using both the traditional and the new spellings of words.


"There is so much debate right now, this is why we are in transition,"
Mr. Bergeron said. "Those changes need time to be accepted. So until
they are, we proposed that both the new way to write and the old way
are both accepted." The spelling changes were proposed to the French
government in 1990 by the Académie Française. They add hyphens to
numbers but drop them from previously hyphenated words, and double
consonants, an 'e' or an 's' can be dropped depending on how the word
is conjugated. Despite passionate debate over the changes to the
traditionally static language, they have made their way into French
dictionaries like Larousse and the Petit Robert. But Quebec has been
reluctant to adopt them.


The province has been tolerant of the new spelling practices since
2005 and no student has been penalized on provincial exams for using
them, but they have not been officially accepted until now said
Ahissia Ahua, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education. She said
alternate spellings of words will be accepted as long a they appear in
a recognized dictionary. So students sweating over French spelling
tests in Quebec have the benefit of two right answers for
approximately 2,000 words. Onion can be spelled the original way,
oignon, or the new way, ognon.


To sit can be spelled asseoir or assoir. And fans of frenglish can
finally legitimately add the accents and the 'u' to words that are
borrowed from other languages. Revolver, previously spelled the same
in French as in English, is now révolver. Sprinter becomes sprinteur.
"But we don't teach it in the schools," said Ms. Ahua in a French
interview. "It's not in the French program."  As of yet, there is no
expiry date on the old spelling, said Mr. Bergeron.  "When there are
changes, whatever they are, people often have reaction to changes, and
this one goes to the French language which is at the heart of the
identity of Quebec."

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2360153

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