[lbo-talk] Quebec separatism

[C. G. Estabrook]

That makes sense.  Languages that migrate often freeze, while
metropolitan languages continue to develop. Just as Quebec
French is old-fashioned French, Afrikaans is 17/18c. Dutch,
etc.  If the lexicographer Samuel Johnson (d. 1784) were
suddenly to reappear in modern-day London, he would be thought
to have an American accent; Shakespeare would sound as though
he were from Co. Kerry. (Similarly, Americans don't pronounce
the "h" in "herb" -- it was still too new when American
English migrated.)

Your "breuvage" example is nice.  Modern English has a double
vocabulary of a similar sort -- cattle/beef, sheep/mutton,
pig/pork, etc.  The first is Anglo-Saxon, the second
Norman-French -- arising from who was tending the the animals
in the field and who was dining on them at table.  And that
distinction resulted from the unfortunate reversals that
Harold II suffered on a hill at Senlac, near Hastings, in 1066
CE.  --CGE

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 08:55:21 -0700
>From: Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com>  
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Quebec separatism  
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>
>When I visited Quebec (in 1973), I just happened to meet a
young man
>from France. He pointed out that a lot of the Quebecois
language was
>somewhat medieval: the Qs use the word "breuvage" to mean
beverage,
>whereas in the Mother Country, it means a beverage for farm
animals.
>
>-- 
>Jim Devine
>"Blessed are the pizza-makers."
>
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