Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > Canada
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 08-22-2013, 01:43 PM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,776 posts, read 37,717,092 times
Reputation: 11550

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by Natnasci View Post
I just wanted to add, that the use of lorry, knickers etc is NOT the same as not using STOP on a a sign.
Not to use STOP was a calculated choice, the other just a natural difference in terms and language. No one sat down and said " in North America we shall use the word truck for lorry, so make it so "
But using STOP in countries where that word is not part of the language is indeed a choice. It's a choice to conform to a certain international zeitgeist. Read into it what you want, but not all countries in the world use STOP, and it's not even true that all countries use a red octogon for this purpose. Most do, but not all.

There is nothing "natural" about the word STOP in most non-anglophone countries. It is an adopted usage that's all.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 08-22-2013, 01:56 PM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,776 posts, read 37,717,092 times
Reputation: 11550
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natnasci View Post
"don't forget that Quebec was fairly isolated from European French influences for much of the 20th century."

Yes, but by the time the bilingual STOP signs were being replaced, it was not so isolated. Also I'm not saying that Quebec should be " compelled " to put STOP on their signs. I'm just pointing out the irony. As you have mentioned, STOP is becoming more acceptable, which in itself reveals that perhaps in the overzealousness of enforcing language laws, silly things happen.
I think you might be reading a bit too much into it. At the time, the zeitgeist was towards making road signage predominantly French as opposed to bilingual as it had tended to be. So they looked at the stop signs, saw one word that looked French and one word that looked English, and decided that just the word that looked French was good enough to keep on the signs.

Another thing I should mention is that stop signs aren't really that common in France to begin with. Most intersections observe a priority system (priority to the main road) and so they are unsigned/uncontrolled it's understood that you stop or yield to traffic on the main road when you approach. And main intersections tend to have roundabouts.

Also funny, or ironic if you will, is that stop signs in the UK I believe said HALT until the 1950s or 60s.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2013, 03:14 PM
 
Location: Somewhere flat in Mississippi
10,062 posts, read 12,726,267 times
Reputation: 7168
Do Quebeckers still say "le fin de settimanes" instead of "le weekend" like the French?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2013, 03:17 PM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,776 posts, read 37,717,092 times
Reputation: 11550
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo View Post
Do Quebeckers still say "le fin de settimanes" instead of "le weekend" like the French?
Scusi, no parlo italiano qui. Francese!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2013, 05:08 PM
 
2,887 posts, read 5,111,404 times
Reputation: 3663
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Scusi, no parlo italiano qui. Francese!


We do say "fin de semaine" but weekend is becoming more popular.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-28-2013, 10:40 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,776 posts, read 37,717,092 times
Reputation: 11550
Smart letter-writter here. Comparing French Canadians, who found the society we live in four centuries ago, and had been there for almost two centuries when the British took over... to recently-arrived immigrants who freely chose to move here from their homelands!

Letter: Bernard Landry should be thankful for the Quebec Act of 1774

"All the news that's fit to print"
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-28-2013, 11:40 AM
 
4,449 posts, read 4,592,260 times
Reputation: 3146
Interesting....and Britain did enough apparently not to have the Canadiens to link up with the 'Americans' at the time. Who knows? If diplomacy wasn't so deft between the English and the French things today could be alot different today.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-28-2013, 11:55 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,776 posts, read 37,717,092 times
Reputation: 11550
Quote:
Originally Posted by travric View Post
Interesting....and Britain did enough apparently not to have the Canadiens to link up with the 'Americans' at the time. Who knows? If diplomacy wasn't so deft between the English and the French things today could be alot different today.

It's also a popular storyline that the British (and later the English Canadians) basically saved French in Canada/Quebec from the assimilationist tendencies of the U.S. and any other perils that might have threatened it.

For more on this, see post 68 here:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-...l#post30897062
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-29-2013, 07:39 PM
pdw
 
Location: Ontario, Canada
2,610 posts, read 3,031,952 times
Reputation: 1758
I draw a distinction between Quebec bashing and criticism of separatist and French-first ideology. If you're proud of being a Quebecker, you shouldn't let these ideologies represent the entire province. When I think of Quebec, these are not the things that first come to mind. I think of the natural beauty, the friendly people, the history and above all I see Quebec as an integral part of Canada that is very proud to be such.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-31-2013, 10:58 PM
 
Location: USA (dying to live in Canada)
1,028 posts, read 1,872,129 times
Reputation: 412
Muslim conference cancelled after Quebec objects to speakers | CTV Montreal News

Quebec does not tolerate Islamic radicals
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > Canada

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top