Bloc-ing the Bloc
I'm not one to defend the Bloc Québécois (though I was sort of fond of their idea of a Team Québec for international hockey competitions) but this got my attention.
Now, the CBC has a blog titled "The Blog Report" in its Canada Votes 2006 section written by one John Bowman, who boasts of blogging before he heard the word. His last post on Friday, (I guess he doesn't get paid to blog on the weekend), discusses Party blogging, in which he provides a roundup of each of the Party's official blogs.
His paragraph on the Bloc Québécois' blog is rather curious, particularly his parenthesis at the end:
Interesting? Not really. I guess he doesn't spend much time in the francophone blogosphère? Because if he did, he would know that blogue is the generally (and officially) accepted term in Quebec. What is even more ironic is that he actually links to an article to substantiate his claim, which confirms:
Ok. So far, so good, John. But you must have missed the next sentence which reads:
Now the little word game is cute ("Bloc/bloc; haha, silly Quebecers"), but reveals some mighty poor research skills, and leaves this blogger scratching his head over why this guy would consider consulting a French website rather than a Quebec one. I would have taken the pain to email him and point out his error, but curiously enough, there is no contact info, nor any place to leave a comment in response to his post. So my guess is that this crumb of misinformation and gratuitous linguistic jab will remain on the Ceeb for a while.
Now, the CBC has a blog titled "The Blog Report" in its Canada Votes 2006 section written by one John Bowman, who boasts of blogging before he heard the word. His last post on Friday, (I guess he doesn't get paid to blog on the weekend), discusses Party blogging, in which he provides a roundup of each of the Party's official blogs.
His paragraph on the Bloc Québécois' blog is rather curious, particularly his parenthesis at the end:
The Bloc's "blogue," written by party Leader Gilles Duceppe, has a single 500-word entry. In it, Duceppe says the blog will be his link to party supporters so that he can share his reflections throughout the campaign and so they can share their vision for Quebec with him. (Interesting that the Bloc chose the word "blogue" for the medium rather than the continental French "bloc." I guess that would be confusing.)
Interesting? Not really. I guess he doesn't spend much time in the francophone blogosphère? Because if he did, he would know that blogue is the generally (and officially) accepted term in Quebec. What is even more ironic is that he actually links to an article to substantiate his claim, which confirms:
En France, l'équivalent proposé est le bloc-notes qui peut s'abréger en bloc.
Ok. So far, so good, John. But you must have missed the next sentence which reads:
L'Office québécois de la langue française, quant à lui, a francisé le blog en blogue, sur le modèle bogue (équivalent français de bug).
Now the little word game is cute ("Bloc/bloc; haha, silly Quebecers"), but reveals some mighty poor research skills, and leaves this blogger scratching his head over why this guy would consider consulting a French website rather than a Quebec one. I would have taken the pain to email him and point out his error, but curiously enough, there is no contact info, nor any place to leave a comment in response to his post. So my guess is that this crumb of misinformation and gratuitous linguistic jab will remain on the Ceeb for a while.
posted by Ferg at 12:03
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