Metro chain challenged to add accent
One guy wants to pressure the Metro grocery chain to add an accent-aigu to make it more French, and Quebecor may soon be Québecor. Now that CIRA is going to allow accented characters on domain names we may see more accented names than ever.
Steph 21:08 on 2012/01/31 Permalink
“For example, the website for Quebec City would be accessible from both http://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca and http://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca” <<< I assume they meant one to read http://www.ville.québec.qc.ca
Jack 21:34 on 2012/01/31 Permalink
How old is Yves Michauld?
Kate 22:06 on 2012/01/31 Permalink
According to Wikipedia, Yves Michaud was born in 1930 so he’s 82. Photo here.
Marc 22:12 on 2012/01/31 Permalink
Well, I guess he needs a new hobby or something to occupy his time. I believe it was he who referred to English as a disease.
James 12:01 on 2012/02/01 Permalink
What’s wrong with the hobby he has? Are we really going to be shocked day after day for people asking for Quebec to be french?
Jack 13:29 on 2012/02/01 Permalink
James it is just the narcissism of the man and his accent-aigu. When Michauld owned a wine distribution company Pierre Foglia famously said,” When that man speaks of wine, I want to drink milk.”Quebecor falling into line tells an even more interesting story.
Robert J 13:57 on 2012/02/01 Permalink
Its bizarre because both companies’ logos are all caps. In French typography accents are optional on capitalized letters. They are both francophone companies that have a largely francophone audience. So it does seem logical in a way that they would have accents. Then again, unaccented brand names are often used in French to give a kind of boldness to the name and to distinguish brands from objects (METRO from the métro, for example). We do the same thing in English with accents to give a kind of chic exotic allure to products.
That said, those interested in defending the French language should focus on more important linguistic issues (of which there are no lack- the quality of French public schools, the level of literacy in francophone Quebec, the lack of francophone service in certain federal ministries…). Dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s makes what could be a valid debate look like pickiness and even intolerance.
Bert 18:13 on 2012/02/01 Permalink
I am not sure that metro uses all caps, or any caps for that matter. I passed by one tonight, as I do most every night, and the logo looks lower case to me. The http://metro.ca/index.fr.html However, on real close inspection of the site, the page title has Merto, though I am unsure of the proper capitalization for a proper name (trademark, or whatever) that is written in all lower case, at the start of a sentence.