‘Pasta’ found in violation of Quebec laws as language police crackdown

[The Straight Story]

An Italian restaurant in Montreal has found itself in the disapproving crosshairs of Quebec’s language police for using Italian names for dishes on its menu — despite the fact that French names for some of the dishes do not even exist.

“They told me ‘polpette’ [Italian meatball] should be ‘boulettes de viande,’ so I asked them what to call ‘insalata caprese,’” said Massimo Lecas, owner of the Buonanotte restaurant, referring to a southern Italian tomato and mozzarella salad.

“We’ve asked them what they would recommend, and they don’t even have answers,” he added.

On Tuesday, Mr. Lecas received a detailed letter from the Office québécois de la langue française citing him in violation of the Charter of the French Language for peppering his menu with words such as “pasta,” “pesce,” “antipasti,” “calamari” and, on the wine list, the Italian word for “bottle.”

“My menu is completely French, what I have in Italian are the names of my dishes,” said Mr. Lecas.

...

The news of the language agency’s intervention caused a storm on social media and Diane De Courcy, Quebec’s minister in charge of the language law, promised to look into the matter.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/21/quebec-language-police/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Is that like a canadian version of the onion or something? Sheesh

[dipsydoodle]

1. Some from Quebec

obviously chose to belittle themselves with such open displays of ignorance.

[TlalocW]

2. I don't understand how people think they can control language

Influence it, sure, but just plain try and stop it from evolving, not going to happen.

TlalocW

[clarice]

3. WTF ??????? nt

[RC]

4. They have PC DU'ers in Quebec too?

Or maybe that is just where their PC finishing school is. I don't really see much difference from the French wanting to keep their language pure and the local bunch trying to purify the language used on DU. Same shoveling shit against the tide.

[Xithras]

5. Do Polpette and Boulettes de Viande even mean the same thing?

Boulettes de viande is simply the French word for meatball, and can mean just about any ball of meat.

Polpette, or Italian meatballs, typically refer to a specific Italian style of meatball containing a mix of pork and beef, along with olive oil. I believe the "proper" French translation would be "boulettes de viandes a L'Italienne". Polpette is certainly simpler.

I wonder if they do this to the Asian restaraunts too? Anyone know the French translation for Chow Mein or Kung Pao?

[badtoworse]

6. Good grief. Don't they realize how stupid they look?

[SwissTony]

7. In English and Dutch, names like "pasta", "lasagne" and "Chow Mein" are so ingrained

I suspect most people don't even think of them as "foreign".

Hopefully, MS de Courcy will inject some common sense.