It’s Not About The English Menus
The Quebecois may never have come to terms with The Conquest, but the language debate is part of the larger phenomenon of French dealing with the long-term loss of its global status.
Observers from outside Canada often scratch their heads at the surface absurdity of much of the language debate in Quebec. It is full of media stories discussing the language of restaurant menus, outdoor and indoor signs, the future of healthcare and education in languages other than French, and by extension, the practices of minority religions and their alleged impact on the vitality of the French language.
In most non-English-speaking countries, the prominence of English is a fact of life. English is studied nearly universally as a second language, and fluency in the global lingua franca is a mark of a well-educated person with elite aspirations in most countries. The typical country maintains its national language, but also expects to use English for interactions with outsiders, including international visitors. Nordic countries, especially Sweden and Iceland, are renowned for their widespread fluency in English, and Brazil, known for its Portuguese unilingualism, had national campaigns to improve its ability to communicate in English (including its first bilingual signs on public transit networks) as it prepared to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Universities outside the Anglosphere increasingly offer entire degree programs, especially at the post-graduate level, taught entirely in English.
The survival of French, which is necessarily carried out by resisting English actively and through government policy, sits at the heart of Quebec nationalism. The goal of Quebec as a nation is to exist as a distinct society on the North American continent defined by the predominance of French as the common language. Part of this effort to protect French is obsession over indicators of languages used in the workplace and at home, the proportion of immigrants who master French after arrival, and even the languages spoken by customers in stores and the percentage of pedestrians speaking English in certain parts of downtown Montreal. It is controversial to claim that French is as enduring in Quebec as Swedish, German, and Portuguese are in their countries and regions, However, 264 years after the British defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham and put an end to New France, Quebec continues to be overwhelmingly French-speaking despite accounting for 2% of the overall population of North America. It shows few signs of the kind of linguistic assimilation in the direction of English that took place in Louisiana, Scotland, and Ireland, where national languages have become folkloric.
So what causes francophones in Quebec to feel that French is under siege? It begins with what the Quebecois call “The Conquest.” As we noted, in 1759, Britain defeated France to end the Seven Years’ War. The war marked British victory in the race to secure the predominant overseas empire, and part of this victory was the absorption of French colonies in North America (with some exceptions in the Caribbean and St. Pierre et Miquelon). In the wake of the Conquest, the British indeed planned to assimilate the French colonists to the Empire, in terms of language, but also by restricting the practice of Catholicism. The push of the Thirteen Colonies for independence as the United States led to the Quebec Act of 1774, which protected French and Catholicism in return for the loyalty of French Canadians to the British Crown, ultimately ensuring the long-term survival of what became the Quebecois nation, but not before the Durham Report of 1840 called French Canadians “a people without history and literature” and recommended renewed attempts at assimilation. The idea that at some level the English-speakers surrounding them actively think about assimilating French Quebec may explain some touchiness about English on a smoked-meat menu board. But we also need to look at the idea of lingering resentment over defeat, not of New French but of the primacy of French as an international language.
For centuries, Latin was an international common language. It survived the fall of Rome, Europe’s Dark Ages, and the emergence of national languages based upon local dialects of Latin in the former parts of the Roman Empire. It remained the language of scientific research and scholarship, and of course of the Roman Catholic Church. Around the time of the Renaissance, national languages gained legitimacy, and as Latin declined as the European common language, French largely took its place. The Renaissance spawned a literary culture of authors writing in French and being read across Europe, and French became the language of diplomacy and international communication, with treaties, agreements, and diplomatic correspondence conducted in French.
This only lasted until the 18th century, when the rise of the British Empire paralleled the decline of the French, and English began a slow rise to replace French as the lingua franca. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham may well be the moment that encapsulates the start of French’s global decline. The birth of the United States set the stage for English becoming the language of two hegemons, and Napoleon’s defeat signaled the geopolitical subordination of French to English. This coincided with the Industrial Revolution, which strengthened English internationally.
So Quebec’s resentment toward the strength of English is intimately rooted in speaking French, as opposed to any other language. French has had the experience of being a global language of communication, and it remains an important international language, owing to its wide geographic spread to North America, Africa, and Asia. French remains an important language of diplomacy. The passports of most nations contain a short message in French asking other nations to grant safe passage to their nationals, and modern diplomacy remains replete with French terminology. Yet it is possible, to cite a personal example, for an American diplomat with very fluent French to spend a 23-year career without ever speaking the language on the job a single time beyond small talk with a French diplomat at a reception.
The despair at the loss of French’s international status extends well beyond Quebec. French-speakers are almost alone in lamenting the entry of anglicisms into their language, remain tightly focused upon maintaining the correctness of grammar, and fight a losing battle to establish French as the primary language of the European Union. As the Canadian journalist Paul Wells has remarked, it is something of a surprise that the Paris Institute of Political Studies, the famous Sciences Po, now offers full degrees conducted in English.
The Quebecois may never have come to terms with The Conquest, but it is part of the larger phenomenon of France dealing with the long-term loss of its status as the leading power in Europe, with the international projection of its language. The amusing stories of Montreal small businesses being told to say bonjour rather than bonjour-hi are in fact part of a global campaign for power status over 250 years old.
References:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-long-defeat-of-the-french-language/
https://courtneywithrow.medium.com/why-does-france-hate-euro-english-so-much-c253d11e0f76
https://english.fullerton.edu/publications/clnArchives/pdf/MethievLgDplmcy.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=AqlmTg_6tIIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/were-still-cleaning-up-lord-durhams-mess/article20417298/
