Linguiste
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Philippe BARBAUD
Domaines de recherche
Chroniques de langage
Expertise juridique
Autres écrits
Extrait de l’Introduction du collectif Language in Canada, Cambridge University Press :
Acheter cet ouvrage
Language in Canada provides an up-to-date account of the linguistic and cultural situation in Canada, primarily from a sociolinguistic perspective. The strong central theme connecting language with group and identity will offer insights into the current linguistic and cultural tension in Canada...
FRENCH IN QUEBEC
« Philippe Barbaud (chapter 9) presents a picture in which French in Québec is numerically dominant but still insecure. It is threatened by English, but also (particularly in Montreal, of course) by the “weak attraction” it exerts upon allophones immigrants groups. Barbaud discusses the various official efforts to intervene on behalf of French – the Office de la langue française, the French Language Charter (Bill 101), and so on – as well as the many unofficial pressures which assail it. To say that it is timely discussion is an understatement of some magnitude. In June 1996, for example, the Quebec government tabled Bill 40, a series of amendments to the French Language Charter which has been in effect for almost twenty years. If enacted, this new bill provides for (among other things) the resurrection of the Commission de protection de la langue française – the so-called ‘language police’ (sometimes, even more pejoratively, termed ‘tongue troopers’) who would oversee the status of French in designated contexts. This possibility seems to have galvanized the anglophone minority in Quebec, who have become more vociferous in resisting what it sees as infringements on basic language rights. Equally – and, indeed, reinforced by Anglophone protest – many Quebec francophones are becoming more intransigent on language matters. »
