With the exception of specialized, pointed terms related to science fields, it is rare for a word to enter the dictionary before entering everyday language. Some would say that it is a specialized and pointed non-gender pronoun lost in the field of social sciences, others will be happy to consult exclusively the Larousse, who will not follow The Robert for this new inclusion. And many activists in the LGBTQ2S + community will be delighted with a victory that makes it possible to name realities lived outside the norm. In any case, it is clear that the language is changing, influenced, alive. And lively, at least we hope so.
The tongue is a muscle, but it is also the sinews of war. More energy is expended in imposing or resisting the term “systemic racism” than in effectively combating racism, both within the system and among the individuals who make it up; we procrastinate around the notion of genocide to qualify the inhuman treatment to which the First Nations have been victims, without ensuring that they have access to drinking water or to services adapted to their cultures. Let’s not even talk about the COP26 masquerade. Words, words, words …
On the fringes and beyond the words to rethink, to qualify or to integrate into everyday language, it is the entire language that should worry us, the one that is becoming poorer and “franglicized” more and more every year. This language which defines Quebec and could serve as a base for meetings, for all meetings. This language which is sorely lacking in galvanized activists.
No need to have your head in Papineau to see that English is gaining ground at the corner of rue Ontario. On the corner of Darling and Hochelaga too, and even on the 3e in Val-d’Or. The language is lost, our identity with it, but why exactly are they lost? From the obsolescence of the laws intended to protect them to the fragile geographical foundations of French in America, including francization programs unsuited to allophone immigrants, many avenues are explored and documented. And the most insidious, in my opinion: technological immersion.
The great revolution of the century, of the emerging millennium, remains the digital revolution of communications. Social networks, algorithms, data traffic, of course, but also the physical medium allowing their permanent hold: so-called smart phones. Everything is designed to increase our screen time, which is constantly growing.
This virtual space is a world, and the language which dominates and formats this universe is neither Esperanto nor ours. On TikTok, Amazon, Pornhub or Instagram, the French does not have the timid Law 96 to defend himself.
Just take a look at the short bios of young users to understand that this parallel life exacerbates anglophilia; Chloé de Chicoutimi describes herself as a she / she / her traveler who enjoy his best life and Mehdi Dufour-Chakine is displayed there as a iel / they devoted to his business of fuckin ‘fresh clothes that he can you ship all over. The screen is a portal to the world, their world is already no longer Quebec, or very little.
Everything is business and business is done in English. It’s going so well that we can do it for 14 years in Quebec without aligning two sentences in French, as Michael Rousseau and many others have shown us. businessmen more or less discreet about their disaffection with the Quebec nation.
When you receive your subsidies from a federal government which no longer recognizes Quebecers as founding people, which grazes our ears with incomprehensible electoral refrains for anyone who does not speak a poor sabir wandering between two languages (English and the “traduidu”, as the great Miron used to say), you quickly understand that French is no longer worth much in Canada.
Business is complemented by an overwhelming American cultural offer. Who can stand up to Netflix, Apple? WiFi has replaced cable, and we no longer have access to a few dozen channels to influence us, but almost two billion sites, films, products designed to take us to another site, another clip; our eye becomes a stain of oil where offers from everywhere agglomerate, but especially those of the neighbor below.
The arrival of iels in our dictionaries is not alarming, our vocabulary is enriched by a word. And no one is forced to use it, yet. On the other hand, the identification with the they which accompanies it almost systematically should concern us.
Openness to others, sensitivity to the experiences of minorities could remind us that Quebecers also form a minority nation in a country and a continent that less and less resemble them. To grow, flourish and remain the creative, resilient and welcoming people that we are, we need immigrants motivated to learn our language, and as many people ready to live, sing, write and work in French.
Achieving that will require more than signs along highways and citizenship courts, more than toothless laws and wishful thinking. Our language should not only be defended, but also celebrated. All over. And in virtual space too.