Thanks to a new study published by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), Quebec is once again scratching the “Hello-Hi » while wondering if French is going well or badly. It has become a well-known refrain, and each time it features the same two famous camps, which surf on identical data to arrive at opposing conclusions: while everything is going well for some, there is danger for others. .
At the risk of seeming like killjoys or gloomy defeatists, we are in the camp of the worried, for whom the decline of French is confirmed slowly, quietly, as time passes. The French language is a matter of statistics, and we can examine it from various mathematical angles. But if these same figures succeed in provoking opposite reactions, it is because language is first and foremost a matter of the heart. When your tongue hurts by seeing it mishandled several times throughout history, you cannot let your guard down.
The OQLF publishes one study after another. The latest, Welcome language and language of service in Quebec businesses in 2023, follows two similar probes carried out in 2010 and 2017. Using observers responsible for visiting businesses in a few cities in Quebec, the organization wanted to validate compliance with the Charter of the French language In the enterprises. Article 5 of the Charter stipulates that “consumers of goods or services have the right to be informed and served in French”. When entering the approximately 7,300 businesses targeted by the exercise, observers were asked to note in what language they were greeted — Hello, HiGood morning-Hi — and we served them.
As for the host language, the findings are eloquent. Between 2010 and 2023, the use of French lost 13 percentage points in businesses on the island of Montreal (going from 84.2% in 2010 to 74.6% in 2017 and 71% in 2023). Meanwhile, English gained 5 percentage points more; bilingual reception, 8 points. The use of “Hello-Hi », which some associate far too simply with an elementary mark of courtesy, therefore continues to gain ground.
However, Montreal is not a bilingual city. The first article of its charter states very clearly that it is a “French-speaking city”. Why then impose ourselves on a welcoming bilingualism which does not correspond in the least to what the city aspires to remain, that is to say a metropolis rich in its diversity, but with a strong French-speaking affirmation?
We hear sighing from here. What harm can bilingual politeness do if then the language of service is almost essentially in French (the report notes that, on the island of Montreal, only 2.6% of observers sent by the OQLF did not could be served in French)? An evil as insidious as it is harmful, because not only does this practice break the spirit of the laws, it also contributes to portraying Montreal as a bilingual city from the moment you enter, no matter who you are — tourist, French-speaking resident, allophone or anglophone. The OQLF also notes an increase in complaints about the language of service from year to year.
The Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, is also not happy with these results, which show that French does not have the vigor hoped for. An action plan on the French language, the broad outlines of which were revealed in The Press this week, will be presented shortly. Mr. Roberge denies wanting to serve reheated food, as has been suggested, but if the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) wants to slow down the decline of French, as it says it can do, actions will have to be vigorous. and target future generations.
On this one and only front, there is much to be done, because young people do not suffer from pain in their tongues in the same way that the most experienced, to put it respectfully, suffer from it. For these young people, who converse in a group of French-speaking friends, borrowing here and there from other idioms (including English), the bilingual welcome in Montreal is only the natural extension of agreed linguistic chivalry. in Montreal, Quebec, part of the world chessboard. Nothing much more serious than that. We are citizens of the world!
But we are the citizens of a friendly French-speaking stronghold whose fortifications need mortar. Several actions are necessary. The selection of French-speaking immigrants will obviously help to slow the decline of French, and it will also be necessary to ensure that the numerous obstacles placed in the way of temporary immigrants in learning French are removed.
For French worthy of what it is as an identity and cultural base, Quebec schools and cultural circles should be able to establish a permanent network in order to offer a wealth of cultural activities in French. Education and culture have a lot to offer to keep pride in a language like French alive or flourishing.