Since the publisher of Tintin first introduced "regional-language" editions of the popular comic book 30 years ago, readers in places from Alsace to Tahiti have been charmed to discover the boy reporter using their local dialect.
Not in Quebec.
Graeme Hamilton, from the National Post, reports that far from being flattered by the Québécois "translation", some are offended by the fact that it is written in a dialect. Which means it isn't pure. It isn't pure means it isn't French..
"In Quebec, we may speak strangely, but we write in French, and little Quebecers can read Tintin in the original, even learning a few new words along the way," Odile Tremblay wrote in Le Devoir. "So, a translation.... We have a bit of pride left. Don't go taking that from us. Seriously!"
Seriously! I agree. I should send the article to every time an agency asks me to give the a translation in "Sudanese Arabic" or some other such anomaly. Spoken dialects are one thing - but "they write/read in Arabic"...like all civilised Arabic-speakers. It is a mark of being educated and cultivated. If you can't read it, then you won't be able to read it in some weird dialect either.
"We have a bit of pride left. Don't go taking that from us. Seriously!"
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