blending an assortment of thoughts and experiences for my friends, relations and kindred spirit

blending an assortment of thoughts and experiences for my friends, relations and kindred spirit
By Alison Hobbs, blending a mixture of thoughts and experiences for friends, relations and kindred spirits.

Monday, September 8, 2008

More words (québecois)

Last month, fascinated by the language I'd been trying to understand on our flying trip to the eastern border of Quebec, I visited the Librairie du Soleil on George Street and bought a Dictionnaire des expressions québecoises.

It's interesting to see how the preoccupations of the people come across in their idiomatic phrases. A book like this reveals much about their culture, or former culture, and lifestyles:

parler algonquin= parler d'une manière incompréhensible
avoir une face de carême = avoir mauvaise mine
elle a fêté Pâques avant le carême = elle est devenue enceinte avant le mariage
c'est pas catholique = c'est bizarre
ne pas s'user les genoux = peu enclin à la pratique religieuse

It seems the Quebeckers have had plenty of fun adapting English vocabulary for their own purposes, e.g.:

avoir de la baddeloque
être dans le trouble
avoir les bleus
avoir le shake
un peace and love
faire badtripper quelqu'un (= faire paniquer)
conduire en cowboy
faire une job
c'est le gravy sur les patates / la cerise sur le sundae! (= that beats everything)
à foulespide
faire un finger
tirer la plogue (= put a stop to it)
se matcher avec quelqu'un
roffe and toffe (i.e. rough, tough...)
avoir des screws de lousses
ne pas avoir de brain
être le flop du party
on va avoir un de ces times / avoir du fun

Never mind the pronunciation, having been taught the kind of French favoured by the Académie française, no wonder I often have trouble following what the people of Quebec are saying. Miles Kington wouldn't have had so much trouble perhaps.

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