MONTREAL – A Quebec language group has put English in the crosshairs for the second time this week.
L’Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) wants to purge Boxing Day from the lexicon, just in time for Christmas.
The provincial agency issued a French-only statement on Thursday morning, pushing for Boxing Day to be replaced with one of two French alternatives to describe the day after Christmas.
“L’Office québécois de la langue française therefore encourages merchants, advertisers, media and consumers to use the expressions ‘soldes de l’Après-Noël’ or ‘soldes du lendemain de Noël’ in their communication related to this exciting day,” the agency said.
The statement added: “L’Office hopes that consumers and merchants will conduct business …. in French!”
The language agency last made headlines in November when the town of Saint-Lazare, west of Montreal, announced it was removing English from its official signs following OQLF orders.
WATCH BELOW: Saint-Lazare to change signs after losing bilingual status
Saint-Lazare was previously a bilingual city, but it lost that status when the percentage of English-speakers dropped below the provincially-mandated 50 per cent threshold for bilingual status.
The OQLF’s Boxing Day directive is the second language story since Monday.
A non-governmental language group caused a stir earlier this week by bemoaning the pronunciation of Montreal Canadiens superstar P.K. Subban’s first name by French broadcasters.
Rather than the usual “Pee-Kay,” the group says, it should be pronounced “Pay-Kah.”
WATCH BELOW: A French-language rights group wants sportscasters to pronounce Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban’s in French – from “Pee-Kay” to “Pé-Kah.” The popular hockey star laughed the incident off. Global’s Billy Shields reports.
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