The Evolution of Language

I finally received my study guides for my upcoming French test and have realized that it won't be as easy as the woman on the phone promised me. It seems that the Quebec government is picky about details that no one else cares about. And apparently the beloved Office de la langue française has made some new rules for writing. Perhaps they heard a rumour that Francophones were actually becoming somewhat capable of writing their language and decided to further complicate it while they had the chance. For part of the test, we're given a paragraph of text and asked to correct the errors. The prep-booklet suggests that we keep in mind that the proper way to write 21, for instance, is no longer vingt et un, but the Office de la langue française has fallen in love with les traits d'unions and has declared that vingt-et-un c'écrit comme ça. The text also contains des anglicismes. Some are fairly obvious. Ça ce dit pas appointment en français, mais plustôt rendez-vous. Mais y en a d'autres qui peuvent facilement nous tromper. La phrase; 'Veuillez compléter le formulaire' contient un anglicism, mais ça ce dit souvent. Compléter, allegedly, should only be used in the sense of adding something, or to complete it- not à remplir un formulaire. Then again, it was likely printed in France and they speak funny French. They say things like cake instead of gâteau or ticket instead of billet, words that would surely give me a failing grade on my knowledge of government of Quebec approved vocabulary. The Université de Montréal Department of French lists the following as words and abbreviations often contaminated by English:

• adresse (address)
• app. (apt. - meaning apartment)
• Dr (Dr. - note the lack of period in French)
• h (hr. - meaning hour)
• n^{o (no. - meaning number)}

The Office de la langue française is so terrified of my contamination of the above French terms that it fears allowing me to teach English to young Francophones could have disastrous effects on the French language. Just imagine if there were consistency in abbreviations across language barriers! Quelle horreur!