Thursday, June 25, 2009

Montreal vs Austin

I came across an article today about the new standard Franglais greeting "bonjour/hi" in Montreal. I guess there's a "merci/bye" or something like that as well. 

I think Montrealais may develop into its own language. In the meanwhile, the endless dance of my language/your language continues its fraught and enervating pall over the city. Consequently it is to the point where every grunt that is ambiguous as to language, and every saved syllable,  is finely honed and bricked into place at the shabby commercial foundation of a new language. Most Montrealers, as a consequence, (Leonard Cohen, grace a dieu, excepted) are terse and have underdeveloped sense of language and to some extent of music. The other senses and other aspects of civilization are rather heightened.

In Texas, though, the smallest transaction with a stranger, a pack of gum, a pencil, will cost you a half hour of chitchat about the weather, the ballgame, and the best barbecue in Lee county.