Canadian French Words /Québec Sayings / Québec Words
Céline Dion 1968– The popular Québec singer’s hits include “If You Asked Me To” and her duet with Peabo Bryson “Beauty and the Beast,” as well as “ Love Can Move Just last week some 200,000 digital supporters of Democrat Hilary Clinton, United States Presidential candidate, voted by internet to select Hilary’s campaign song. They chose Céline Dion's “You and I.”
Hon. Stéphane Dion 1956– He was a weedy political science professor at the University of Montréal, appointed to Chrétien’s cabinet in January 1996 as intergovernmental affairs minister to deal with national unity policies, an astounding portfolio to bestow upon an arrogant Quebecker who never once in an intellectual life stooped to learn reasonable English. As the final mildewed droplet of Paul Martin’s power in the Liberal Party at last evaporated during the federal Liberal leadership convention, Dion’s forces won, beating far more electable candidates like Michael Ignatieff. Suddenly, in front of shell-shocked Liberal troops, there stood le petit Stéphane, the unelectable, disdainful, English-garbling, prissy Quebec egghead, now leader of the Liberal opposition. In the annals of tongue-swallowing murder of a language, Dion stands out as a man who can misplace the stress on every English word he utters that is longer than one syllable.
Now such persistent linguistic contempt takes years to perfect, years of concerted dismissal of the importance of a country's other official language. Yes, les maudits anglais have neglected to learn Canadian French for centuries. But, I would add, unilingual Quebeckers are not asking to be voted in as Prime Minister of Canada. Well, one of them is. Before some pure laine habitant tries to machine-gun me, let me answer: Yes, my French beats the squeaky spume from purse-mouth's English. Dion's lack of English fluency is an issue, an outer token of a deep, inner, even if unexpressed and unadmitted dispisement. Don't you dare ask for my vote as Prime Minister of Canada if you can't even pretend to have tried to master the language of this country's majority! Are we talking rocket science here? No. We are talking 8 weeks of pronunciation instruction in a language lab. Simply enroll Stéphane Dion in an accent modification class for two months, lessen his profound ignorance of English sound patterns and teach Narrow-Lips to enunciate proper English. But apparently Dion will submit to no such corrective course. Eh bien! Fue-toi mille fois, mon petit gar-fish. Blame no other if your plan to lead this country becomes ben fucké. If ever a chief personified the death wish of a political party and its self-destructive impracticality, it is Stéphane Dion. By the way, I am no Tory. I am a pissed-off leftie, weary of watching the Canadian left pull the trigger pins on grenades they have gaily attached to their own belts. Suicide bombers? Every ball-dropping one of them!
The Dionne Quintuplets Born on May 28, 1934, near the Ontario village of Corbeil, the five Dionne sisters were the first “quints” to survive infancy. One birth in 57 million gives identical quintuplets. The five girls were exploited by almost everyone they encountered, including, of course, politicians. Below, possessive as Beelzebub with a new sin, is Mitchell Hepburn, Premier of Ontario from 1934 to 1942. No, Mitch, you did not father them.
Dion as a French surname has two sources. A. DION & DIONNE AS TOPONYMS The ancestor may have lived in one of the half-dozen ancient French towns with names like Dion, Dions, Les Dyons, Dionne: all of them from early French divonus, from the Celtic word for god *devos, indicating that the locality boasted a small shrine to a deity or some other religious importance. The Dionne quintuplets’ surname has this origin, too. Many French surnames originate when the family’s founding ancestor adds the name of his village to his given name. Thus in the 13th and 14th centuries when French surnames arose, we could imagine a small village where seven men bore the baptismal name, Pierre, named after Saint Peter. One of these men was born in another village just down the road from our imaginary village. That distant village was Dion. So, when Pierre finally had a bit of land to leave his sons, for the purpose of clear identification in his last will, he became Pierre Dion. This is a pattern that produced thousands of French surnames. B. DION AS GIVEN NAME Dion may also be a surname based on the ancient baptismal name Dido, Didonis —not from the name of Aeneas’s gal pal, the Queen of Carthage, but rather a Latinized form of the Germanic name Thiodo, Diod ‘people.’ The loss of the intervocalic d in Didonis to produce Dion indicates the word was borrowed at a very early date into French.
© 2012 copyright William Gordon Casselman
Reviews of my Book Click bookcover for preview
A Great New Review of My Latest Book!October 26, 2011 Welcome to the Enchanted Forest By WB Johnston This review is about Bill Casselman’s latest e-book about words: Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A Word Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems (Kindle Edition)
“Wade Davis, lately of National Geographic, once described each living language as “an old-growth forest of the human spirit.” Once you decide to enter the kleptomaniacal woods of our mother tongue, what you need is more than a tour guide. This is no Disney-fied ‘keep-your-hands-inside-the-car-at all-times’, point A to point B, clear-cutting mining of language. You, here, are in the hands of Sir William of Cassel, a genuine shaman modestly posing as a simple lover of words. Leave it on your desk at work and trust that someone will riffle through it when you are out at lunch. Shamans are magicians of the highest order. The work of their hands and hearts is game-changing. Or, hey, put it on your Kindle and just feel comforted that you can wander back out into the forest with Bill even in the middle of a boring lecture. (Casselman replies: Thank you so much, Dr. J., for the kudos.)
**********************
Jenni French of San Francisco, California writes on her blog “My Corner of the Universe” for March 19, 2011: Casselman, Bill. Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A World Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010.
And the author has quite a way with words, so I have found myself rereading many sentences in this book and slowing my progress through it. My current favorite sentence is found in a discussion of dog hybrid breed names: “What a revolting concatenation of cutesiness and smarmy nomenclatorial treacle parading under the name of canine hybrid breed names” (19). I’m sure I’ll have another favorite sentence in a day or two. This book is just that good and just that entertaining.” (Author Bill Casselman replies: “Thanks, Jenni!” ) Just a reminder that this book contains my ALL-NEW word essays, none of which are available anywhere else in print or online.
***********************
Cindy Lapeña on her blog “Creativity Unlimited” of July 19 ,2011, writes: Posted by mimrlith in 365 Things to Look Forward to. 19. Starting a book To a certified bibliophile like me, a.k.a. bookworm, one of the most exciting things to look forward to is to start reading a new book. In fact, sometimes the prospect of starting to read a new book is so exciting that I have to hurry to finish the book I am currently reading, just so I can start a new one. If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a book, especially if it promises to be a good one. Of course there are certain books I just won’t touch or be seen with, but at the risk of being hung by my thumbs by fans of such literature, I will not mention any genres in particular. . . Seeing a book with a title that totally captivates me, like Where a Dobdob meets a Dikdik (yes, that is a book title!) has me so worked up, I just can’t wait to dive in. I imagine all sorts of deliciously fancifully outrageous words with a title like that. Is it obvious? I just love books on words. You won’t believe how many dictionaries I own. Or books on lexical oddities and other lexical explorations. Yes, I am a logophile of sorts. I love the new words I pick up from new books. I relish finding out the meanings of all manner of words and phrases and expressions. What could be more fun?” (Replies author Bill Casselman: Please scroll to bottom of page or click here to link to a free seven-page preview of my book, Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik.
***********************
Testimonial Email Thursday, February 3, 2011 Dear Mr. Casselman, . . . I revisited the paraprosdokian page, and have finally quit laughing again at “Casselman’s Conclusion.” You were not unkind to the “profligate prof-lets.” During my years as an acquisitions editor, in rejection letters I often quoted Prof. Moses Hadas, classicist at Columbia University, who wrote a young scholar in response to having been sent the prof-let’s first book, “Thank you for sending me your book. I will waste no time reading it.” Thank you,
Bill Casselman interviewed for CBC Canada Day website article on Canadian foods. Click below to read. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/consumers/canada-cuisine.html
I invite you to tour my site and select from the hundreds of word stories here. To begin, click on the Word List banner below. Then perhaps browse the site map with its links to every page of my website.
........................................ May 2007 Recommendation “Bill Casselman…fascinating website on books and words” Brian Sibley, BBC broadcaster, author of the bestseller Shadowlands, about C.S. Lewis’ love affair with Joy D. -------------------------------------------------------------------
From Out of The Past, My Past Watch a 3 minute film review I did on CBC TV in 1983. Click on the line below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z00GCoCKvh8
order online from chapters.indigo.ca
|
Mountains,” and “Des mots qui sonnent.” At the end of the nineties, she recorded one of her biggest hit singles and a truly phenomenal best-seller, “My Heart Will Go On,” featured prominently as the love theme in James Cameron’s megahit movie “Titanic.” Dion has become a song queen of Las Vegas and a mother who retreats from showbiz now and then to raise her family.
