Since the publisher of Tintin first introduced "regional-language" editions of the popular comic book 30 years ago, readers in places from Alsace to Tahiti have been charmed to discover the boy reporter using their local dialect.
But the latest volume, billed on the cover as "Tintin en Québécois," is getting a frosty reception in Quebec. Far from being flattered to see characters spouting such homegrown phrases as "Ay! Toé!" ("Look here!") and "ben là là!" ("Wait a minute!"), some Quebecers are offended.
"In Quebec, we may speak strangely, but we write in French, and little Quebecers can read Tintin in the original, even learning a few new words along the way," Odile Tremblay wrote in Le Devoir. "So, a translation.... We have a bit of pride left. Don't go taking that from us. Seriously!"
As it turns out, this will be the only Québécois edition in the comic book series. Quebeckers are deeply offended by the first (and now, only) attempt to adapt the comic for the Québec market.
Québécois and Parisian French are two distinct languages, with the two French varieties differing by as much as 85 percent with respect to vocabulary, idioms and grammar. A Québécois version could have been produced that reflected the average everyday language, instead of slang (joual), but someone at the publishing company wasn’t too bright, it seems. Tant pis!
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