Joual en stock: The controversial issue of language quality and autochthonous standardization in Quebec

Abstract

Is a language variety of Quebec French that is considered either excessively archaic and “folkloristic�? or vulgar and “corrupted�? due to contact with English an appropriate medium of expression to translate a flagship of Francophone popular culture such as the Tintin comic series for a French-Canadian audience? This is the question that stirred up a highly publicized controversy in Quebec media when, in October 2009, a Quebec-French version of the comic album “Coke en stock�? was presented to the public by Franco-Belgian publisher Casterman under the title “Colocs en stock.�? In order to understand this controversy, it has to be embedded in the context of the discussion on the “language quality�? (la qualité de la langue; Cajolet-Laganière/Martel 1995: 75ff.) in Quebec that has been the subject of intense debate for several decades since the so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1960s.