*Drums Fingers Irritatedly On Desk*

[redbrunja]

Okay, this is just ridiculous.

I'm trying to write a 8-12 page paper on efforts to preserve french language in Quebec, and I'm finding nothing. Now, this is a subject my teacher told me would be a snap to research - the morning I went to discuss this with her, she said she'd heard something on this subject on the radio that very morning.

However, those swanky online databases that WWU undoubtedly pays thousands each year so I can search? Giving me no love.

Proquest? Nothing.

Jstore? Nothing written after 1935.

I'm having better luck with wikipedia, google, and npr.org.

Shesh.

Comments

Re: Oh, *Thank You* (You're Going To Regret Making That Offer*

[nimblnymph.livejournal.com]

No, a cognate is a word that sounds the same as your natural language. An example would be technology. In French, it's technologie, or something of the like spelling. Sorry... Just woke up, so spelling is off. If you look at any of the main European languages (French, Spanish, Italian and German) you'll notice a lot of words that are cognates of each other. The reason for this is because ALL of them are based off of the root language of Latin. Like, in Spanish, the word for library is bibliotequa. In French, it's biblioteque. Again, don't quote my spelling right now. I haven't had any coffee yet.

When the Nords, Normans and Moors did their traveling/conquering of England, they brought these words with them and mixed them into the everyday Gaelic, Celtic and old English, thus creating the melting pot language we speak today.

Well, that completes your linguistic history class for today. Coffee time. You have my email, so just hit me up if you need something. I've got the afternoon off so I'm gonna try and dig around the find where all my written notes (and possibly my term papers) are for you. It could be just the geek in me, but it's actually a rather interesting subject.

Re: Oh, *Thank You* (You're Going To Regret Making That Offer*

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Ah, I totally knew about that, just not what they were called. I love cognates so much in french. (Still bitter that English doesn't count as a romance language.)

I remember learning about how English developed was the best part of my (early, early, early) British Literature Class (aka become all the cool writers were born).

I'll probaly send you an email once I've scoped out what the library has to offer and hit up the reference libraians - I've already found twice the info on Parisian French then I did on Quebecois.

Thanks! Enjoy the glorious coffee.