THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I05 



In the Dominion House of Commons Anglicisms occasionally 

 drop from the lips of honorable members from Quebec, and I think 

 the worst specimen I have met with has been heard in Ottawa more 

 than once : mot pour un (me, for one) ioxpour mot, quant a moi, en 

 tantquej'y suis coticerne^ etc. Then we have Pannee fi scale for 

 r annee financiere ; rappeler ime loi for rapporter tme loi ; voteur for 

 votant, electeur ; les argents publics for sommes, defiiers, credits publics ; 

 un regle??ient est en force for un reglemefit est en vigueur ; supporter 

 for appuyer ; depeche des af aires for discussion^ examen, prise en con- 

 sideration, etc. ; vienibre for depute, representa?it ; resumer le debatiox 

 reprendre le debat \r'esumer = to analyse ;] etait oppose par les 

 deputes for etait conibattu, etc. ; legislater for legiferer ; faire applica- 

 tion for demander, solliciter, soumissioner ; and many others. 



Before proceeding further I may as well state that the above 

 division into classes is merely for convenience of reference, and does 

 not 'preclude the possibility of an Anglicism quoted under one head- 

 ing being classed under one or more of the others. In addition to 

 the Anglicisms already given, I will quote the following miscellaneous 

 ones: indictement ior acte d' accusation;^'''' qualification is used in 

 the same sense as in English, instead of capacite, aptitudes ; billets 

 complimentaires for billets de faveur ; alter faire prendre uft portrait 

 for alter faire faire, alter faire tirer 7in portrait ; sous ces circonstan- 

 ces for dans ces circonstances ; je vous observe que, je vous remarquerai 

 que instead oije vous fais observer que, je vous ferai remarquer que ; 

 un bloc de maisons for un pate de maisons ; depot for gare, station}'^ 



With the view of gaining as much information as I could about 

 the use of Anglicisms in Quebec, I opened up a correspondence 

 with the gentlemen mentioned in the beginning of this paper. M. 

 Lusignan, before replying, submitted the letter I wrote to him to a 

 club of leading French Canadians in Ottawa, to see whether their 

 views coincided with his own. My first question was : " Is the use 

 of the English language increasing or decreasing among the French 

 Canadians of the Cities of Montreal and Quebec ?" The reply to 

 this was : — 



(i) This word, although borrowed by the French-Canadians from the English, isfoundinOld 

 French. It is going out of use in Quebec. 



(2) This last example is a curious instance of a word being borrowed by the Americans 

 from the French, and employed in a sense very different from anything for which it is used 

 in France, finding its way back into the vocabulary of a French speaking people with its 

 new meaning. It is not likely to live for any length of time, for educated French Cana- 

 dians are waging war against it. 



