Grilled-cheese, cocktail among terms now deemed OK by Quebec's language watchdog

Long seen as a staunch defender of the French language, Quebec's language watchdog has softened its approach to anglicisms, now deeming terms like "grilled-cheese," "cocktail" and softball" as acceptable for everyday usage.

The Office qubcois de la langue franaise signalled the shiftin a report posted to its website earlier this year.

Among the terms now viewed asacceptable:

• Grilled-cheese (with hyphen) can be used instead ofsandwich aufromagefondant.
• Baby-boom can be used instead of bb-boum.
• Cocktail can be used instead of coquetel.
• Softball can be used instead of balle-molle.
• Smash, a term in tennis,can be used instead ofcoupd'crasement.
• Leader can be used instead of chef, to describe, for instance, a politician.

Language is 'vivant'

Jean-PierreLeBlanc, a spokesperson fortheOQLF, said the revised policyis meant to reflect the evolution of how French is used in Quebec.

"Language is something that isvivant," he said in an interview.

"The phenomenon of borrowing from other languages has been going on for a long time."

TheOQLF,established in 1961 and strengthened under the1977Charter of the FrenchLanguage, is mandated to protect thelanguage and ensure its proper usage in the province.

It now has astaffof more than 230, including more than 20 linguists,and an annual budget of $24 million.

The OQLF'sgrand dictionnaire terminologique, a resource for translators, academics and everyday citizens, gets 19 million hits a year.

The office has, in some cases, been successful in introducing French alternatives to ubiquitous English words, such as courrielas an alternative toemailand mot-clicas an alternative to hashtag.

Others, like the cumbersomesandwich aufromagefondant, haven't taken hold.

In the past, the officehas been criticized for what some viewed as overzealous enforcement, such aswhen an Italian restaurant was targeted for using Italian words including "pasta" on its menu.

• Head of Quebec language office resigns in wake of Pastagate

Under the change in policy, though, restaurants will be free to offer up "grilled-cheese" on their menus without fear of sanction.

'Grilled cheese' no threat to French heritage, says restaurant owner

The change underscores a point thatPascal Salzman has been making for awhile now.

Salzman owns Le Cheese, a restaurant that specializesin gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches thatwas targeted by the OQLFa few years ago.

He opted to trademarkhis business's logo to get around the office's concerns with the name.

From the start, he felt the office was over-zealous in its approach to protecting French.

"I grew up in Montreal, I went to French elementary school and English high school, I'm Frenglish, and it's "un cheeseburger, un grilled cheese" that's what it is in Quebec, unfortunately," he told CBC.

"I'm all for preserving the French languageand culture I think it's a great initiative however, I don't think using the word 'grilled cheese' is going to destroy that heritage."

What is OQLF's role?

The changes aren'tsitting well with some linguists.

Marie-vadeVillers,author of theMultidictionnairede lalanguefranaise, said the OQLF should revisit its decision because it doesn't fitwithin its mandate.

"The role of the organization defined by the charter, one that hasn't been modified is to be a user's guide, to orient users. It's not up to them to describe the historic evolution of the language," she told Radio-Canada.

Chantal Bouchard, a sociolinguist at McGill University, had a different take, suggestingthe OQLF"figured that Quebecers were now ready for opening up a little bit about the English words."

She said Quebec is becoming more like France, where English expressions are more commonplace in everyday language.

"Younger people probably feel more at ease with French and they are more bilingual and they don't seem to perceive English as such a menace or as threatening as theyused to," she said.