[rayiner]

But that's my point. Dialects are entirely arbitrary, yet there is overt discrimination against particular ones, combined with classist and or racist overtones. Given that sort of discrimination, one can at least put together a picture of why the French in Quebec are as protective of their language as their historical marginalization.

My family is from Bangladesh, which separated from Pakistan (in an independence war), over language differences. Historically, those language differences were a proxy for the cultural marginalization of Bengalis within the Pakistani state.

So when we hear about the Quebecois requiring the use of French, and we think "oh those silly French Canadians" we have to remember that there is a lot more to language than just how people speak.

[JPKab]

I agree with your description of the problem. In fact, its easy for people like me to forget that, rather than attack the classist, ethnocentric actuality of the fact that we are expected to speak a certain dialect of English due to old class systems, we have simply chosen to be pragmatic and use our own dialect at home, and the 'other' dialect in formal environments.

However, the Quebecois don't need to do what they are doing. They live in a modern nation with civil rights protections. Forcing people to use French is its own form of oppression.