Re: Internationalization--Standard Icons

From: Alain LaBont\i\ (alb@sct.gouv.qc.ca)
Date: Sat May 29 1999 - 10:08:01 EDT


A 00:11 99-05-29 -0700, Geoffrey Waigh a écrit :
>
>
>Alain wrote:
>>
>> A 14:36 99-05-28 -0700, Geoffrey Waigh a écrit :
>Bell Canada use to use YYYY MM DD, but switched to a May 5, 1999
>type format some years ago (and may have changed again in the last
>three years.)

[Alain] In French they use the normal French long dates too for billing,
« 5 mai 1999 », not the numerical format, but that is then normal. The
numeric format « 1999-05-05 » does not invalidate normal French grammar.

[Geoffrey]
>Obviously if Alain knows otherwise for Québec, I won't dispute it.

[Alain] That is indeed the case that Québec uses the international date
format infinitely more than in the « rest of Canada »... The reason is very
simple: American companies often used a numeric format "mm/dd/yy" before
(for example Esso on credit cards still does that even if they use French
in Québec!!!). It is already ambiguous for English speakers even if it
grammatically makes sense in this language when translated one-to-one to
plain English, but in French it makes absolutely no sense, while being also
numerically oddly ordered.

I had said in my mail that I believed it was less used in the ROC, but you
yourself reassured me when you said it is also used there, while making
English-speakers uncomfortable (which I find a little odd given the
ambiguity in numerical dates in English in Canada [American preference
versus British preference format -- the British preference of course
corresponds to the French [and generally European] format -- the ISO format
solves this ambiguity].

[Geoffrey]
>As for the ROC remark, while I have heard it used in the media and
>by some people, I and my friends certainly don't and those that do
>seem more likely to use it in discussions of Québec separation.

[Alain] Thanks for this valuable info. Seeing this frequently in English
media indeed when I go to Ontario, I was under the belief that it was a
general language usage. So now I will understanda that when English Canada
talks about the ROC ("rest of Canada"), it's in the context of political
discussions involving Québec separation issues. That said it is a
historical fact that the Canadian English-speakers outside of Québec named
themselves with this acronym, whatever the context... Obviously ROC does
not seem to include English speakers in Québec (8% of Québec people are
English-speaking natives), does it?

Alain LaBonté
Québec



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