Friday 2 June 2006

What's on in Frenglish

"Tout ce qui move in Brussel dans la langue of your choice", according to a current trilingual (Brussel being Dutch) advertisement for a teletext service by tvbrussel. However, the English seems to be a literal translation from French, as well as following French rather than English grammar ("move", not "moves"). I would have translated "tout ce qui bouge" by "everything that's happening" or just "what's on".

You don't often see bilingual ads in officially bilingual Brussels, the only one I remember - and I don't recall what it was for, probably some sort of yoghurt - said something like "trop n'est jamais te veel", or "too much is never too much". Brussels' bilingualism generally works by having two separate language-versions, so in the cinema you sit through the same ad in both languages, with or without subtitles in the other one. And the movies themselves are mostly shown in the original language with both French and Dutch sub-titles - given in listings as V.O. s-t. bil. (version originale sous-titres bilingues).

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