Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[J N Winkler]

But I wonder why there are bilingual stop signs in other parts of Canada.

Neither the federal government nor any of the other provinces is required to consider "STOP" a loanword in French, which would allow a stop sign with just "STOP" to be considered to have a message in both French and English.  I suspect Québec does so only to blunt the "Stop signs say STOP in France" criticism.

[vdeane]

New Brunswick is officially bilingual, so any stop signs there are.  Same for the federal government.

[Duke87]

Neither the federal government nor any of the other provinces is required to consider "STOP" a loanword in French, which would allow a stop sign with just "STOP" to be considered to have a message in both French and English.  I suspect Québec does so only to blunt the "Stop signs say STOP in France" criticism.

Which is a rather weird criticism when you consider that Quebec is hardly unique in using something other than the English word "STOP" on their signs. In Latin America you will find signs that say "ALTO" or "PARE" (this includes Puerto Rico, by the way - so stop signs aren't even in English everywhere in the US!). In various places throughout the world you can find stop signs with the word in Arabic, Chinese, and all sorts of other languages. Some countries use an image of a hand palm-forward rather than text, or simply a blank octagon. There's a decent sized gallery here.

The consistent use of the English word "STOP" throughout Europe is, globally speaking, anomalous - the result of the Vienna Convention deciding to copy the US stop sign design when they created their standards in 1968.

Of course, this is more detail and nuance than your average traveler is likely to appreciate. Or going to want to appreciate given that the criticism in question, even if objectively silly, fits the desired narrative of criticizing Quebec for wanting to avoid the use of English.

[ghYHZ]

A stop sign in the Indigenous community of Natuashish.....not in Quebec but in northern Labrador 

 

[J N Winkler]

Which is a rather weird criticism when you consider that Quebec is hardly unique in using something other than the English word "STOP" on their signs. In Latin America you will find signs that say "ALTO" or "PARE" (this includes Puerto Rico, by the way - so stop signs aren't even in English everywhere in the US!). In various places throughout the world you can find stop signs with the word in Arabic, Chinese, and all sorts of other languages. Some countries use an image of a hand palm-forward rather than text, or simply a blank octagon. There's a decent sized gallery here.

I actually suspect the purpose of that particular criticism is to hammer official Québec for attempting to out-French the French at the expense of its Anglophone minority.

[Chris]

The consistent use of the English word "STOP" throughout Europe is, globally speaking, anomalous - the result of the Vienna Convention deciding to copy the US stop sign design when they created their standards in 1968.

I think this also has to do with the fact that European countries and language areas are geographically relatively small, with a significant amount of foreign traffic. I can reach 8 to 10 different language areas within a day's drive from the Netherlands.

In places such as Latin America, Spanish is understood in almost all countries, creating a very large area with the same language, so PARE or ALTO instead of STOP isn't an issue. In other countries there is far less, or virtually no international traffic, for example in the Middle East, China, Korea, or Japan.

[english si]

I think this also has to do with the fact that European countries and language areas are geographically relatively small, with a significant amount of foreign traffic. I can reach 8 to 10 different language areas within a day's drive from the Netherlands.

Depends how long a day's drive is, and what languages are signed.

Dutch, French, German, English, Danish, Polish, Czech, Swedish are certainly there. Luxembourgish? Romanse? And 10 hours drive (a very long day) would give you Slovak, Hungarian, Italian, Breton and Welsh.

[Chris]

Italy and Slovenia is doable in a full day of driving. Milan is 1,000 kilometers.

I don't really count Luxembourgish, their signs are either German or French.

Some people drive from Spain to the Netherlands in a day, but I wouldn't recommend that. I prefer a max of 10 hours of driving, stretched to 12 if the destination is just beyond the 10 hour range.

[1995hoo]

"STOP" as used on signs isn't a word, anyway. It's an acronym for "Slightly Tap on Pedal." 

[Chris]

STOP signs aren't really taken that literally in the Netherlands. For most people it means: proceed with caution / be sure to check twice. Most people don't come to a full stop if there is no traffic approaching. There are no 4-way stops in the Netherlands (or Europe for that matter, I've never seen one).