A popular brunch spot serving Jewish food in Montreal’s Saint-Henri neighbourhood is the latest target of Quebec’s language watchdog.
Arthurs Nosh Bar received a complaint from the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) because of the word “nosh” in their restaurant window, according to restaurant owner Raegan Steinberg.
Nosh is a Yiddish term that means to snack or enjoy a light meal.
“Living in Quebec, operating as an anglophone means that we got another ‘avertissement’ from the language police about the word nosh, which is not an English word, it’s a Yiddish word that means to bite, to eat,” Steinberg said in an Instagram post Tuesday.
The video was captioned: “This is getting ridiculous.”
A post shared by Raegan Steinberg (@babiesandpancakes)
Steinberg says “nosh” is a saying – not an actual English word – and she likened it to a popular québécois swear word.
“They’re insisting I remove it from my window,” she continued. “There is a word, it’s probably about three inches wide, that says nosh. Has been for a decade. It’s not an English word. What the eff.”
Arthurs opened on Notre-Dame Street in Saint-Henri in 2016.
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New regulations under Bill 96 through Quebec’s French-language Charter came into effect last June. They require that French be strongly predominant on all signs and commercial advertising visible to the public, with French text generally occupying at least twice the space of any other language.
“A company name that contains a specific term in a language other than French and that appears in a display visible from outside a premises must be accompanied by terms in French – such as a generic term, a description or a slogan – which ensure a clear predominance of French,” reads the OQLF website.
