What are you? The Language Police?
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In Canadian English, this informal expression typically means:
Why are you correcting my speech? I didn’t ask you to do that.
NOTE
This expression is often used in frustration or anger and is potentially offensive.
In Anglo-Canadian culture, it is typically considered rude to correct the way someone speaks without their consent. This is why many English learners who visit or live in Anglo-Canada do not experience English speakers correcting their spoken or written mistakes very often, if at all. In Anglo-Canadian society, language correction is generally reserved for educators and language professionals like editors, speech writers, and civil servants of the Canadian language police.
THE LANGUAGE POLICE
In Canadian English, this informal expression typically means:
(potentially offensive) the policy makers, implementers, enforcers, and officers who protect the rights that all residents of Canada have to their native language(s)
NOTE
It is certainly not recommended to actively use offensive language. However, it can be a good idea to learn this language so that it is understood when a person comes across it in real life, allowing that person to respond appropriately.
One should also bear in mind that while there is potential for offence in this phrase, it does not guarantee it; context is essential in understanding whether or not this term is meant to be rude. In general informal speech among friends and family, this phrase is usually okay. In conversations about Canadian language politics, or where there is a strong negative reaction to a language or politics, this phrase is often considered pejorative.
CANADIAN LANGUAGE POLITICS
There are a variety of sectors in Canada’s police service, including one that is responsible for the use, maintenance, preservation, and protection of language. The expression, “language police,” is an informal term that refers to government language policy bureaus like the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada and the Office québécois de la langue française.
These departments exist in Canadian government in order to serve the multicultural mosaic that constitutes the country. However, due to political tension in both historical and current times between Anglophones and Francophones in Canada, the expression “language police” has been given a negative connotation, and yet there is still no neutral, informal way to refer to workers in language law, which is a relatively important aspect of Canadian life and politics.
Language law is an essential aspect of the previously referenced cultural mosaic of Canada and it serves all linguistic backgrounds on both federal and provincial levels. As such, the language bureaus of government manage and provide the following services (note: this is not an exhaustive list):
the “standardization" of Canadian English
establishing national bilingualism through Canadian public services
the implementation of English as the primary language of Anglo-Canada
the enforcement of English as the secondary language of Quebec
the standardization of Québécois French
the enforcement of French as the primary language of Quebec
the representation of Québécois French and Acadian French
linguistic and cultural support for isolated Francophones in Anglo-Canada
effectuating linguistic rights in education in Canada (e.g. providing EAL educators in classrooms, ESL programming, and immersion schools of other languages than the primary language of a region: English immersion schools in Quebec, French immersion schools in Anglo-Canada, Indigenous language immersion schools, immersion schools for other languages (Hindi, Ukrainian, Mandarin, etc.))
effectuating linguistic rights in health, law, and business in Canada
normalization of linguistic diversity in public spaces
regional unification of culture through language
and so much more…
Had you ever heard of such a police service? Do you have a similar service in your home country? Practice your English by letting me know in the comments below.
