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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2003-09 > 1063513122


From: "D. O'" <>
Subject: RE: [Q-R] St. Athanase is ..... in English
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 04:18:42 +0000


I know of St. Athanasius who was an early bishop of Alexandria. Perhaps
there is no English equivalent to the French form of St. Athanase as the
English may have continued to use the Latin form.

...................................


>From: "Kevan Barton" <>
>To:
>Subject: RE: [Q-R] St. Athanase is ..... in English
>Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 23:54:36 -0400
>
>Come on guys! As I stated earlier, I'm not asking a geographic question.
>To an Englishman, St. John was the beloved of Christ. To someone that
>speaks French, is he not St-Jean? Is St. Athanase a French saint, or does
>he go by another name in English? I do not speak French, but I've never
>heard of St. Athanase in English. Is someone going to help me out, or am I
>only going to get pithy replies like:
>
>"To me...
>St-Jean does not equal St-John
>St-Peter does not equal St-Pierre
>
>Nor does Three-Rivers equal Trois Rivieres
>
>Because they are proper names.
>Just as I wouldn't change Kevan"
>
>or,
>
>"Would you translate La Rochelle to the port of "The Little Rocks"? <G>
>That would be like the French referring to La Rochelle, Arkansas."
>
>But aside from the fact that these comments do not deal with my question on
>saints, taken at face value, I might assume from the comments that the
>folks
>that responded work a very narrowly defined area. So, in the
>multi-cultural
>society of Quebec, there is no tug-of-war between French and English about
>usage and proper nouns? This is silly. We only have to look at a map. I
>believe most maps have the St. Lawrence River, but do the fine folks of
>Quebec call it that? The families I'm tracing originally came from Quebec,
>but settled in Vermont. For some reason that I do not know, a very large
>percentage of them Anglicized their names. Pierre became Peter, Jean
>became
>John, etc. etc. Levesque became Bishop, Berger became Shepard. They even
>referred to their hometowns by English equivalences: St-Jean became St.
>John in the documents. I have one that at face value calls St-Athanase,
>St.
>Thomas......but I've yet to have someone tell me if St-Athanase has an
>English equivalent.
>
>The moral of the story is that names, even proper names, can be different
>and still be quite appropriate. Knowing their differences and their
>equations can be the clue I need for a genealogical success, especially
>where cultures collide (Quebec), or in transnational movements
>(Quebec-Vermont).
>
>Cheers,
>Kevan
>
>
>
>
>
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