Talk:Island of Montreal
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Does anyone call it the Island of Montreal? Even in the US, it's called the Ile de Montreal. We don't say that Paris includes the Island of the City. -- Zoe
- Well, a Google search turns up more "Island of Montreal"s than "Ile de Montreal"s and "Île de Montréal"s if you limit it to search only English-language pages. --Brion
- Ha. Well, I guess I'm not in touch with the ignorance of the American people as much as I thought I was. :-) -- Zoe
- (Clearly not -- I'd never even heard of the island in question, in English or in French, before noticing this article. --Brion)
- What do the Americans have to do with it? (Also, note Île-Bizard, Île Sainte-Hélène...)
- Seriously folks, I've never heard it called anything other than the Island of Montreal or Montreal Island in English, even by someone who uses the French names for other nearby islands. Montreal has a sizable English-speaking minority. - montréalais
montréalais is right. It's the Island of Montreal in English, the Île de Montréal in French. The island had 26 municipalities on it (the largest being the City of Montreal itself) till this year when they were merged into one, so the distinction of the Island versus the City no longer exists. But it will take a while to die out of common speech. - zadcat
- Actually, not quite true, zad - remember that the City contains 75 islands now, including the large ones I mentioned, as well as Île des Soeurs, etc. - montrealais
"...located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and the Rivière des Outaouais." - Is there a reason that we have the English 'St. Lawrence' (as opposed to St-Laurent) and the French Rivière des Outaouais (as opposed to Ottawa River, its article name)? It seems an odd mix of languages. Radagast 22:12, Jul 8, 2004 (UTC)
- No, there is no reason. - Montréalais 23:40, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, there is. The Saint Lawrence bears both names, officially, but the bits of the Ottawa river that lie in Québec bears only the name 'Rivière des Outaouais'. (c.f.: http://geonames2.nrcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/v6/sima_unique_v6?english?EHNAY?C (note that this specifically queries the english name of the feature)). I agree that the mix of names sounds a little silly though, but then it would be more accurate to change Saint Lawrence. - Coren 04:04, Jan 5, 2005 (UTC)
I don't think that's correct. According to National Resources Canada's resources for translators (http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/info/pan_can_e.php), the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence rivers are two of a limited set of features of pan-Canadian interest that, accordingly, can have their names translated, whereas other features are supposed to have only one form. It's not that those parts of the Ottawa River in Quebec are called Rivière des Outaouais in English -- it's that, unlike other features, it has a name in French and a name in English. - Montréalais 06:32, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)