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In response to your discussion about "nation" and "state",
especially Nick Millea's comment on "country": Quebec offers some
interesting variations of "pays". The national news network,
which is often more nationalist (quebecois) than Canadian, uses
the word "pays" to refer to Canada, i.e. synonymously with
"state". At the same time the Quebec legislature is called the
Assemblee nationale. But I remember Jacques Brault, an excellent
Quebec writer, once telling me that he asked directions from an
old farmer on the Ile d'Orleans (in the St Lawrence River just
downstream from Quebec--city that is). The old man said
(verbatim),"
"VousVous
allez tout droit, c'est trois pays plus loin"--here "pays" seems
to conjure up feelings of attachment,
loyalty, belonging. "Pays" or "country" appeals to the emotions;
"nation" is a political/cultural entity, a politically organized
"pays"; and "state" is a purely
legal construct.
Barbara Belyea
University of Calgary