They didn’t reckon on a popular uprising of defenders of the national languages, many in the canton of Neuchâtel, who clamoured, “Don’t mess with our mailboxes!”. Chastened, PostMail capitulated. Although the new logo will continue to be used for the enterprise, the postboxes will continue to bear the original language-specific labels, at least until 2010. One of the ringleaders in the campaign not only deplored “PostMail” as a “nasty anglicism” but pointed out that it was also a pleonasm. You know you’re living in a place with more than a pretension to cul-chah when you encounter the word “pleonasm” in the daily newspaper

such insecurity

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