Canadian French (, ) is the French language as it is spoken in Canada. It includes multiple varieties, the most prominent of which is Quebec French (Quebec French). Formerly Canadian French referred solely to Quebec French and the closely related varieties of Ontario (Franco-Ontarian) and Western Canada—in contrast with Acadian French, which is spoken by Acadians in New Brunswick (including the Chiac dialect) and some areas of Nova Scotia (including the dialect St. Marys Bay French), Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador (where Newfoundland French is also spoken).
Dialects and varieties
Quebec French is spoken in Quebec. Closely related varieties are spoken by Francophone communities in Ontario, Western Canada and the
New England region of the United States, differing only from Quebec French primarily by their greater linguistic conservatism. The term
Laurentian French has limited applications as a collective label for all these varieties, and
Quebec French has also been used for the entire dialect group. The overwhelming majority of francophone Canadians speak this dialect.
Acadian French is spoken by over 350,000 Acadians in parts of the The Maritimes, Newfoundland, the Magdalen Islands, the Lower North Shore and the Gaspé Peninsula.[ Ethnologue report for Canada] St. Marys Bay French is a variety of Acadian French spoken in Nova Scotia.
Brayon is spoken in Madawaska County, New Brunswick, and, to a lesser extent, Aroostook County, Maine, and Beauce of Quebec. Although superficially a phonological descendant of Acadian French, analysis reveals it is identical to Quebec French.[Geddes, James (1908). Study of the Acadian-French language spoken on the north shore of the Baie-des-Chaleurs. Halle: Niemeyer; Wittmann, Henri (1995) "Grammaire comparée des variétés coloniales du français populaire de Paris du 17e siècle et origines du français québécois." in Fournier, Robert & Henri Wittmann. Le français des Amériques. Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières, 281–334.[2]] It is believed to have resulted from a localized levelling of contact dialects between Québécois and Acadian Settler.
Métis French is spoken in Manitoba and Western Canada by the Métis, descendants of First Nations mothers and voyageurs fathers during the fur trade. Many Métis spoke Cree language in addition to French, and over the years they developed a unique mixed language distinct from their French dialect called Michif language by combining Métis French nouns, numerals, articles and adjectives with Cree verbs, Demonstrative, postpositions, interrogatives and pronouns. Both the Michif language and the Métis dialect of French are language death.
Newfoundland French is spoken by a small population on the Port au Port Peninsula of Newfoundland. It is endangered—both Quebec French and Acadian French are now more widely spoken among Newfoundland Francophones than the distinctive peninsular dialect.
Sub-varieties
There are two main sub-varieties of Canadian French.
Joual is an informal variety of French spoken in working-class neighbourhoods in Quebec.
Chiac is a blending of Acadian French syntax and vocabulary, with numerous lexical borrowings from English.
Historical usage
The term "Canadian French" was formerly used to refer specifically to Quebec French and the closely related varieties of Ontario and Western Canada descended from it.
[Francard and Latin, in Le régionalisme lexical, write:
]
- "Le français du Québec a rayonné en Ontario et dans l'ouest du Canada, de même qu'en Nouvelle-Angleterre. ... Le français québécois et le français acadien peuvent être regroupés sous l'appellation plus large de français canadien2, laquelle englobe aussi le français ontarien et le français de l'Ouest canadien. Ces deux derniers possèdent des traits caractéristiques qui leur sont propres aujourd'hui dans l'ensemble canadien et qui s'expliquent surtout par un phénomène de conservatisme, mais il s'agit de variétés qui sont historiquement des prolongements du français québécois.
- 2Il faut noter ici que le terme de «français canadien» avait autrefois un sens plus restreint, désignant le français du Québec et les variétés qui s'y rattachent directement, d'où l'emploi à cette époque de «canadianisme» pour parler d'un trait caractéristique du français du Québec."
This is presumably because Canada and Acadia were distinct parts of
New France, and also of British North America, until 1867. The term is no longer usually deemed to exclude Acadian French.
Phylogenetics, Quebec French, Métis French and Brayon French are representatives of koiné French in the Americas whereas Acadian French, Cajun French, and Newfoundland French are derivatives of non-koiné local dialects in France.[Robert Fournier & Henri Wittmann. 1995. Le français des Amériques. Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières.]
Use of anglicisms
The term
anglicism (anglicisme) is related to the linguistic concepts of
loanwords, barbarism,
diglossia, and the
macaronic mixture of the French and English languages.
According to some, French spoken in Canada includes many anglicisms. The "Banque de dépannage linguistique" (Language Troubleshooting Database) by the italic=no
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Complete anglicisms are words or groups of loan words from the English language. The form is often exactly the same as in English (e.g., "glamour", "short", and "sweet"), but sometimes there is a slight adjustment to the French language (e.g., "drabe", which comes from the English word "drab").
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Hybrid anglicisms are new words, formed by the addition of a French element to an English word. This element (a suffix, for instance) sometimes replaces a similar element of the English word. "Booster" is an example of hybrid anglicism; it is made up of the English verb "to boost", to which the French suffix –er is added.
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Semantic anglicisms are French words used in a sense which exists in English but not in French. Examples include ajourner ("postpone") in the sense of "to have a break", pathétique in the sense of "miserable" or "pitiful", plancher ("floor/surface") in the sense of "floor" (level of a building), and préjudice ("harm/injury") in the sense of "(unfavorable) opinion".
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Syntactic anglicisms are those relating to the word order of a sentence and the use of prepositions and conjunctions. The expression "un bon dix minutes" ("a good ten minutes"), for instance, comes from the English language; the more conventional French wording would be "dix bonnes minutes". The use of the preposition pour ("for") after the verbs demander ("ask for") and chercher ("search/look for") is also a syntactic anglicism.
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Morphological anglicisms are literal translations (or calques) of the English forms. With this kind of borrowing, every element comes from French, but what results from it as a whole reproduces, completely or partly, the image transmitted in English. The word technicalité, for instance, is formed under English influence and does not exist in standard French (which would instead use the phrasing "détail technique"). À l'année longue ("all year long"), appel conférence ("conference call"), and prix de liste ("list price") are other morphological examples of anglicisms.
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Finally, sentencial anglicisms are loan peculiar to the English language. The expressions ajouter l'insulte à l'injure ("") and sonner une cloche ("") are sentencial anglicisms.
Academic, Colloquialism, and pejorative terms are used in Canada to refer to the vernacular. Examples are des "sabirisation" (from sabir, "pidgin"), Franglais, Français québécois, and Canadian French.
See also
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Official bilingualism in Canada
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French language in Canada
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Association québécoise de linguistique
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History of French
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Languages of Canada
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Quebec French lexicon
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French language in the United States
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CSA keyboard – the official keyboard layout of Canada
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Canadian Language Museum
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Maillardville
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French colonization of the Americas
Notes and references
Notes
Further reading
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Darnell, Regna, ed. (1971). Linguistic Diversity in Canadian Society, in Sociolinguistics Series, 1. Edmonton, Alta.: Linguistic Research. Without ISBN or SBN
External links
