French language in Canada

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Aquarius Rising (talk | contribs) at 23:22, 29 May 2006 (restore content deleted by prior editor and place it under a new heading.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Canadian French is the common term for naming the regional dialects or varieties of French found in Canada. As such, it is a misnomer, even as an umbrella term, since there is no single Canadian dialect, regardless of what part of the country francophones live or were raised in. In Canada, Acadian French and Quebec French are the two significant and healthier dialects. Quebec French is spoken in the province of Quebec (majoritarily), in neighbouring areas of Ontario and New Brunswick, and in some small communities in New England in the USA. Acadian French is spoken in the Maritimes provinces. Also spoken in parts of the U.S. state of Maine, Acadian French is the ancestor of Cajun French, which is spoken in the south-central region of Louisiana.

Labelling

Using "Canadian French" instead of "Acadian French" and "Quebec French", either separately or combined is akin to over-applying the label "British English" despite significant historical and linguistic differences. For example, labelling Scottish Standard English (SSE) or Hiberno-English (HE) in the Republic of Ireland (due to a shared region and spelling) as "British English" instead of "English in the British Isles" ignores the significant long-term and current distinctions among those dialects. Speakers of the various English dialects in the British Isles do not label SSE or HE as "British English" just as Canadian francophones do not label Quebec French or Acadian French as "Canadian French."

In addition, the liberal use of the label "Canadian French" is in some ways similar to the English and French uses of "Flemish" / "le flammand". They are almost always over-generalised to signify Dutch - the standard, common, and official language spoken by the Flemish Community of Belgium. For a detailed explanation, see the introductions for the articles on Flemish and on Dutch.

When referring to Acadian French and Quebec French together or to French as one of Canada's official languages, it is therefore clearer to say "French in Canada". The reason why is that language demographics and linguistic structures unique to Quebec French are often labelled "Canadian French". This labelling thus obfuscates the influences of Quebec French while eclipsing the realities of Acadian French. As a result, when most people refer to "Canadian French", it should be understood as pertaining to Quebec French given that most people have never heard Acadian French being spoken, nor are they aware of the latter's existence.


The overriding presence of Quebec French

Speakers of Acadian French tend to view the more formal varieties of Quebec French as a linguistic standard for three main reasons:


  1. While being the only province whose majority is francophone, Quebec is also home to the majority of francophones in Canada.
  2. The Quebec government has taken legislative action to improve the social and legal status of the French language through massive terminological work, Bill 101, and the Office québécois de la langue française.
  3. On a pan-Canadian level, Quebec French overwhelmingly dominates francophone culture and the French-language media.


For example, in all types of French-language television programming in Canada, including soap operas, talk shows, and sitcoms, Quebec French, be it formal or informal, is used almost exclusively. In addition to being the standard for Canada's two privately owned French-language networks TVA and TQS, Quebec French is the standard for all of Canada's state-run French-language stations of Radio-Canada plus the all-news cable channel Réseau de l'information, better known as RDI. The speech of Radio-Canada's news anchors, i.e. formal Quebec French, is widely and historically known as "le français de Radio-Canada" (Radio-Canada French). It is their speech that serves as the de facto standard for French in Canada.

In turn, Acadian French is often incomprehensible to speakers of Quebec French, who may or may not view Acadian French as a distinct and independent variety. This is due to the predominance of Quebec French and to how Acadian French is relegated to vox pops or to TV shows highlighting either seamanship or Acadian historical or folk culture. In fact, Acadian French is often mistaken for franglais or for Chiac, the latter being a mixed language based on French and English.

As for the numerous reference works on the dialects of French in Canada, the majority concentrate on either Quebec French or Acadian French but not both. One example is the Dictionnaire québécois d'aujourd'hui (Dicorobert, 1992) supervised by executive editor of the Le Robert dictionaries Alain Rey. Those works using the term "Canadian French" or (French) "Canadianisms", on the other hand, are restricted to a few. For instance, in the introduction of Canadian French by Sinclair Robinson and Donald Smith of Ottawa's Carleton University the authors write that "[the] Dictionary of Canadian French is aimed at all those who wish to deepen their knowledge of French as it is spoken in Quebec and Acadia [their italics]..." Upon inspection of this dictionary, there is no section on or description of "Canadian French." 250 out of 269 pages are devoted solely to Quebec French (93%) whereas the remaining 19 pages (7%) concentrate on both Acadian French and Cajun French, this last dialect having been American for over two centuries. In French, the Larousse Dictionnaire des canadianismes uses Quebec French as the default dialect. This fact is explained in the introduction and is therefore not labelled in light of the over 95% Quebec French content. Although labelled, the sparse Acadian French entries appear as if they were exceptions.

Historical development

Historically, french in Canada has evolved from mainly Langue d'oïl, that is to say Norman, Poitiers and Bordeaux roots with many influences from Breton. Since Acadia was colonized several years before the St.Lawrence valley, it is considered that acadian french more closely resembles french spoken in europe in the late 1500s in much of its accents and expressions. The proof lies in the words and sayings used by everyday acadians that have resonance in older texts by writers such as Rabelais. The Académie Française, had later taken steps to standardize continental french into what we know today, but much of those changes never made it to america. Grammatical rules have of course evolved to match international french, but older expressions, accents and words have remained. Quebec French has evolved in much the same way, albeit conserving regional accents that have evolved slightly differently from acadian french

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=French_language_in_Canada&oldid=55822802"