I think the Quebec accent(s) (there are more than only one accent indeed) is the result of two different phenomenon :
- the accent of the earlier settlers who were mainly from the regions of northwest of France (Brittany, Normandy and pays de la Loire mainly)
- The influence of the English spoken in areas around. (and also in Quebec, not forget that Quebec has been long time under British domination - and that french was not official language until quite recent time)
Québec also has a significant number of descendants of Scottish Gaelic speakers who were expelled from Scotland during the Highland Clearance in the 1800s. _________________ Zoriona tximelata bat bezalakoa da: bilatzen baduzu, hegaldatuko besterik ez da, baina gelditzen bazara, dator eta zure sorbaldan jartzen da.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 1:14 am Post subject:
fab wrote:
I think the Quebec accent(s) (there are more than only one accent indeed) is the result of two different phenomenon :
- the accent of the earlier settlers who were mainly from the regions of northwest of France (Brittany, Normandy and pays de la Loire mainly)
- The influence of the English spoken in areas around. (and also in Quebec, not forget that Quebec has been long time under British domination - and that french was not official language until quite recent time)
Silly question, but if Quebec's settlers came from northwest France why do we call the language Quebec French (instead of say, Quebec Norman or Quebec Gallo or whatever else they spoke)? Is it called "French" because of later influences and development of French?
Not silly at all. Languages of France other than French did certainly arrive in America, but most of French newcomers were already speaking the local variety of French, either natively or bilingually, from the urban centre they came from. Major French cities in the regions you mentioned and French harbours for America (Bordeaux, La Rochelle) were largely Francophone as early as the 17th century. And the overwhelming majority of new settlers, probably a fifth of whom were in the army, came from cities, not the countryside. Basically real non-Francophones, a minority in all likelihood, had to pick up some French, even before they could successfully arrange their trip to America to actually embark for la grande traversée.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 5:48 pm Post subject:
Oh I see. I was under the impression that French wasn't the de facto language of the France until many years after the Revolution. But apparently even before then, one had to know French in order to deal with governmental matters, c'est ça ?
Yes, that was so, in particular in rural areas where the majority of the French population of the time lived. Still, most of emigrants to America were city dwellers and the linguistic situation in major cities where emigrants came from wasn't quite like that prevailing in hinterlands and even more remote areas : in most French big cities where Americans-to-be used to live, French (or local variants of it) was rather widespread, especially the further up you climbed the socio-economic ladder.
I watched part 2 of the Quebec clip and I found an exerpt hilarious. When General Charles de Gaulle made his famous "Vive le Quebec libre" speech, the creative producers have ingeniously invented a reason for his speech. It turned out that de Gaulle had wanted to say "Vive le Quebec libre de profiter du biculturalisme canadien"!
Now, we know!
_________________ Hillary Clinton is an acquired taste which I have clearly yet to acquire.
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