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Quebec French
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Québec French
français québécois
Native to
Québec (mainly), New Brunswick, Ontario, Western Canada, New England
Native speakers
7 million in Québec; 700,000 speakers elsewhere in Canada and the United States (2006)[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Romance
Western
Gallo-Romance
Gallo-Rhaetian
Oïl
French
Canadian French
Québec French
Official status
Regulated by
Office québécois de la langue française
Language codes
ISO 639-3
–
Glottolog
queb1247[2]
Linguasphere
51-AAA-hq & 51-AAA-icd & 51-AAA-ii
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Québec French (French: français québécois; also known as Québécois French or simply Québécois) is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Québec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government.
Canadian French is a frequently used umbrella term for the varieties of French used in Canada including Québec French. Formerly it was used to refer solely to Québec French and the closely related varieties of Ontario and Western Canada, in contrast with Acadian French, which is spoken in some areas of eastern Québec (Gaspé Peninsula), New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland & Labrador.
The often derogatory term joual[3] is commonly used to refer to a variety of Quebec French associated with the working class, characterized by certain features perceived as incorrect or bad.[4] The equivalent in Acadian French is called Chiac.
Contents
1 History
1.1 New France
1.2 British rule
1.3 Late 19th century
1.4 20th century to 1959
1.5 1959 to 1982
2 Social perception and language policy
2.1 Standardization
2.2 Mutual intelligibility with other varieties of French
3 Regional varieties and their classification
3.1 "Old" dialects
3.1.1 Quebec City dialect
3.1.2 Western-Central dialects
3.1.2.1 Central dialect
3.1.2.2 Western dialect
3.1.3 Maritime dialects
3.2 "New" dialects
3.2.1 Eastern dialect
3.2.2 Northern dialect
3.2.3 Gaspésie dialect
3.2.4 Expatriate dialects
4 Overview of the relation to European French
4.1 Perceptions
4.2 Typography
4.3 Spelling and grammar
4.3.1 Formal language
4.3.2 Informal language
4.4 Lexis
4.4.1 Distinctive features
4.4.1.1 Use of Anglicisms
4.4.1.2 Borrowings from Aboriginal languages
4.4.1.3 Additional differences
4.4.2 Recent lexical innovations
5 Linguistic structure
5.1 Phonology
5.1.1 Vowels
5.1.2 Consonants
5.1.3 Sociolinguistic status of selected phonological traits
5.2 Syntax
5.3 Pronouns
5.4 Verbs
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of Québec French
The origins of Quebec French lie in the 17th- and 18th-century regional varieties (dialects) of early modern French, also known as Classical French, and of other langues d'oïl (especially Poitevin dialect, Saintongeais dialect and Norman) that French colonists brought to New France. Quebec French either evolved from this language base and was shaped by the following influences (arranged according to historical period) or was imported from Paris and other urban centres of France as a koiné, or common language shared by the people speaking it.[5]
New France[edit]
Unlike the language of France in the 17th and 18th centuries, French in New France was fairly well unified. It also began to borrow words, especially place names such as Québec, Canada and Hochelaga, and words to describe the flora and fauna such as atoca (cranberry) and achigan (largemouth bass) from First Nations languages.
The importance of the rivers and ocean as the main routes of transportation also left its imprint on Québec French. Whereas European varieties of French use the verbs monter and descendre for “to get in” and “to get out” of a vehicle (litt. "to mount" and "to dismount", as one does with a horse or a carriage), the Québécois variety in its informal register tends to use embarquer and débarquer, a result of Québec's navigational heritage.[citation needed]
British rule[edit]
With the onset of British rule in 1760, Québec French became isolated from European French. This led to a retention of older pronunciations, such as moé for moi ( audio comparison (help·info)) and expressions that later died out in France. In 1774, the Québec Act guaranteed French settlers as British subjects rights to French law, the Roman Catholic faith and the French language to appease them at a moment when the English-speaking colonies to the south were on the verge of revolting in the American Revolution. Such early yet difficult success was followed by a sociocultural retreat, if not repression, that would later help ensure the survival of the French language in Canada.
Late 19th century[edit]
After Canadian Confederation in 1867, Québec started to become industrialized and thus experienced increased contact between French and English speakers. Quebec business, especially with the rest of Canada and with the United States, was conducted in English. Also, communications to and within the Canadian federal government were conducted almost exclusively in English. This period included a sharp rise in the number of immigrants from the United Kingdom who spoke a variety of languages including English, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic. This was particularly noticeable in Montreal, which resembled a majority anglophone city in terms of its commercial life, but was predominantly francophone. As a result, Québec French began to borrow from both Canadian and American English to fill accidental gaps in the lexical fields of government, law, manufacturing, business and trade. A great number of French Canadians went to the US to seek employment. When they returned, they brought with them new words taken from their experiences in the New England textile mills and the northern lumber camps.
20th century to 1959[edit]
During World War I, a majority of Québec's population lived in urban areas for the first time. From the time of the war to the death of Maurice Duplessis in 1959, the province experienced massive modernization. It is during this period that French-language radio and television broadcasting, albeit with a façade of European pronunciation, began in Canada. While Québec French borrowed many English-language brand names during this time, Quebec's first modern terminological efforts bore a French lexicon for (ice) hockey, one of the national sports of Canada. Following World War II, Québec began to receive large waves of non-French- and non-English-speaking immigrants (allophones) who would acquire French or English, but most commonly the latter.
1959 to 1982[edit]
From the Quiet Revolution to the passing of Bill 101, French in Québec saw a period of validation in its varieties associated with the working class while the percentage of literate and university-educated francophones grew. Laws concerning the status of French were passed both on the federal and provincial levels. The Office québécois de la langue française was established to play an essential role of support in language planning. In Ontario, the first French-language public secondary schools were built in the 1960s, but not without confrontations. West Nipissing, Penetanguishene and Windsor each had their own school crisis.
Social perception and language policy[edit]
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Standardization[edit]
Although Québec French constitutes a coherent and standard system, it has no objective norm since the very organization mandated to establish it, the Office québécois de la langue française, believes that objectively standardizing Québec French would lead to reduced mutual intelligibility with other French communities around the world, linguistically isolating Quebecers and possibly causing the extinction of the French language in the Americas.
This governmental institution has nonetheless published many dictionaries and terminological guidelines since the 1960s, effectively allowing many canadianismes or more often québécismes (French words local to Canada or Québec) that describe specifically North American realities. It also creates new, morphologically well-formed words to describe technological evolutions to which the Académie française, the equivalent body governing French language in France, is extremely slow to react.
The resulting effect, other historical factors helping, is a negative perception of Québec French traits by some of the Quebecers themselves, coupled with a desire to improve their language by conforming it to the Metropolitan French norm. This explains why most of the differences between Québec French and Metropolitan French documented in this article are marked as "informal" or "colloquial". Those differences that are unmarked are most likely so just because they go unnoticed by most speakers.
Mutual intelligibility with other varieties of French[edit]
As mentioned above, Québec French is not standardized and is therefore equated with standard French. One of the reasons for this is to keep it in line with and mutually intelligible with Metropolitan French: there is a continuum of mutual intelligibility throughout France and Québec even if some minor differences in phonology and vocabulary exist.[6][7] If a comparison can be made, the differences between both varieties are comparable to those between standard American and standard British English even if differences in phonology and prosody for the latter are probably greater than between Québec and Metropolitan French,[7] though American forms will be widely understood due to larger exposure of American English in English-speaking countries, notably due to the widespread diffusion of US films and series. Francophone Canadians abroad may have to modify their accent somewhat in order to be more easily understood, but most are able to communicate readily with European francophones nonetheless.[citation needed] European pronunciation is usually not difficult for Canadians to understand; only differences in vocabulary present any problems. Nevertheless, the Quebec French accent is mostly closer to that of Poitou or of Normandy and also some parts of Wallonia.
In general, European French speakers have no problems understanding Quebec newscasts or other moderately formal Québécois speech. However, they may have some difficulty understanding informal speech, such as the dialogue in a sitcom. This is due more to slang, idioms, vocabulary and use of exclusive cultural references than to accent or pronunciation. However, when speaking to a European French speaker, a more rural French speaker from Quebec is capable of shifting to a slightly more formal, "international" type of speech by avoiding idioms or slang, much like a person from the southern U.S. would do when speaking with a speaker of British English.
Québec's culture has only recently gained exposure in Europe, especially since the Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille). The difference in dialects and culture is large enough that Québec speakers overwhelmingly prefer their own "home grown" television dramas or sitcoms to shows from Europe or the United States. Conversely certain singers from Québec have become very famous even in France, notably Félix Leclerc, Gilles Vigneault, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Céline Dion and Garou. A number of TV series from Québec such as Têtes à Claques and L'Été indien are also known in France.[8] The number of such TV shows from France shown on Quebec television is about the same as the number of British TV shows on American television, even though French news channels France 24 as well as French-based francophone channel TV5 Québec Canada are broadcast in Québec.[9][10] Nevertheless, Metropolitan French series such as The Adventures of Tintin and Les Gens de Mogador are broadcast and known in Quebec.[11] In certain cases, on French TV, subtitles can be added when rural speech and slang is used, not unlike cases in the US whereby a number of British programmes can be shown with subtitles (notably from Scotland).
Québec French was once stigmatized, among Québecers themselves as well as among Continental French and foreigners, as a low-class dialect, sometimes due to its use of anglicisms, sometimes simply due to its differences from "standard" European French. Until 1968, it was unheard of for Canadian French vocabulary to be used in plays in the theatre.[citation needed] In that year the huge success of Michel Tremblay's play Les Belles-sœurs proved to be a turning point. Today, francophones in Québec have much more freedom to choose a "register" in speaking, and television characters speak "real" everyday language rather than "normative" French.
Regional varieties and their classification[edit]
In the informal registers of Québec French, regional variation lies in pronunciation and lexis (vocabulary). The regions most commonly associated with such variation are Montreal (esp. the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough[citation needed]), the Beauce region, the Gaspé Peninsula, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region, and Quebec City. However, besides such impressionistic data, basilectal Quebec French dialects can be scientifically divided into two main categories and five subcategories as follows.
"Old" dialects[edit]
The "old dialects" are spoken on the territory of what constituted the colony at the time of the British conquest of 1759. The Laurentian colony of New France was then divided into three districts which were, in the order of their establishment, the Gouvernement de Québec, the Gouvernement de Trois-Rivières, and the Gouvernement de Montréal.
Quebec City dialect[edit]
Also known as the "capital dialect" (Fr. de la Vieille-Capitale or de la Capitale-Nationale), it used to be considered as the standardized form of Québec French and was generally spoken in the central Québec and throughout St. Lawrence valley by the elite, especially the members of the Catholic clergy. By its pronunciation, there are fewer long vowels than in Montreal. The word arrête is pronounced [aʁɛt], the word photo is pronounced [fɔto], the word lacet is pronounced [lasɛ] etc.
Western-Central dialects[edit]
Valley speak (Fr. Valois, de la vallée) is the second-most predominant form of Québec French, after the Québec City dialect.[citation needed] It is spoken all over the southern part of St. Lawrence valley, including Montreal and Trois-Rivières, as well as the Western area going from Gatineau to as far as Rouyn-Noranda. Basic distinctions include the pronunciation of unstressed ai, as opposed to stressed è of the Metropolitan French. For example, the word fraise would be most likely pronounced as [fʁei̯z], instead of [fʁɛːz]. Some extreme speakers would even pronounce [fʁɑːz].[12] The Western-Central dialects can be further divided into Central and Western. In Montreal, there are more long vowels than in Quebec City (for example, the word arrête is pronounced [aʁaɪ̯t]).
Central dialect[edit]
Relatively archaic forms of Québec French are spoken on the territory corresponding to the historic Government of Three Rivers (Gouvernement de Trois-Rivières), notably Magoua dialect and Chaouin. It corresponded approximately to what is known today as the Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec regions (known locally under the historical name of Bois-Francs); the Mauricie was Atikamekw territory while the Bois-Francs was Abenaki. Here the early Frenchmen were mostly coureurs des bois who intermarried freely with the First Nations before the first arrival of the filles du roi in 1663.
The first coureurs des bois squatters settled in the area in 1615 and their speech differentiated itself in contact with the aboriginal population: Magoua in contact with the Atikamekw language, Chaouin in contact with the Abenaki language (Wittmann 1995).
As far as the pronunciation of /r/ is concerned, the area is transitional, the Saint-Maurice River forming a kind of isogloss line (Cossette 1970).
Western dialect[edit]
The Western dialect includes Montreal and surroundings and is sometimes considered an offspring of the Central dialect. The pronunciation of /r/ was traditionally alveolar but has been almost completely replaced by the International uvular /r/ except amongst the older speakers. The territory was probably already "Indian-free" when the first coureurs des bois from Trois-Rivières came there in the years preceding the establishment of the settlement in 1642. This dialect extended originally into the Detroit–Windsor area (Brandon 1898).
Maritime dialects[edit]
Basically, these are dialects of Quebec French with a phonological adstrat from Acadian French, spoken in the St. Lawrence delta and Baie des Chaleurs area. The morphology though is thoroughly Quebec French and not related to Acadian French: absence of AF 1st person plural clitic je instead of QF on, no AF plural endings in -on on 1st and 3rd person verbs, no simple pasts in -i-, etc. Geddes (1908) is an early example for the description of the morphology of a maritime dialect. These dialects originated from migrations from the St. Lawrence valley into the area, from 1697 onwards well into the early 19th century, with contributions of refugees from Acadia in the 18th century, both before and after the British conquest of 1759.
The dialect Geddes described may be referred to as Brayon French, spoken by Brayons in the Bonaventure and Beauce-Appalaches regions of Quebec, the Madawaska region of New Brunswick and small pockets in the American state of Maine.
"New" dialects[edit]
The so-called "new" dialects arose from colonization after 1760 which went on well into the late 19th century.
Eastern dialect[edit]
Primarily spoken in Sherbrooke and Magog, the dialect consists of French strongly distilled by the presence of New England dialects, such as Boston accent and Vermont speak. As a result, besides alveolar r, the endings of many words which are pronounced in other varieties of French are not pronounced at all or are pronounced differently, for example, saying connaissant ([kɔnɛsã]) instead of connaissance ([kɔnɛsãːs]). Other variations include strong pronunciation of -ant and -ent word ending which sound almost as acute as -in, for example blanc sounding like [blæ̃].
Northern dialect[edit]
The dialect spoken by inhabitants of such regions as Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Côte-Nord is characterized by long, stretched vowels in the middle of words, usually e or a in words such as père or case, pronounced as [pei̯ʁ] and [kaːz].[clarification needed] Other examples include an eating of the letter r at the end of the words, so instead of saying cuisinière ([kɥizinjɛːʁ]), speakers might say instead cuisiniéille ([kɥizinjej]), which contrasts with cuisinier (pronounced as [kɥizinje]). See Lavoie et al. (1985), in particular.
Gaspésie dialect[edit]
The consonants /t/ and /d/ are not pronounced [t͡s] and [d͡z] before /i/, /y/, /j/ and /ɥ/ and long vowels ([ɑː], [ɛː], [oː] and [øː]) are not diphthongized by all the speakers.
Expatriate dialects[edit]
Expatriate dialects, due to emigration in the 19th century, are mostly spoken in Manitoba and the New England states, mostly in the state of Maine.
Overview of the relation to European French[edit]
Historically speaking, the closest relative of Quebec French is the 17th-century koiné of Paris.[13]
Formal Quebec French uses essentially the same orthography and grammar as Standard French, with few exceptions,[14] and exhibits moderate lexical differences. Differences in grammar and lexicon become more marked as language becomes more informal.
While phonetic differences also decrease with greater formality, Quebec and European accents are readily distinguishable in all registers. Over time, European French has exerted a strong influence on Quebec French. The phonological features traditionally distinguishing informal Quebec French and formal European French have gradually acquired varying sociolinguistic status, so that certain traits of Quebec French are perceived neutrally or positively by Quebecers, while others are perceived negatively.
Perceptions[edit]
Sociolinguistic studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s showed that Quebecers generally rated speakers of European French heard in recordings higher than speakers of Quebec French in many positive traits, including expected intelligence, education, ambition, friendliness and physical strength.[15] The researchers were surprised by the greater friendliness rating for Europeans,[16] since one of the primary reasons usually advanced to explain the retention of low-status language varieties is social solidarity with members of one's linguistic group. François Labelle cites the efforts at that time by the Office québécois de la langue française "to impose a French as standard as possible"[16] as one of the reasons for the negative view Quebecers had of their language variety.
Since the 1970s, the official position on Quebec French has shifted dramatically. An oft-cited turning point was the 1977 declaration of the Association québécoise des professeurs de français defining thus the language to be taught in classrooms: "Standard Quebec French [le français standard d'ici, literally, "the Standard French of here"] is the socially favoured variety of French which the majority of Francophone Quebecers tend to use in situations of formal communication."[17] Ostiguy and Tousignant doubt whether Quebecers today would still have the same negative attitudes towards their own variety of French that they did in the 1970s. They argue that negative social attitudes have focused instead on a subset of the characteristics of Quebec French relative to European French, and particularly some traits of informal Quebec French.[18] Some characteristics of European French are even judged negatively when imitated by Quebecers.[19]
Typography[edit]
Quebec French has some typographical differences from European French. For example, in Quebec French, unlike European French, a full non-breaking space is not used before the semicolon, exclamation mark, or question mark. Instead, a thin space (which according to Le Ramat de la typographie normally measures a quarter of an em[20]:12) is used; this thin space can be omitted in word-processing situations where the thin space is assumed to be unavailable, or when careful typography is not required.[20]:191[21]
Spelling and grammar[edit]
Formal language[edit]
A notable difference in grammar which received considerable attention in France during the 1990s is the feminine form of many professions, which traditionally did not have a feminine form.[22] In Quebec, one writes nearly universally une chercheuse or une chercheure [23] "a researcher", whereas in France, un chercheur and, more recently, un chercheur and une chercheuse are used. Feminine forms in eure as in ingénieure are still strongly criticized in France by institutions like the Académie française, but are commonly used in Canada and are not uncommon in Switzerland.
There are other, sporadic spelling differences. For example, the Office québécois de la langue française recommends the spelling tofou for what is in France tofu "tofu". In grammar, the adjective inuit "Inuit" is invariable in France but, according to official recommendations in Quebec, has regular feminine and plural forms.[24]
Informal language[edit]
Grammatical differences between informal spoken Quebec French and the formal language abound. Some of these, such as omission of the negative particle ne, are also present in the informal language of speakers of standard European French, while other features, such as use of the interrogative particle -tu, are either peculiar to Quebec or Canadian French or restricted to nonstandard varieties of European French.
Lexis[edit]
Main article: Quebec French lexicon
Distinctive features[edit]
While the overwhelming majority of lexical items in Quebec French exist in other dialects of French, many words and expressions are unique to Quebec, much like some are specific to American and British varieties of English. The differences can be classified into the following five categories.[25] The influences on Quebec French from English and Native American can be reflected in any of these five:
lexically specific items (québécismes lexématiques), which do not exist in other varieties of French;
semantic differences (québécismes sémantiques), in which a word has a different meaning in Quebec French than in other French varieties;
grammatical differences in lexical items (québécismes grammaticaux), in which a word has different morpho-syntactic behaviour in Quebec French than in other varieties;
differences in multi-word or fixed expressions (québécismes phraséologiques);
contextual differences (roughly, québécisme de statut), in which the lexical item has a similar form and meaning in Quebec French as in other varieties, but the context in which the item is used is different.
The following tables give examples[26] of each of the first four categories, along with the Metropolitan French equivalent and an English gloss. Contextual differences, along with individual explanations, are then discussed.
Examples of lexically specific items:
Quebec French
Metropolitan French
English gloss
abrier couvrir to cover
astheure (à c't'heure) maintenant now
chum (m) copain (m) boyfriend
magasiner faire des courses to go shopping/do errands
placoter papoter to chat/chatter
pogner attraper, prendre to catch, grab
Examples of semantic differences:
Lexical item
Quebec French meaning
Metropolitan French meaning
blonde (f) girlfriend blonde-haired woman
char (m) car chariot
chauffer to drive (a vehicle) to heat
chialer to complain, nag to bawl, blubber
dépanneur (m) convenience store (and also repairer) repairer
gosse gosses (fem pl): balls (testicles) gosse (masc sg): child/kid
nuage (m) scarf cloud
suçon (m) lollipop love bite
sucette (f) love bite lollipop
éventuellement eventually possibly
Examples of grammatical differences:
Lexical item
Quebec French grammar
Metropolitan French grammar
English gloss
autobus (noun) autobus (f) (colloquial) autobus (m) bus
pantalon (noun) pantalons (pl) pantalon (masc sg) trousers
Examples multi-word or fixed expressions unique to Quebec:
Quebec French expression
Metropolitan French gloss
English gloss
avoir de la misère avoir de la difficulté to have difficulty, trouble
avoir le flu avoir la diarrhée to have diarrhoea
avoir le goût dérangé gouter une saveur étrange to taste something strange, unexpected
en arracher en baver to have a rough time
prendre une marche faire une promenade to take a walk
se faire passer un sapin se faire duper to be tricked
parler à travers son chapeau parler à tort et à travers to talk through one's hat
Some Quebec French lexical items have the same general meaning in Metropolitan French but are used in different contexts. English translations are given in parentheses.
arrêt (stop): In Quebec French, most stop signs say arrêt although some say stop and older signs use both words, whereas in France, all such signs say stop, which is the standard in Europe.
condom (condom): In Quebec French, this term has neutral connotations, whereas in Metropolitan French, it is used in more technical contexts. The neutral term in Metropolitan French is préservatif.
In addition, Quebec French has its own set of swear words, or sacres, distinct from other varieties of French.
Use of Anglicisms[edit]
One characteristic of major sociological importance distinguishing Quebec French from European French is the relatively greater number of borrowings from English, especially in the informal spoken language.[27] In contrast, Quebecers show a stronger aversion to the use of anglicisms in formal contexts than do European francophones, largely because of what the influence of English on their language is held to reveal about the historically superior position of anglophones in Canadian society.[28] According to Cajolet-Laganière and Martel,[29] out of 4,216 "criticized borrowings from English" in Quebec French that they were able to identify, some 93% have "extremely low frequency" and 60% are obsolete.[30] Despite this, the prevalence of anglicisms in Quebec French has often been exaggerated. French spoken with a number of anglicisms viewed as excessive may be disparagingly termed franglais ("Frenglish"). According to Chantal Bouchard, "While the language spoken in Quebec did indeed gradually accumulate borrowings from English [between 1850 and 1960], it did not change to such an extent as to justify the extraordinarily negative discourse about it between 1940 and 1960. It is instead in the loss of social position suffered by a large proportion of Francophones since the end of the 19th century that one must seek the principal source of this degrading perception."[31]
Borrowings from Aboriginal languages[edit]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2015)
Ouaouaron, the Quebec French word for bullfrog, a frog species native to North America, originates from an Iroquois word.[32]
Additional differences[edit]
The following are areas in which the lexicon of Quebec French is distinct from those of other varieties of French:
lexical items formerly common to both France and New France and that are today unique only to Quebec French; (This includes expressions and word forms that have the same form elsewhere in La Francophonie, yet have a different denotation or connotation.)
borrowings from Amerindian languages, esp. place names;
les sacres - Quebec French profanity;
many loanwords, calques and other borrowings from English in the 19th and 20th centuries, whether such borrowings are considered standard French or not;
starting in the latter half of the 20th century, an enormous store of French neologisms (coinages) and re-introduced words via terminological work by professionals, translators, and the OLF; some of this terminology is "exported" to the rest of la Francophonie;
feminized job titles and gender-inclusive language;
morphological processes that have been more productive:
suffixes: -eux/euse, -age, -able, and -oune
reduplication (as in the international French word guéguerre): cacanne, gogauche, etc.
reduplication plus -oune: chouchoune, gougounes, moumoune, nounoune, poupoune, toutoune, foufoune,...
new words ending in -oune without duplication: zoune, bizoune, coune, ti-coune,...
Recent lexical innovations[edit]
Some recent Quebec French lexical innovations have spread, at least partially, to other varieties of French:
clavardage, meaning "chat", a contraction of clavier (keyboard) and bavardage (chat). Verb: clavarder[33]
courriel, meaning "e-mail", a contraction of courrier électronique (electronic mail)[34]
pourriel, meaning "spam e-mail", is a contraction of poubelle (garbage) and courriel (email),[35] whose popularity may also be influenced by the word pourri (rotten).
baladodiffusion (may be abbreviated to balado), meaning "podcasting", a contraction of baladeur (walkman) and radiodiffusion.[36]
Linguistic structure[edit]
Phonology[edit]
Main article: Quebec French phonology
For phonological comparisons of Quebec French, Belgian French, Meridional French, and Metropolitan French, see French phonology.
Vowels[edit]
Systematic, i.e. in all formal speech:
/ɑ/, /ɛː/, /œ̃/ and /ə/ as phonemes distinct from /a/, /ɛ/, /ɛ̃/ and /ø/ respectively
[ɪ], [ʏ], [ʊ] are lax allophones of /i/, /y/, /u/ in closed syllables
Variants for /ɛ̃/ is diphthongized to [ẽɪ̯̃], /ɔ̃/ is diphthongized to [õʊ̯̃], /ɑ̃/ is fronted to [ã], and /œ̃/ is generally pronounced [œ̃˞]
/a/ is pronounced [ɑ] in final open syllables (avocat /avɔka/ → [avɔkɑ])
/a/ is pronounced [ɑː] before /ʁ/ in final closed syllables (dollar /dɔlaʁ/ → [dɔlɑːʁ])
Systematic, i.e. in all informal speech:[clarification needed]
Long vowels are diphthongized in final closed syllables (tête /tɛːt/ → [taɪ̯t])
Standard French /a/ is pronounced [ɔ] in final open syllable (avocat /avɔka/ → [avɔkɔ])
Unsystematic, i.e. in all informal speech (Joual):[clarification needed]
/wa/ (spelled oi) is pronounced [wɛ], [we] or [waɛ̯]
/ɛʁ/ is pronounced [aʁ]
Consonants[edit]
Systematic:
/t/ and /d/ affricated to [t͡s] and [d͡z] before /i/, /y/, /j/, /ɥ/ (e.g. except in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Côte-Nord)
Unsystematic:
Drop of liquids /l/ and /ʁ/ (written as l and r) in unstressed position with schwa /ə/ or unstressed intervocalic position
Trilled r - [r]
Sociolinguistic status of selected phonological traits[edit]
The examples below are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to illustrate the complex influence European French has had on Quebec French pronunciation, and the range of sociolinguistic statuses that individual phonetic variables can possess.
The most entrenched features of Quebec pronunciation are such that their absence, even in the most formal registers, is considered an indication of foreign origin of the speaker. This is the case, for example, for the affrication of /t/ and /d/ before /i/, /y/, /j/ and /ɥ/.[37] (This particular feature of Quebec French is, however, sometimes avoided when singing, though not always; some Québécois sing with a French accent.)[38]
The use of the lax Quebec allophones of /i/, /y/, /u/ (in the appropriate phonetic contexts) is compulsory in all but highly formal styles, and even there their use predominates. Use of the tense allophones where the lax ones would be expected can be perceived as "pedantic".[39]
The Quebec variant of nasal vowels [ã], [ẽɪ̯̃], [õʊ̯̃] and [œ̃˞] corresponding to the European [ɒ̃] (traditionally transcribed [ɑ̃]), [æ̃] (traditionally transcribed [ɛ̃]), [õ] (traditionally transcribed [ɔ̃]) and [œ̃] are not subject to a significant negative sociolinguistic evaluation, and are used by a majority of speakers and of educated speakers in all circumstances. However, the European variants also appear occasionally in formal speech among a minority of speakers, especially in Radio-Canada.[40] (The preceding discussion applies to stressed syllables. For reasons unrelated to their social standing, some allophones close to the European variants appear frequently in unstressed syllables.)
To pronounce [ɔː] instead of [ɑː] in such words as gâteau clearly predominates in informal speech, and, according to Ostiguy and Tousignant, is likely not perceived negatively in informal situations. However, sociolinguistic research has shown that this is not the case in formal speech, where the standard [ɑː] is more common. Despite this, many speakers use [ɔː] systematically in all situations, and Ostiguy and Tousignant hypothesize that these speakers tend to be less educated.[41] It must be mentioned that a third vowel [a], though infrequent, also occurs. This is the vowel which has emerged with /a/ as a new European standard in the last several decades for words in this category.[42] According to Ostiguy and Tousignant, this pronunciation is seen as "affected",[43] and Dumas writes that speakers using this pronunciation "run the risk of being accused of snobbery".[44] Entirely analogous considerations apply to the two pronunciations of such words as chat, which can be pronounced [ʃɑ] or [ʃɔ].[45]
The diphthonged variants of such words as fête (e.g. [faɪ̯t] instead of [fɛːt]) are rarely used in formal speech. They have been explicitly and extensively stigmatized, and were, according to the official Quebec educational curricula of 1959 and 1969, among those pronunciation habits to be "standardized" in pupils. In informal speech, most speakers use generally these forms to some extent. However, they are viewed negatively, and their frequency is higher among uneducated speakers,[46] although many Québécois teachers use the diphthongization.
Traditional pronunciations such as [pwɛl] for poil (also [pwal], as in France; words in this category include avoine, (ils) reçoivent, noirci, etc. ) and [mwe] for moi (now usually [mwa], as in France; this category consists of moi, toi, and verb forms such as (je) bois, (on) reçoit, but excludes québécois, toit, etc. which have only ever had the pronunciation [wa]) are no longer used by many speakers, and are virtually absent from formal speech.[47] They have long been the object of condemnation.[47] Dumas writes that the [we] pronunciations of words in the moi category have "even become the symbol and the scapegoat of bad taste, lack of education, vulgarity, etc., no doubt because they differ quite a bit from the accepted pronunciation, which ends in [wa], [...]"[48] On the other hand, writing in 1987, he considers [wɛ] in words in the poil group "the most common pronunciation".
No doubt one of the most striking changes having affected Quebec French in recent decades is the displacement of the alveolar trill r [r] by the uvular trill r [ʀ], originally from northern France, and similar acoustically to the Parisian uvular r [ʁ]. Historically, the trilled r predominated in western Quebec, including Montreal, and the uvular r in eastern Quebec, including Quebec City, with an isogloss near Trois-Rivières. (More precisely, the isogloss runs through Yamachiche and then between Sherbrooke and La Patrie, near the American border. With only a few exceptions, the apical variant predominates in Canada outside Quebec.[49]) Elocution teachers and the clergy traditionally favoured the trilled r, which was nearly universal in Montreal until the 1950s and was perceived positively. But massive immigration from eastern Quebec beginning in the 1930s with the Great Depression, participation of soldiers in the Second World War, travel to Europe after the war, and especially use of the uvular r in radio and then television broadcasts, quickly reversed perceptions and favoured the spread of the uvular r. Trilled r is today in rapid decline. According to Ostiguy and Tousignant, this change has occurred within a single generation.[50] The Parisian uvular r is also present in Quebec, and its use is positively correlated with socio-economic status.[51]
Syntax[edit]
Main article: Quebec French syntax
Like any variety of French, Quebec French is generally characterized by increasingly wide gaps between the written and spoken forms.[52] Notable differences include the generalized use of on (informal for nous), the use of single negations as opposed to double negations: J'ai pas (informal) vs Je n'ai pas (formal) etc.[53][54] There are increasing differences between the syntax used in spoken Quebec French from the syntax of other regional dialects of French.[55] However, the characteristic differences of Quebec French syntax are not considered standard despite their high-frequency in everyday, relaxed speech.
One far-reaching difference is the weakening of the syntactic role of the specifiers (both verbal and nominal), which results in many syntactic changes:
Relative clauses (1) using que as an all-purpose relative pronoun, or (2) embedding interrogative pronouns instead of relative pronouns (also found in informal European French):
J'ai trouvé le document que j'ai de besoin. (J'ai trouvé le document dont j'ai besoin.) "I found / I've found the document I need."
Je comprends qu'est-ce que tu veux dire. (Je comprends ce que tu veux dire.) "I understand what you mean."
Omission of the prepositions that collocate with certain verbs:
J'ai un enfant à m'occuper. (Standard French: s'occuper de; J'ai un enfant dont je dois m'occuper.) "I have a child (I need) to take care of."
Plural conditioned by semantics:
La plupart du monde sont tannés des taxes. (La plupart du monde est tanné des taxes.) "Most people are fed up with taxes."
A phenomenon throughout the Francophonie, dropping the ne of the double negative is accompanied, in Quebec French, by a change in word order (1), and (2) postcliticisation of direct pronouns (3) along with euphonic insertion of [z] liaisons to avoid vowel hiatus. This word order is also found in non-standard European French.
Donne-moi-le pas. (Ne me le donne pas.) "Don't give it to me."
Dis-moi pas de m'en aller! (Ne me dis pas de m'en aller) "Don't tell me to go away!"
Donne-moi-z-en pas ! (Ne m'en donne pas!) "Don't give me any!"
Other notable syntactic changes in Quebec French include the following:
Use of non-standard verbal periphrasis, (many of them archaisms):
J'étais pour te le dire. (J'allais te le dire. / J'étais sur le point de te le dire.) "I was going to/about to tell you about it." (old European French but still used in e.g. Haiti)
Avoir su, j'aurais... (Si j'avais su, j'aurais...) "Had I known, I would have..."
Mais que l'hiver finisse, je vais partir. (Dès que l'hiver finira, je partirai.) "As soon as winter ends, I will leave."
Particle -tu used (1) to form tag questions, (2) sometimes to express exclamative sentences and (3) at other times it is used with excess, for instance (note that this is common throughout European French via the addition of -t'y or -tu):
C'est-tu prêt? (Est-ce prêt? / C'est prêt? / Est-ce que c'est prêt?) "Is it ready?"
Vous voulez-tu manger? (Vous voulez manger?) "Do you want to eat?"
On a-tu bien mangé! (Qu'est-ce qu'on a bien mangé!) "We ate well, didn't we?"
T'as-tu pris tes pilules? (Est-ce que tu as pris tes médicaments?) "Have you taken your medications?"
This particle is -ti (from Standard French -t-il, often rendered as [t͡si]) in most varieties of North American French outside Quebec as well as in European varieties of français populaire as already noted by Gaston Paris.[56] It is also found in the non-creole speech on the island of Saint-Barthelemy in the Caribbean.
Extensive use of litotes (also common in informal European French):
C'est pas chaud! (C'est frais!) "It is not all too warm out!"
C'est pas laid pantoute! (Ce n'est pas laid du tout!) "Isn't this nice!" (literally: "This is not ugly at all.")
Comment vas-tu? - Pas pire, pas pire. "How are you? - Not bad. Not bad at all"
However, these features are common to all the basilectal varieties of français populaire descended from the 17th century koiné of Paris.
Use of diminutives (also very common in European French):
Tu prendrais-tu un p'tit café? Une p'tite bière? "Would you like to have a coffee? A beer?"
Pronouns[edit]
In common with the rest of the Francophonie, there is a shift from nous to on in all registers. In post-Quiet Revolution Quebec, the use of informal tu has become widespread in many situations that normally call for semantically singular vous. While some schools are trying to re-introduce this use of vous, which is absent from most youths' speech, the shift from nous to on goes relatively unnoticed.
The traditional use of on, in turn, is usually replaced by different uses of pronouns or paraphrases, like in the rest of the Francophonie. The second person (tu, t') is usually used by speakers when referring to experiences that can happen in one's life:
Quand t'es ben tranquille chez vous, à te mêler de tes affaires ...
Other paraphrases using le monde, les gens are more employed when referring to overgeneralisations:
Le monde aime pas voyager dans un autobus plein.
As in the rest of la Francophonie, the sound [l] is disappearing in il, ils among informal registers and rapid speech. More particular to Quebec is the transformation of elle to [a], sometimes written "a" or "à" in eye dialect, and less often [ɛ], sometimes written "è." Elle est may transform to 'est, pronounced [ɛ].
Absence of elles - For a majority of Quebec French speakers, elles is not used for the third person plural pronoun, at least in the nominative case; it is replaced with the subject pronoun ils [i] or the stress/tonic pronoun eux(-autres). However, elles is still used in other cases (ce sont elles qui vont payer le prix).
-autres In informal registers, the stress/tonic pronouns for the plural subject pronouns have the suffix –autres, pronounced [ou̯t] and written –aut’ in eye dialect. Nous-autres, vous-autres, and eux-autres are comparable to the Spanish forms nosotros/as and vosotros/as, yet the usage and meanings are different. One reason could be the Occitan language, which is geographically closer to French and was once spoken in Poitou and commonly uses nosautres/as and vosautres/as. Nous-autres, vous-autres, and eux-autres are by the way used in Meridional French, especially in Southwest France, because of influence of the Occitan language. Note that elles-autres does not exist.
Verbs[edit]
In their syntax and morphology, Quebec French verbs differ very little from the verbs of other regional dialects of French, both formal and informal. The distinctive characteristics of Quebec French verbs are restricted mainly to:
Regularization
In the present indicative, the forms of aller (to go) are regularized as [vɔ] in all singular persons: je vas, tu vas, il/elle va. Note that in 17th century French, what is today's international standard /vɛ/ in je vais was considered substandard while je vas was the prestige form.
In the present subjunctive of aller, the root is regularized as all- /al/ for all persons. Examples: que j'alle, que tu alles, qu'ils allent, etc. The majority of French verbs, regardless of dialect or standardization, display the same regularization. They therefore use the same root for both the imperfect and the present subjunctive: que je finisse vs. je finissais.
Colloquially, in haïr (to hate), in the present indicative singular forms, the hiatus is found between two different vowels instead of at the onset of the verb's first syllable. This results in the forms: j'haïs, tu haïs, il/elle haït, written with a diaeresis (tréma) and all pronounced with two syllables: /a.i/. The "h" in these forms is silent and does not indicate a hiatus; as a result, je elides with haïs forming j'haïs. All the other forms, tenses, and moods of haïr contain the same hiatus regardless of register. However, in Metropolitan French and in more formal Quebec French, especially in the media, the present indicative singular forms are pronounced as one syllable /ɛ/ and written without a diaeresis: je hais, tu hais, il/elle hait.
Differentiation
In the present indicative of both formal and informal Quebec French, (s')asseoir (to sit/seat) only uses the vowel /wa/ in stressed roots and /e/ in unstressed roots: je m'assois, tu t'assois, il s'assoit, ils s'assoient but nous nous asseyons, vous vous asseyez. In Metropolitan French, stressed /wa/ and /je/ are in free variation as are unstressed /wa/ and /e/. Note that in informal Quebec French, (s')asseoir is often said as (s')assire.
Quebec French has retained the /ɛ/ ending for je/tu/il-elle/ils in the imperfect (the ending is written as -ais, -ait, -aient). In most other dialects, the ending is pronounced, instead, as a neutralized sound between /e/ and /ɛ/.
Informal ils jousent (they play) is sometimes heard for ils jouent and is most likely due to an analogy with ils cousent (they sew). Because of the stigma attached to "ils jousent," most people now use the normative ils jouent, which is free of stigma.
See also[edit]
Quebec portal
French language and French-speaking world portal
Acadian French
Association québécoise de linguistique
Canadian French
French language in Canada
French language
French phonology
French-speaking Quebecer
Gender-neutral language in French
History of French
Joual
Franco-Ontarian
Quebec English
Quebec French lexicon
Quebec French phonology
Quebec French profanity
Standard French
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Source: 2006 Census of Canada. Includes multiple responses. The simplifying assumption has been made that there are no native speakers of Québec French in Atlantic Canada (see Acadian French) but that all native speakers of French in the rest of Canada are speakers of Québec French.
Jump up ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Québécois". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Jump up ^ "Joual - Definition of Joual by Merriam-Webster". merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
Jump up ^ Entry for joual in Dictionnaire du français Plus. "Variété de français québécois qui est caractérisée par un ensemble de traits (surtout phonétiques et lexicaux) considérés comme incorrects ou mauvais et qui est identifiée au parler des classes populaires."
Jump up ^ See the main article on the History of Quebec French and notably the controversy that opposes Barbaud (1984) to Fournier & Wittmann (1995) and Wittmann (1997) on the subject of dialect clash (choc des patoir) in the phylogenesis of Québec French.
Jump up ^ Karim Larose (2004). La langue de papier: spéculations linguistiques au Québec, 1957-1977. Presses de l'Université de Montréal.
^ Jump up to: a b Jean-Marie Salien (1998). "Quebec French: Attitudes and Pedagodical Perspectives" (PDF). The Modern Language Journal.
Jump up ^ "L'Eté Indien".
Jump up ^ Agence France Presse Québec (7 October 2014). "La chaîne France 24 diffusée au Québec par Vidéotron". The Huffington Post.
Jump up ^ "TV5 Canada".
Jump up ^ "Allociné".
Jump up ^ See Quebec French phonology and Quebec French lexicon for examples and further information.
Jump up ^ Henri Wittmannn, "Le français de Paris dans le français des Amériques." Proceedings of the International Congress of Linguists 16.0416 (Paris, 20-25 juillet 1997). Oxford: Pergamon (CD edition). [1]
Jump up ^ Martel, p. 99
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, p.27
^ Jump up to: a b L'attitude linguistique Archived November 28, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ Martel, p. 77. Original text: "Le français standard d'ici est la variété de français socialement valorisée que la majorité des Québécois francophones tendent à utiliser dans les situations de communication formelle."
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, p. 27.
Jump up ^ See for example Ostiguy, p. 68, on the perception as "pedantic" of the use of the tense allophones [i], [y], [u], where [ɪ], [ʏ], [ʊ] would be expected in Quebec French. "En effet, l'utilisation des voyelles tendues peut avoir allure de pédanterie à l'oreille d'une majorité de Québécois."
^ Jump up to: a b Ramat, Aurel; Benoit, Anne-Marie (2012) [First published 1982]. Le Ramat de la typographie (in French) (10e ed.). ISBN 978-2-9813513-0-2.
Jump up ^ "La typographie: Espacement avant et après les principaux signes de ponctuation et autres signes ou symboles" (in French). Office québécois de la langue française. Archived from the original on 2014-10-05. Retrieved 2 June 2014. Ce tableau tient compte des limites des logiciels courants de traitement de texte, qui ne comportent pas l’espace fine (espace insécable réduite). Si l’on dispose de l’espace fine, il est toutefois conseillé de l’utiliser devant le point-virgule, le point d’exclamation et le point d’interrogation.
Jump up ^ The Académie française has taken strong positions opposing the officialization of feminine forms in these cases. See Martel, p.109. Lionel Jospin's female cabinet ministers were the first to be referred to as "Madame la ministre" instead of "Madame le ministre", whereas this had been common practice in Canada for decades.
Jump up ^ Grand dictionnaire terminologique, "chercheuse", "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
Jump up ^ Martel, pp. 97,99
Jump up ^ Poirier, p. 32
Jump up ^ Poirier pp. 32 - 36
Jump up ^ Martel, p. 110.
Jump up ^ Martel, p.110.
Jump up ^ "Le français au Québec : un standard à décrire et des usages à hierarchiser", p. 386, in Plourde
Jump up ^ This very low frequency was confirmed in a two-million word spoken French corpus from the Ottawa-Hull region by Poplack et al. (1988)
Jump up ^ "Anglicisation et autodépréciation", pp.204,205, in Plourde. Original text: "En effet, si la langue parlée au Québec s'est peu à peu chargée d'emprunts à l'anglais au cours de cette période, elle ne s'est pas transformée au point de justifier le discours extraordinairement négatif qu'on tient à son sujet de 1940 à 1960. C'est bien plutôt dans le déclassement subi par une forte proportion des francophones depuis la fin du XIXe siècle qu'il faut chercher la source de cette perception dépréciative."
Jump up ^ "English Words Borrowed into Quebec French as Expressions Québécoises Modernes from Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day". billcasselman.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
Jump up ^ "chat / clavardage". gouv.qc.ca. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
Jump up ^ "e-mail / courriel". gouv.qc.ca. Archived from the original on 2017-10-10. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
Jump up ^ spam / pourriel Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine. on the Office québécois de la langue française's website.
Jump up ^ podcasting / baladodiffusion Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine. on the Office québécois de la langue française's website
Jump up ^ Dumas, p. 8
Jump up ^ Dumas, p. 9
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, p. 68
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, pp. 112-114.
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, pp. 75-80
Jump up ^ For example, while The New Cassell's French dictionary (1962) records gâteau as [ɡɑto] and Le Nouveau Petit Robert (1993) gives the pronunciation [ɡato].
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, p. 80
Jump up ^ Dumas, p. 149.
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, pp. 71-75
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, pp. 93-95
^ Jump up to: a b Ostiguy, p. 102
Jump up ^ Dumas, p. 24
Jump up ^ Les causes de la variation géolinguistique du français en Amérique du Nord Archived December 22, 2014, at the Wayback Machine., Claude Poirier
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, pp. 162, 163
Jump up ^ Ostiguy, p. 164
Jump up ^ Waugh, Linda. "Authentic materials for everyday spoken french: corpus linguistics vs. french textbooks" (PDF). University of Arizona. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 24, 2014.
Jump up ^ Laura K. Lawless. "French Subject Pronouns - Pronoms sujets". About.com Education. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
Jump up ^ Laura K. Lawless. "Informal French Negation - Pas without Ne". About.com Education. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
Jump up ^ as found in P.Barbaud, 1998, Dissidence du français québécois et évolution dialectale, in Revue québécoise de linguistique, vol. 26, n 2, pp.107-128.[dead link]
Jump up ^ Gaston Paris, «Ti, signe de l'interrogation.» Romania 1887, 6.438-442.
References[edit]
Barbaud, Philippe (1984). Le Choc des patois en Nouvelle-France: Essai sur l'histoire de la francisation au Canada (in French). Montreal: Presses de l'Université du Québec. ISBN 2-7605-0330-5. [Research on the early development of French in New France.]
Bergeron, Léandre (1982). The Québécois Dictionary. Toronto: James Lorimer & Co.
Bouchard, Chantal (2011). Méchante langue: la légitimité linguistique du français parlé au Québec (in French). Montréal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal. ISBN 978-2-7606-2284-5.
Brandon, Edgar (1898). A French colony in Michigan. Modern Language Notes 13.121-24.
Clermont, Jean; Cedergren, Henrietta (1979). "Les 'R' de ma mère sont perdus dans l'air". In P. Thibault (Ed.). Le français parlé: études sociolinguistiques. Edmonton, Alta.: Linguistic Research. pp. 13–28. CS1 maint: Extra text: editors list (link)
Cossette, André (1970). Le R apical montréalais: étude de phonétique expérimentale. Université Laval: Thèse de D.E.S.
DesRuisseaux, Pierre (1974). Le livre des proverbes québécois (in French) (1st ed.). Montréal: L'Aurore.
DesRuisseaux, Pierre (2009) [First published 1974]. Dictionnaire des proverbes, dictons et adages québécois (in French) (2nd expanded ed.). Bibliothèque québécoise. ISBN 978-2-8940-6300-2.
DesRuisseaux, Pierre (1979). Le livre des expressions québécoises (in French) (1st ed.). LaSalle, Québec: Hurtubuise HMH.
DesRuisseaux, Pierre (2009) [First published 1979]. Dictionnaire des expressions québécoises (in French) (2nd expanded ed.). Bibliothèque québécoise. ISBN 978-2-8940-6299-9.
Dulong, Gaston (1973). "Histoire du français en Amérique du Nord". In Thomas A. Sebeok (Ed.). Current trends in linguistics. The Hague: Mouton, 10.407-421 (bibliographie, 10.441-463). CS1 maint: Extra text: editors list (link)
Dulong, Gaston; Bergeron, Gaston (1980). Le Parler populaire du Québec et de ses regions voisines: Atlas linguistique de l'Est du Canada. Québec: Éditeur officiel du Gouvernement du Québec (10 vol.).
Dumas, Denis (1987). Nos façons de parler (in French). Sainte-Foy: Presses de l'Université du Québec. ISBN 2-7605-0445-X.
Fournier, Robert; Wittmann, Henri, eds. (1995). Le français des Amériques (in French). Trois-Rivières: Presses Universitaires de Trois-Rivières. ISBN 2-9802-3072-3.
Geddes, James (1908). Study of the Acadian-French dialect spoken on the north shore of the Baie-des-Chaleurs. Halle: Niemeyer.
Haden, Ernest F (1973). "French dialect geography in North America". In Thomas A. Sebeok (Ed.). Current trends in linguistics. The Hague: Mouton, 10.422-439 (bibliographie, 10.441-463). CS1 maint: Extra text: editors list (link)
Lavoie, Thomas; Bergeron, Gaston; Côté, Michelle (1985). Les parlers français de Charlevoix, du Saguenay, du Lac Saint-Jean et de la Côte Nord. Québec: Éditeur officiel du Gouvernement du Québec. 5 vol.
Léard, Jean-Marcel (1995). Grammaire québécoise d'aujourd'hui: Comprendre les québécismes (in French). Montreal: Guérin Universitaire. ISBN 2-7601-3930-1. [A detailed analysis of some grammatical differences between French and Quebec French.]
Martel, Pierre; Cajolet-Laganière, Hélène (1996). Le français québécois : Usages, standard et aménagement (in French). Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval. ISBN 978-2-89224-261-4.
Meney, Lionel (1999). Dictionnaire Québécois Français (in French). Montreal: Guérin Editeur. ISBN 2-7601-5482-3. [A comprehensive reference dictionary defining Québécois French usage for speakers of European French.]
Mougeon, Raymond; Beniak, Édouard (1994). Les Origines du français québécois (in French). Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval. ISBN 2-7637-7354-0.
Ostiguy, Luc; Tousignant, Claude (1993). Le français québécois: normes et usages (in French). Montreal: Guérin Universitaire. ISBN 2-7601-3330-3. [Analysis of some particularities of pronunciations in regard to Quebec and European norms and language markers.]
Poirier, Claude (1995). "Les variantes topolectales du lexique français: Propositions de classement à partir d'exemples québécois". In Michel Francard & Danièle Latin. Le Régionalisme Lexical (in French). Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: De Boeck Université Duculot. pp. 13–56. ISBN 2-8011-1091-4.
Plourde, Michel, ed. (2000). Le français au Québec : 400 ans d'histoire et de vie (in French) (1st ed.). Montreal: Éditions Fides/Publications du Québec. ISBN 2-7621-2281-3.
Plourde, Michel, ed. (2008) [First published 2000]. Le français au Québec : 400 ans d'histoire et de vie (in French) (3rd expanded ed.). Montreal: Éditions Fides/Publications du Québec. ISBN 2-7621-2813-7.
Poplack, Shana; Sankoff, David; Miller, Chris (1988). "The social correlates and linguistic processes of lexical borrowing and assimilation". Linguistics 26 (1): 47-104.
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 (Ed.). Le français des Amériques. Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières. pp. 281–334. CS1 maint: Extra text: editors list (link)
Wittmann, Henri (1997). "Le français de Paris dans le français des Amériques". Proceedings of the International Congress of Linguists 16.0416 (Paris, 20-25 juillet 1997) (PDF). Oxford: Pergamon (CD edition).
(Collective) (2011). Canadian French for Better Travel. Montreal: Ulysses Travel Guides. ISBN 978-2-89464-965-7.
External links[edit]
History of the French Language in Quebec
(in French) History of French in Quebec
(in French) Trésor de la langue française au Québec
(in French) Grand dictionnaire terminologique (Office québécois de la langue française)
The Alternative Québécois Dictionary
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quebec_French&oldid=856730579"
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