French Canadian :

Canadian French (French: Français canadien) is an umbrella term referring to the various dialects of French that evolved in Canada and which are spoken there to this day. French is the mother tongue of nearly seven million Canadians, a figure constituting roughly 22% of the national population. At the federal level it has co-official status alongside English. Provincially, it tends to have more limited status, except in the case of New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual (with English), and in Quebec, where it is the only official language. French is also co-official in the three territories.

Varieties

Quebec French is spoken in Quebec. Closely related varieties are spoken by francophone communities in Ontario, Western Canada, Labrador and in the New England region of the United States, and differ primarily by their greater conservatism. The term Laurentian French has limited application as a collective label for these varieties, and Quebec French, confusingly, has also been used. The overwhelming majority of francophone Canadians speak this dialect.

Acadian French is spoken by over 350 000 Acadians in parts of The Maritimes, Newfoundland, les Îles de la Madeleine, and The Gaspé. It is the parent dialect to Louisiana “Cajun” French (that name derived from a colloquial pronunciation of “Acadian”).

Métis French is spoken in Manitoba and Western Canada by the Métis, descendants of First Nations mothers and Voyageur fathers during the fur trade. Many Métis spoke Cree in addition to French, and over the years they developed a unique mixed language called Michif by combining Métis French nouns, numerals, articles and adjectives with Cree verbs, demonstratives, postpositions, interrogatives and pronouns. Both the Michif language and the Métis dialect of French are severely endangered.

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.

Brayon French is spoken in The Beauce of Quebec and Madawaska in New Brunswick (and the American state Maine). Although superficially a phonological descendant of Acadian French, analysis reveals it is morphosyntactically identical to Quebec French. It is believed to have resulted from a localised levelling of contact dialects between Québécois and Acadian settlers.

Sub-varieties:

There are two main sub-varieties of Canadian French. Joual is an informal variety of French spoken in working-class neighbourhoods in the province of Quebec. Chiac is a blending of Acadian French syntax and vocabulary with numerous lexical borrowings from English.

 

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