Acadian French (French:français acadien, acadjonne) is a variety of French spoken byAcadians, mostly in the region ofAcadia, Canada. Acadian French has seven regional accents, includingChiac andBrayon.[3]
Since there was relatively little linguistic contact with France from the late 18th century to the 20th century, Acadian French retained features that died out during the Frenchstandardization efforts of the 19th century such as these:
The/ʁ/ phoneme, Acadian French has retained analveolar trill or analveolar flap, but modern speakers pronounce it as in Parisian French:rouge (red) can be pronounced[ruːʒ],[ɾuːʒ] or[ʁuːʒ].
In nonstandard Acadian French, the third-person plural ending ofverbs ‹-ont›, such asils mangeont[i(l)mɑ̃ˈʒɔ̃] (they eat), is still pronounced, unlike standard French (France and Quebec)ils mangent ([i(l)ˈmɒ̃ːʒ(ə)] (France)/[iˈmãːʒ(ə)] or (Quebec)/[ɪlˈmãːʒ(ə)] ), the ‹e› can be pronounced or not, but ‹-nt› is always silent.[citation needed]
According to Wiesmath (2006),[4] some characteristics of Acadian are:
A feature calledl'ouisme wherebonne is pronounced[bʊn]
These features typically occur in the speech of older people.
Many aspects of Acadian French (vocabulary and "trill r", etc.) are still common in rural areas in the South West of France. Speakers ofMetropolitan French and even of other Canadian varieties of French sometimes have difficulty understanding Acadian French. Within North America, its closest relative isLouisiana French spoken in Southern Louisiana since both were born out of the same population that were affected during theExpulsion of the Acadians.
See alsoChiac, a variety with strongEnglish influence, andSt. Marys Bay French, a distinct variety of Acadian French spoken around Clare, Tusket, Nova Scotia and also Moncton, New Brunswick.
not to be confused withaffrication typical of Quebec French.
/k/ and/tj/ are commonly replaced by[tʃ] before afront vowel. For example,quel, queue, cuillère andquelqu'un are usually pronouncedtchel, tcheue, tchuillère andtchelqu'un.Tiens is pronouncedtchin[t͡ʃɛ̃].
/ɡ/ and/dj/ often become[d͡ʒ] (sometimes[ʒ]) before a front vowel. For example,bon dieu andgueule become[bɔ̃ˈdʒø] and[d͡ʒœl] in informal Acadian French.Braguette becomes[bɾaˈd͡ʒɛt]. (This pronunciation led to the word Cajun, from Acadien.)
Metathesis is quite common. For example,mercredi ('Wednesday') ismercordi, andpauvreté ('poverty') ispauveurté.Je (the pronoun 'I') is frequently pronouncedeuj andLe is frequently pronouncedeul.
In words, "re" is often pronounced "er". For instance :
erçu for "reçu",ertourner for "retourner",erpas for "repas",ergret for "regret",s'entertenir for "s'entretenir".
Acadian French has maintained phonemic distinctions between/a/ and/ɑ/,/ɛ/ and/ɛː/,/ø/ and/ə/,/ɛ̃/ and/œ̃/.
In informal speech, the/ɑ/ vowel is realized as[ɔ]:pas ('step')/pɑ/ →[pɔ] andbras (arm)/bʁɑ/ →[bʁɔ], etc.
The short/ɛ/ is realized as[ɛ] and it is the same as Parisian French.
/ɛː/ is open to[æː] or closed to[eː], it depends on the region:fête ('party')/fɛːt/ →[fæːt] or[feːt] andcaisse ('case')/kɛːs/ →[kæːs] or[keːs], etc.[citation needed]
The ⟨oi⟩ spelling has different pronunciations. Old speakers pronounceroi ('king')[wɛ], because the traditional Parisian pronunciation was like[rwɛ]. But in modern standard Acadian French, it is pronounced[wa]. Even where there is nocircumflex, there are some words which are phonemically pronounced/wɑ/ and the phoneme is pronounced as[wɑ] in formal speech but[wɔ] in informal speech:trois ('three')[tʁ̥wɑ] or[tʁ̥wɔ] andnoix ('nut')[nwɑ] or[nwɔ]. The ⟨oî⟩ spelling is phonemically/wɑ/, but old speakers pronounce it[weː], while modern speakers pronounce it[wɑː] as in Quebec French:boîte ('box')[bweːt] or[bwɑːt] andcroître ('grow')[kɾweːt(ɾ)] or[kʁ̥wɑːt(ʁ̥)], etc.
Consonant clusters finishing a word are reduced, often losing altogether the last or two last consonants in informal speech:table ('table')/tabl/ →[tab] andlivre ('book'/'pound')/livʁ/ →[liːv],[5] etc.
Yves Cormier'sDictionnaire du français acadien (ComiersAcad)[6] includes the majority of Acadian regionalisms. From a syntactic point of view, a major feature is the use ofje for the first-person singular and plural; the same phenomenon takes place withi for the third persons. Acadian still differentiates thevous form from thetu form.
The following words and expressions are most commonly restricted to Acadian French south of the Miramichi River, but some are also used north of the Miramichi River and inQuebec French (also known as Québécois) orJoual for the Montreal version of Quebec French. The Miramichi line is an isogloss separating South Acadian (archaic or "true" Acadian) from theCanadian French dialects to the north, North Acadian,Brayon (Madawaskan) and Quebec French (Laurentian French). South Acadian typically has morphosyntactic features such as [je [V [-on] … ]] (as inje parlons "we speak") that distinguishes it from dialects to the north or elsewhere in the Americas such asCajun French,Saint-Barthélemy French orMétis French that have [nouzot [on- [V …]]] (as innous-autres on parle). Geddes (1908),[7] the oldest authority on any variety of French spoken in Northern Acadia, records of the morphosyntactic characteristics of "true" Acadian spoken in the South and adjacent islands to the West.[8]
Some examples of "true" Acadian French are:
achaler: 'to bother' (Fr:ennuyer) (very common in Quebec French)
ajeuve: (variation ofachever, literally 'to complete') 'a while ago' (Fr:récemment, tout juste)
amanchure: 'thing, thingy, also the way things join together: the joint or union of two things' (Fr:chose, truc, machin)
baratte: 'a piece of machinery or tool of sorts that no longer works properly', e.g. "My car is a lemon so it is abaratte" (very common in New Brunswick)
batterie: 'the central passage through a barn (granges acadiennes) flanked by two storage bays adjacent to the eaves'.[9]
besson: 'twin' (Fr:jumeau/jumelle)
boloxer: 'to confuse, disrupt, unsettle' (Fr:causer une confusion, déranger l'ordre régulier et établi)
Bonhomme Sept-heures: 'a fearful character of fairy tales who would visit unpleasant deeds upon young children if they did not go to bed at the designated hour'.[9]
bord: (literally 'the side of a ship')l'autre bord meaning 'the other side (of a street, river, etc.');changer de bord meaning 'changing sides (in a team competition)';virer de bord meaning 'turning back or retracing one's steps'.[9]
boucane: 'smoke, steam' (Fr:fumée, vapeur) (very common in Quebec French)
bouchure: 'fence' (Fr:clôture)
brâiller: 'to cry, weep' (Fr:pleurer) (very common in Quebec French)
brogane: 'work shoe, old or used shoe' (Fr:chaussure de travail, chaussure d'occasion)
brosse: 'drinking binge' (Fr:beuverie) (common in Quebec French)
caler: 'to sink' (Fr:sombrer, couler) (also 'to drink fast in one shot',caler une bière) (very common in Quebec French)
char: 'car' (Fr:voiture) (very common in Quebec French)
chassis: 'window' (Fr:fenêtre)
chavirer: 'to go crazy' (Fr:devenir fou, folle)
chu: 'I am' (Fr:je suis, or, colloquiallychui) (very common in Quebec French)
cosses: 'peas, green beans' (Fr:mangetout)
cossé: 'what, or asking for information specifying something'. (Fr:quoi)
cotchiner: 'to cheat' (Fr:tricher)
coude: 'ship's knees' that are a distinctive and unusual structural feature of early Acadian houses.[9]
Djâbe: 'Devil' (Fr:Diable)
de service: 'proper, properly' (Fr:adéquat, comme il faut)
èchell: (literally 'a ship's ladder') 'stairway' (Fr:échelle)[9]
ej: 'I' (Fr:je)
élan: 'moment, while' (Fr:instant, moment)
erj: 'and I' (Fr:et je suis)
espèrer: 'to wait; say welcome, to invite' (Fr:attendre, inviter)
faire zire: 'to gross out' (Fr:dégouter)
farlaque: 'loose, wild, of easy virtue' (Fr:dévergondée, au moeurs légères)
fournaise: (lit. 'furnace') 'a wood stove, oven'
frette: 'cold' (Fr:froid) (very common in Quebec French)
fricot: 'traditional Acadian stew prepared with chicken, potatoes, onions, carrots, dumplings (lumps of dough), and seasoned withsavoury'
garrocher: 'to throw, chuck' (Fr:lancer) (very common in Quebec French)
le grand mènage: 'spring cleaning', often more comprehensive than in other cultures.[9]
greer: (literally, 'rigging of a ship's masts') 'to describe a woman's attire or decoration of a youngster's bicycle'.[9]
tétine-de-souris: (lit. 'mouse tit') 'slenderglasswort, an edible green plant that grows in salt marshes' (Salicornia europaea) (Fr:salicorne d'Europe)
tintamarre: 'din' (also refers to an Acadian noisemaking tradition whereby people gather in the streets and parade through town)
tourtiéres: 'meat pies', sometimes with potatoes.[9]
In theNova Scotian communities ofWedgeport andPubnico, the numberssoixante-dix ('seventy'),quatre-vingts ('eighty') andquatre-vingt-dix ('ninety') are instead calledseptante, huitante andnonante respectively, aphenomenon also observed inSwiss French;Belgian French likewise usesseptante andnonante but nothuitante.
St. Marys Bay French, a conservative dialect of Acadian French spoken in theSt. Marys Bay, Nova Scotia region, is notable for maintaining use of thepassé simple in spoken conversation.[10] In most modern dialects of French, the tense is only used in formal writing and speech.
^Wiesmath, Raphaële (2006).Le français acadien: analyse syntaxique d'un corpus oral recueilli au Nouveau-Brunswick, Canada. l'Hamalthan.[1].Accessed 5 May 2011.
^Geddes, James (1908).Study of the Acadian-French language spoken on the north shore of theBaie-des-Chaleurs. Halle: Niemeyer[2]
^Although superficially a phonological descendant of South Acadian French, analysis reveals North Acadian French to bemorphosyntactically identical to Quebec French. North Acadian is believed to have resulted from a localized levelling of contact dialects between Québécois and Acadian settlers. Cf. 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.[3]
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