| St. Mary's Bay French | |
|---|---|
| français de la Baie Sainte-Marie (French) | |
| Region | Clare, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Ethnicity | Acadians |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
| French alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| IETF | fr-u-sd-cans |
 In this map of Acadian French, Clare is on the west of Nova Scotia. | |
St. Marys Bay French (French:français de la Baie Sainte-Marie) is a dialect ofAcadian French spoken aroundSt. Marys Bay, Nova Scotia, specifically in the region ofClare, Nova Scotia. While sharing features with other dialects ofAcadian French, it differs from these and othervarieties of French in itsmorphology andphonology,[1] and to a lesser extent itslexicon.[2]
The speakers of St. Marys Bay French live mostly inDigby County, Nova Scotia, in the villages of Church Point, Comeauville, Corberie, Grosses Coques, Meteghan, St-Bernard, Rivière du Saumon, and Saulnierville.[3] French has been spoken by a minority in this region for some time; in 1941, the number of Acadian French speakers in Digby County numbered 9,560, out of a total of 19,472 residents.[4] By the mid 1970s, the number of residents of Digby County reporting their mother tongue as French was 7,730, or 38% of the population.[5]
The phonemic inventory of Baie Sainte-Marie French is similar to the varieties of Acadian French spoken in Yarmouth County, to the south.[6] However, it has idiosyncratic vowel phonemes, for example /i e o u y œ/ have various diphthongised realisations, as do several nasal vowel phonemes.[7]
| Parisian French | Saint Mary's Bay | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoneme(s) | Example | Phoneme(s) | Example | |
| /ʒ/ | jamais[ʒaˈmɛ] | /x~h/[8] | jama's[xaˈmɑ],[haˈmɛ] | never |
| /ɛj/ | soleil/sɔlɛj/ | /ɑj/ | soleil/sɔˈlɑj/ | sun |
| /ɛʁ/ | terre/tɛʁ/ | /ɑɾ/ | tarre/tɑɾ/ | land |
| /ɛ̃/ | main[mɛ̃] | /ɔn/[9] | main[mɔn] | hand |
| /tj/ | tien/tjɛ̃/ | /tɕ/ | tien/tɕɔn/ | yours |
| /ʃj/ | chien/ʃjɛ̃/ | /ɕ/ | chien/ɕɔn/ | dog |
| /ɑ̃/ | temps[tɑ̃] | /æ̃õ/[10] | teaon[tæ̃õ] | time |
A number of these correspondences are common outside of St. Marys Bay French and even Acadian French. A similar pronunciation of 'jamais' in part ofÎles de la Madeleine occurs about as/xaˈmɑ/. In theCajun French ofTerrebonne Parish, Louisiana,jamais is often realized as/hɑ̃'mɛ/.[citation needed]
Grand Dérangement's song "L'homme à point d'accent" (from the album Dérangé) is sung in St. Marys Bay French.