Joual

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for a pronunciation key.

Joual is the common name for the linguistic features from Quebec French that are associated with the French-speaking working class. Attitudes towards Joual range from stigma to exaltation depending on forms and components of human communication such as social setting (formal/informal; public/private), channel (spoken vs. written; broadcast) and so on.

Joual is often termed a sociolect of Québec's French-speaking working class. However, it can no longer be strictly considered as such given two major events in the latter half of the 20th century: upward socio-economic mobility among Quebec francophones and a cultural renaissance connected to the Quebec sovereignty movement. At the beginning of the 21st century, Joual now fits the description of a diatype more than any other categorization.

1 Origin of the name Joual
2 Most notable or stereotypical linguistic features
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Origin of the name Joual

Although coinage of the name Joual is often attributed to French Canadian journalist André Laurendeau, usage of this term throughout French-speaking Canada predates the 1930's.

The actual word Joual is the representation of how the word cheval (horse) is pronounced by those who "speak in" Joual. Cheval is usually pronounced as one syllable, [ʃval], by all francophones in la Francophonie. With this in mind, in the chain of speech some vowels and consonants undergo changes due to their environment. In the case of [ʃval], the Voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ was voiced to become a Voiced postalveolar fricative [ʒ], thereby creating [ʒval]. Next, the [v] at the beginning of a syllable in some regional dialects of French or even in very rapid speech in general weakens to become the semi-vowel [w] written "ou". The end result is the word [ʒwal] transcribed as Joual.

[edit] Most notable or stereotypical linguistic features

- toé — toi (you or "ya")
- moé — moi (me)
- chu — je suis (I'm or "ahm")
- té — tu es (you're or "yer")
- ché — je sais (I know)
- pantoute - pas du tout (not at all)
- pis — puis (then ; also means "So what?" when used in the interrogative form)
- y — il (he or "'e")
- a — elle (she)
- ouais / ouin — oui (yep or yeah)
- y'a — il y a (there's, "there're")
- icitte — ici (here)
- ben — bien (well)
- s'a — sur la (on the 'xyz' (feminin))
- su'l — sur le (on the 'xyz' (masculin))
- tsé — tu sais (y'know)
- nuitte — nuit (night)
- litte — lit (bed)
- haille? — hein (wot? or wut?)
- eille — hey (Hey you)
- frette — froid (cold)
- fa - fait(make, do)

English words that were used in joual (although stigmatised since the 1960s):
- Bécosse: From backhouse, used generally in the sense of a bathroom. Unlike most borrowing, this one can sometimes be seen written, usually as shown here.
- Bicycle or bécik: Bicycle
- Bike or bécik: Motorbike
- Blood: Compliment, as in "Té Blood" [You're all right]. Rarely heard nowadays.
- Braker: Pronounced [breakay]. Verb meaning "to brake".
- Breaker: Pronounced [bray-koer]. Fuse.
- Coat: Only for the clothing item, never in the sense of "layer".
- Chum: Most often in the sense of boyfriend, although sometimes simply as friend.
- Enfirouaper: To screw someone. Comes from "In fur wrap". Centuries ago, fur traders would sell a ballot of fur, actually filled with cardboard in the middle.
- Frencher: Pronounced [fran-shay]. To French-kiss
- Fuse
- Gun
- Gas: Pronounced [gaaz]. In the sense of fuel.
- Lift: Pronounced [liff]. Only used in the sense of giving a lift to someone in one's vehicle.
- Mossel: Muscle
- Peppermint: Normally pronounced [pa-par-mhan].
- Pinotte: Peanuts. Unlike most other borrowings, this one is sometimes seen written, usually as here.
- les States: Pronounced [lay Stayt] (the plural "s" is mute). Used when referring to the USA.
- Tank: Usually pronounced [teink]. Used in the sense of "container": Tinque à gaz [fuel tank]
- Tchine-tchine: From "cheers", said when making a toast.
- Tough
- Truck
- Suit: For a coat.
- Ski-doo: For a snowmobile. (It is the name of a Bombardier trademark.)

Some words were also previously thought to be of English origin, although modern research has shown them to be from regional French dialects:
- Bonhomme sept-heure [boogeyman]: previously believed to come from "bone setters". Similarly named characters exist in some parts of northern France.
- Pitoune (log, cute girl, loose girl): previously thought to come from "happy town" although the word "pitchoune" exists in dialects from southern France and means "cute girl".
- Poutine: was thought to come from "pudding", but some have drawn a parallel with the Languedocian word "poudingo", a stew made of scraps which was (in Montréal) the previous use of the term.

Diphthongs are normally present where long vowels would be present in standard French.

Although moé and toé are today considered substandard slang pronunciations, these were the pronunciations of Old French used by the kings of France, the aristocracy and the common people in many provinces of France. After the 1789 French Revolution, the standard pronunciation in France changed to that of the bourgeois class in Paris, but Quebec retained many old pronunciations and expressions, having been isolated from the Revolution by the 1760 British Conquest of New France.

Joual shares many features with modern Oïl languages, such as Norman, Gallo, Picard and Poitevin-Saintongeais. Speakers of these languages of France predominated among settlers to New France.