Acadian French

Not to be confused with Akkadian language.
Acadian French
français acadien
Native to Canada, United States
Region New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Magdalen Islands, Maine
Native speakers
 370,000  (1996, 2006)[1]
Official status
Official language in
  New Brunswick
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Glottolog acad1238[2]
Linguasphere 51-AAA-ho

{{{mapalt}}}

Acadian French

Acadian French (French: français acadien) is a dialect of Canadian French. It is spoken by the francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities in areas in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, by small groups of francophones in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, in the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a small swath of the northernmost portion (St. John Valley) of the U.S state of Maine.

Characteristics

See also: Saintongeais and Colonial French

Since there was relatively little linguistic contact with France from the late eighteenth century until the twentieth century, Acadian French retained features that died out during the French standardization efforts of the nineteenth century. That can be seen in examples like:

Many aspects of Acadian French (vocabulary, alveolar "r", etc.) are still common in rural areas in the West of France. Speakers of Metropolitan French and even of other Canadian dialects sometimes have minor difficulties understanding Acadian French. Within North America, its closest relative is the Cajun French spoken in Southern Louisiana as the two were born out of the same population that were affected during the Grand Derangement.

See also Chiac, a variety with strong English influence, and Saint Mary's Bay French, a distinct variety of Acadian French spoken around Clare and also Tusket, Nova Scotia.

Phonology

Palatalization

Metathesis

Metathesis is quite common. For example, mercredi (Wednesday) is mécordi, and grenouille (frog) is guernouille. Je (the pronoun "I") is frequently pronounced euj.

In words, "re" is often pronounced "er". For instance :

Pronunciation of oi

Elision of final r

Numerals

Other

Examples of Acadian words

The following words and expressions are most commonly restricted to Acadian French, though some can also be found in Quebec French.

References

  1. ↑ Canadian census, ethnic data
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Acadian". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

External links