Acadian French

**Grumpy Cat** · 04-14-2010, 05:44 AM

Acadian French (le français acadien) is a variety or dialect of French spoken by francophone Acadians in the Canadian Maritime provinces, the Saint John River Valley in northern Maine, the Magdalen Islands and Havre-Saint-Pierre, along the St. Lawrence's north shore.

Just as Quebec French, it is a variant of Canadian French. Acadian French derives loosely from late Middle French still widespread in a few French provinces (mainly: Maine, Anjou, Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis, Angoumois and more specifically Jersey) at the time of the French colonization of the Americas and conserves characteristics such as pronunciation and lexical items (vocabulary) reminiscent of the language of Rabelais and Molière. As a result, it shares some resemblance with both Metropolitan and Quebec French and a strong influence of North American English is also present.

Characteristics:

Since there was no 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:

* While other dialects (such as Metropolitan French) have a uvular rhotic, Acadian French has an alveolar one so that rouge ('red') is pronounced [ruʒ]

* The third-person plural ending of verbs -ont, e.g. ils mangeont [imɑ̃ʒɔ̃] ('they eat') as compared to Metropolitan French ils mangent [ilmɑ̃ʒ], which does not have an ending that is pronounced.

* The use of -ions (now only plural first-person ending of verbs) instead of -ais as the singular first-person ending, in the "imparfait" tense: e.g. j'avions, j'aimions, j'étions... instead of j'avais, j'aimais, j'étais... (meaning: I was having, I was loving, I was being...). This was most likely due to the old pronunciation of -ais endings in France before Louis XIV came to power, which sounded like -ois in most cases (ex: françois for français, j'avois for j'avais, etc.)

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.

Palatalization of "k" and "g" sounds

* /k/ and /tj/ is commonly replaced by [tʃ] before a front vowel. For example, quel, queue, cuillère, quelqu'un and cul are usually pronounced tchel, tcheue, tchuillère, tchequ'un and tchu. Tiens is pronounced tchin [tʃɛ̃].

* /ɡ/ and /dj/ often become [dʒ] (sometimes [ʒ]) before a front vowel. For example, bon dieu and gueule become bon djeu and djeule in Acadian French. Braguette becomes brajette.

Inversion of er

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 :

* berloque for "breloque", berouette for "brouette" (wheel-barrow), ferdaine for "fredaine", guerlot for "grelot", s'entertenir for "s'entretenir".

Other

* The /ɛr/ sequence followed by another consonant sometimes becomes [ar] or [ɑʁ]. For example, merde and perdre become màrde and pàrdre. This rule is also abundantly consistent in the Quebec French, however the a is nasal (â).

* The r in words endings by bre is often not pronounced. For example, libre (free), arbre (tree), timbre (stamp) would become lib', arb' and timb'

* oui, (yes) sounds like ouaille or Modern French ouais meaning yeah (oua is also used).

* deux, (two) can sometimes sound like doy.

* trois, (three) can sometimes sound like tro' (originally troé).

* The numbers soixante-dix (seventy), quatre-vingts (eighty) and quatre-vingt-dix (ninety) are instead called septante, huiptante and nonante respectively.

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.

* achaler: to bother (Fr: ennuyer)(very common in Quebec French)
* ajeuve: 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)
* amarrer: (literally, to moor) to tie (Fr: attacher)
* amoureux: (lit. lover) burdock (Fr: (capitule de la) bardane; Quebec: toque, grakia) (also very common in Quebec French)
* asteur: now (Fr: maintenant, à cette heure, désormais)(very common in Quebec French)
* attoquer: to lean (Fr: appuyer)
* avoir de la misère: to have difficulty (Fr: avoir de la difficulté, avoir du mal)(very common in Quebec French)
* bailler: to give (Fr: donner)(very common in Quebec French)
* boloxer: to confuse, disrupt, unsettle (Fr: causer une confusion, déranger l'ordre régulier et établi)
* 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)
* caler: to sink (Fr: sombrer, couler) (also "to drink fast in one shot", caler une bière)(very common in Quebec French)
* chassis: window (Fr: fenêtre)
* chavirer: to go crazy (Fr: devenir fou, folle)
* chu: I am (Fr: je suis)(very common in Quebec French)
* cotchiner: to cheat (Fr: tricher)
* de service: proper, properly (Fr: adéquat, comme il faut)
* ej: I (Fr: je)
* élan: moment, while (Fr: instant, moment)
* erj: and I (Fr: et je suis)
* espèrer: to 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)
* 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 with savoury
* garrocher: to throw, chuck (Fr: lancer)
* hardes: clothes, clothing (Fr: vêtements)
* harrer : Battre ou traiter pauvrement, maltraîter
* hucher: to cry out (Fr: appeler (qqn) à haute voix)
* innocent: simple, foolish or stupid (Fr: simple d'esprit, bête, qui manque de jugement)(very common in Quebec French)
* itou: also, too (Fr: aussi, de même, également)(common in Quebec French)
* maganer: to overwork, wear out, tire, weaken (Fr: traiter durement, malmener, fatiguer, affaiblir, endommager, détériorer)
* mais que: when + future tense (Fr: lorsque, quand (suivi d'un futur))
* mitan: middle, centre (Fr: milieu, centre)
* païen: (lit. pagan) hick, uneducated person, peasant
* pire à yaller/au pire à yaller: at worst (au pire)
* plaise: plaice (FR: plie)
* ploye: buckwheat pancake, a tradition of Edmundston, New Brunswick (Fr: crêpe au sarassin)
* pomme de pré: (lit. meadow apple) American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) (Fr: canneberge; Quebec: atoca)
* poutine râpée: a ball made of grated potato with pork in the centre, a traditional Acadian dish
* qu'ri: (from quérir) to fetch, go get (Fr: aller chercher)
* se haler: (lit. to haul oneself) to hurry (Fr: se dépêcher)
* se badgeuler: to argue (Fr: se disputer)
* taweille: Native American woman, traditionally associated with sorcery (Fr: Amérindienne)
* tchequ'affaire, tchequ'chouse, quètchose, quotchose: something (Fr: quelque chose)("quètchose" is common in Quebec French)
* tête de violon: ostrich fern fiddlehead (Matteuccia struthiopteris)
* tétine-de-souris: (lit. mouse tit) slender glasswort, an edible green plant that grows in salt marshes (Salicornia europaea) (Fr: salicorne d'Europe)
* vaillant, vaillante: active, hard-working, brave (Fr: actif, laborieux, courageux)