Quebec French

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Quebec French or Québécois French is a dialect of French spoken by the great majority of people in Quebec. It developed out of 17th and 18th century French and in many respects it resembles it more closely than contemporary France French, although it also includes elements of various provincial dialects and oïl languages.

In Quebec, depending on one's perception of its status as a rightful dialect, the language may be called le français québécois, le franco-québécois or simply le québécois.

Although Quebec French is sometimes thought of as an almost exclusively non-standard variant, and certain aspects of it are sociolinguistically stigmatized, most aspects of Quebec French that distinguish it from the French of France are found throughout the different registers of speech and writing, including standard and formal usage.

Two similar but nonetheless distinct dialects tend to be confused with Quebec French. Those are Saguenay French, spoken in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, and Gaspésie French, in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine.

History

Main article: History of Quebec French

Quebec French is substantially different in pronunciation and vocabulary to the other varieties of French spoken throughout the world, just as Portuguese, Spanish, and English language of the Americas are with respect to European dialects. However, in the case of Quebec French, the separation was increased by the reduction of cultural contacts with France after the Conquest of New France by Great Britain in 1759. The French Revolution and its aftermath have substantially altered the French spoken in France, while Quebec conserved older forms.

Standardization

Although Quebec French constitutes a coherent and standard system, it has no objective norm since the very organization mandated to establish it, the Office québécois de la langue française, believes that objectively standardizing the dialect would lead to reduced interintelligibility with other French communities around the world, linguistically isolating Quebecers and possibly causing the extinction of the French language in the Americas.

This governmental institution has nonetheless published many dictionaries and terminological guidelines since the 1960s, effectively allowing many Québécismes (French words local to Quebec) that either describe specifically North American realities or have been in use before the Conquest, and creating new, morphologically well-formed words to describe technological evolutions to which the Académie française, the equivalent body governing French language in France, was extremely slow to react.

The effect, other historical factors helping, is a negative perception of Quebec French traits by Quebecers themselves, coupled with a desire to improve their language by conforming it to the Parisian French norm. This explains why most of the differences between Quebec and France French documented in this article are marked as "informal" or "colloquial". Those differences that are unmarked are most likely so just because they go unnoticed by most speakers.

Interintelligibility with other dialects

Interintelligibility of formally and informally spoken Quebec French with France French is a matter of warm debates between linguists. If a comparison can be made, the differences between both dialects are probably larger than those between American, British, and Australian English, but not as large as those between High and Swiss German.

Television programmes and films from Quebec, when shown internationally, often must be subtitled, which some Quebecers receive as an offence although they themselves sometimes can hardly understand European French pronunciation and slang. Recent raises in reciprocal exposure are slowly improving interintelligibility though, and slang expressions have even been crossing the ocean in both directions.

In general, European French speakers have no problems understanding newscasts or other moderately formal speech. However, they will have great difficulty understanding for example a sitcom dialogue. This is much more due to idioms, slang and vocabulary rather than accent or pronunciation. To the extent that sitcom dialogue reflects everyday colloquial speech, European French users will have difficulty with everyday colloquial speech of Quebecers speaking to one another. However, when speaking to a European French speaker, a French speaker from Quebec is perfectly capable of shifting to a slightly more formal "international" type of speech.

Quebec's culture has only recently been discovered in Europe, especially since the Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille), and the difference in dialects and culture is large enough that Quebec French speakers overwhelmingly prefer their own home-grown television drama or sitcom shows to any shows from Europe. The number of such drama or sitcom TV shows from France shown on Quebec television is about the same as the number of British TV shows on American television outside of obscure cable channels: more or less none at all.

Quebec French was once stigmatized, among Quebecers themselves as well as among Continental French and foreigners, as a low-class dialect, sometimes due to its use of anglicisms, sometimes simply due to its differences from European French, seen as a standard. Until 1968, it was unheard of for Quebec French vocabulary to be used in plays in the theatre for instance; however, in that year the huge success of Michel Tremblay's play Les Belles-Sœurs proved to be a turning point. Today, francophones in Quebec have much more freedom to choose a "register" in speaking, and characters in TV shows invariably speak "real" everyday language rather than "normative" French. In Europe, Quebec French is rediscovered as a very charming variety of French that is sometimes difficult to understand: vous entendre parler, c'est comme une chanson (hearing you speak is like hearing a song).

Phonology and phonetics

Quebec French has more phonemes than France French, as /a/ and /ɑ:/, /ɛ/ and /ɜ:/, and /ɛ̃/ and /œ̃/ are still clearly opposed whereas the latter of each pair has disappeared at least in several parts of France.

Special realisations

Vowels

The close vowels are only used in final open syllables; in all other cases, the near-close equivalents are used. This means that the masculine and feminine adjectives petit and petite, [pəti] and [pətit] in France, are [pəʦi] and [pəʦɪt] in Quebec. The same goes with [y] → [ʏ] and [u] → [ʊ].

The nasal vowels are slightly different, although native speakers are not generally able to tell between a French and a Quebecer vowel. [ɛ̃] and [ɔ̃] are closed into [ẽ] and [õ], whereas [ɑ̃] is advanced into [ã]. Also, nasal vowels under stress in a final closed syllable are long and may be diphtongized in colloquial speech.

One letter whose distinct pronunciation is very noticeable in Quebec French is the letter A. The normal realisation in final open syllable is [ɔ], which is nowadays strongly marked as colloquial, with [ɑ] being seen as more elevated. Parisian [a] is very formal, and often perceived as pretentious. Inside words, [aː] and [ɑː] often change into [ɑː] and [oː] although this is too increasingly considered to be colloquial.

The letters OI, pronunced [wa] in France French, and [wa], [wɑ], and [wɑː] in formal Quebec French, can be realised in six additional different ways in less formal context, including the very famous [ɛ] found (exclusively) in droit, froid, flexions of noyer and croire, and soit, remnants from one of the founding dialects from France.

Another informal archaistic trait from 17th century Parisian popular French is the tendency to open [ɛ] into [æ] in a final open syllable. On the other hand, in grammatical word endings, as well as in the indicative forms of verb être, the [ɛ] is closed into [e]. This is also usual in France, but failure to close the [ɛ] in Quebec is usually negatively perceived as pedantic.

Consonants

Around twelve different R's are used in Quebec, depending on region, age and education among other things. The uvular trill [ʀ] has lately been emerging as a nation-wide standard, whereas the alveolar trill was used before in and around Montreal. The voiced fricative [ʁ] can also be heard among younger people. As a matter of comparison, the voiceless fricative [χ] is more generally used in France. There is a tendency to vocalize final [ʀ] into [w] or drop them altoghether, likely under the influence of English.

The velar nasal is often found as an allophone of the palatal nasal, probably due to English influences again.

Dental stops are always affricated before high front vowels and semivowels: in other words, /ty/, /ti/, /dy/, /di/ are pronounced [ʦy], [ʦi], [ʣy], [ʣi]. Depending on the speaker, the fricative may be more or less strong, or can sometimes even assimilate the stop in informal speech: [kõstɪtʏsjõ] → [kõsʦɪʦʏsjõ] → [kõssɪsʏsjõ].

In very informal speech, some final mute T's will sometimes be pronounced: [li] → [lɪt] (lit). There is also the special case of [ɪsɪt], ici (sometimes actually written icitte). On the other hand, the T in but and août are not pronounced in Quebec but they are in France (albeit decresingly as of the former).

Diphtongization

Long and nasalized vowels are normally diphthongized under stressed. For instance père (father), /pɛːr/, is [pɛr] in France but [pa͡er] in Quebec. Other cases include:

• [ɛː] → [a͡e]
• [øː] → [œ͡y]
• [oː] → [o͡u]
• [ɑː] → [a͡u]
• [œː] → [a͡œ]
• [ã] → [ɑ̃͡ũ]
• [ẽ] → [ẽ͡ĩ]
• [õ] → [õ͡ũ]
• [œ̃] → [œ̃͡ỹ]

Diphtongization is generally avoided in formal contexts.

Linking

Linking is used in Quebec as little often as possible. Linking is only mandatory if the first word in monosyllabic, or is petit (normally monosyllabic anyway) or méchant, and is usually avoided in all other cases.

Harmonisation and assimilation

The high front vowels in Quebec French show a net tendency to be unvoiced, as in municipalité, [mʏnɪsɪpalɪte] → [mʏ̥nɪ̥sɪ̥palɪ̥te] (sometimes even noted [mnspalte]). Interestingly, the unvoiced vowels are not imediately audible to native French speakers of other dialects, causing incomprehension.

As other dialects of French, some vowel harmony is exhibited, although there is no obvious rule commanding this. Depending on speakers, [ɛːde] → [eːde], [tɛːʦy] → [teːʦy], [mɑmã] → [mãmã].

Much more generalized (but only in Quebec) is the nasalisation of vowels placed after (or occasionnally before) a nasal consonant: [mɛːm] → [mɛ̃ːm], [nɛːʒ] → [nɛ̃ːʒ].

Similarly, consonants in clusters are often assimilated, usually with the consonant closer to the stress (that is, to the end of the word) transmitting its phonation (or its nasalization): [dmãd] → [nmãd]. Progressive assimilation, although rare, also exists in very "strong" consonants such as [ʃ], [ʃval] → [ʃfal].

The drop of the /ə/, which is as usual in Quebec as it is in France although it doesn't happen at the same places, creates consonant clusters, hence making a ground for assimilation to happen. For instance, the 1st person singular pronoun "je" may be devoiced before a verb with a voiceless consonant initial. This is most notable in verbs normally beginning with an [s], as the well-known example "je suis" ("I am") that is often realized as "chu" ([ʃy]), or "je sais" ("I know"), realized as "ché" ([ʃe]). Since the drop of /ə/ is not exclusive to Quebec, this phenomenon is also sometimes seen in other dialects.

Consonant reduction

It has been postulated the frequency of this phenomenon in Quebec French is due to a tendency to pronounce vowels with more strength than consonants, a pattern reversing that of European French

Consonant clusters finishing a word are reduced, often losing altogether the last or two last consonants, in both formal and informal Quebec French. It seems that /ʀ/ and /l/ are specially likely to get dropped, as in table, [tabl] → [tab], or astre, [astʀ] → [as].

Phone /l/ in article determiners and even more in personal pronouns is also very likely to be dropped. As a matter of fact, pronouncing il and elle as [ɪl] and [ɛl] is seen as extremely formal, quite possibly pedantic. Elle is further modified into [aː] in informal speech.

Some initial consonants are also reduced: [ɰœl] gueule (France, [gœl]), especially in the construction ta gueule [tæɰœl], shut up.

Vocalic fusions

One extreme instance of assimilation in Quebec French is vocalic fusion, associated with informal speech, rapid elocution, and consonnant drops. Vocalic fusion can be total – as in prepositionnal determiners sur la, [sʏʀla] → [sʏa] → [saː] or dans la, [dãla] → [dãa] → [ãː] – or it can be partial, as in il lui a dit, [ɪllɥiɔʣi] → [iɥiɔʣi] → [ijɔʣi]. Partial fusion can happen also in slow elocution.

Morphology

Some affixes are found in Quebec more widely than in France, in particular the adjectival suffix -eux, which has a somewhat pejorative meaning: téter -> téteux (stubborn), niaiser -> niaiseux (foolish, irritating); obstiner -> ostineux (stubborn); pot -> poteux (a user or dealer of marijuana). This is from the Normand dialect.

Morphologic gender

Because the vowel in un and une (the indifinite article) tends to be weakened, both words will be pronounced the same in front of a vowel ([œ̃n] -> [ən] and [ʏn] -> [ən]). This creates the effect that nouns beginning with a vowel are perceived as feminine, and often used so. Hence: une hôpital, une grosse autobus, l'avion est belle.

Metonymies provide interesting evidence of this. For instance, although most adults would probably say that autobus is masculine if they were given reflection time, specific bus routes defined by their number are always feminine. The bus nr. 10 is known as l'autobus 10, or more often la 10. Using le 10 in this context, although normal in France, would be strikingly odd in Quebec.

Semantic number

On the other hand, many Quebecers in informal context will decide on the agreement with collective nouns based on semantics rather than morphology. That is to say, for instance, that a verb whose grammatical subject is le monde (people, folks) may appear in the 3rd person plural because le monde designates multiple people although it is singular: le monde là-dedans sont en train de chiâler (the people over there are complaining).

Non-sexist usage

Formal Quebec French also has a very different approach to non-sexist language than the French of France. There is a much greater tendency to generalize feminine markers among nouns referring to professions. This is done in order to avoid having to refer to a woman with a masculine noun, and thereby seeming to suggest that a particular profession is primarily masculine. Forms that would be seen as highly unusual or stridently feminist in France are commonplace in Quebec, such as la docteure, l'avocate, la professeure, la présidente, la première ministre, la gouverneure générale, and so forth. Many of these have been formally recommended by the Office québécois de la langue française and adopted by society at large. The French government has lately moved in the same direction for official usage (madame la ministre).

Also, rather than following the rule that the masculine includes the feminine, it is relatively common to create doublets, especially in polemical speech: Québécoises et Québécois, tous et toutes, citoyens et citoyennes.

As an isolated anecdot, a Quebec labour union once decided to promulgate an epicene neologism on the model of fidèle, calling itself the Fédération des professionèles, rather than use either professionnels (masculine only) or professionnels et professionnelles (masculine and feminine). This sparked a fair amount of debate and is rather on the outer edge of techniques for nonsexist writing in Quebec French.

Lexicon

Main article: Quebec French lexicon

There are a number of lexical differences between Quebec French and the French of France; these are distributed throughout the registers, from slang to formal usage.

Many differences that exist between Quebec French and European French arise from the preservation of certain forms that are today archaic in Europe. Obviously new words were also created for Quebec specialties that do not exist in Europe.

As with any two regional variants, there are an abundance of slang terms found in Quebec that are not found in France. Quebec French profanity uses references to Catholic liturgical equipment, rather than the references to prostitution that are more common in France. Many English words and "calques" have also been integrated in Quebec French.

Grammar and syntax

In general, standard spoken and written Quebec French uses the same grammar as the French of France, though there are isolated exceptions.

There are many differences in informal grammar: for instance, some words have a different gender than in standard French (une job rather than un job). This is partially systematic. For example, just as the difference in pronunciation between chien /Sje~/ (masc.) and chienne /SjEn/ (fem.) is the presence or absence of a final consonant, likewise ambiguous words ending in a consonant (such as job (/dZVb/)) are often assigned to the feminine. Also, vowel-initial words that in standard grammar are masculine, are sometimes patterned as feminine; since preceding masculine adjectives are homophonous to feminine adjectives (un bel avion; bel /bEl/ = belle fem.), the word is patterned as feminine (une belle avion).

Also, some expressions that take the subjunctive in standard French take the indicative in Quebec French, or vice versa (bien qu'il est trop tard rather than bien qu'il soit trop tard). This is mostly colloquial spoken usage, since written usage tends to follow the usage of France more closely.

Verbs

There are a few differences in verb structure. For the verb s'asseoir (to sit), the conjugation with oi is much more common in Quebec than ie or ey; je m'assois instead of je m'assieds, assoyez-vous instead of asseyez-vous. In the French of France, people favour oi in the three persons of the singular as well as in the 3rd person of the plural ("je m'assois", "ils s'assoient"), but ey is favoured in the 1st and 2nd persons of the plural ("nous nous asseyons" "vous vous asseyez"). In France, "nous nous assoyons" carries a feeling of "countryside" talking. Also, the verb haïr usually is conjugated as j'haïs /Za.i/ (the verb has two syllables) in Quebec rather than je hais /Z@ E/ (the verb has one syllable) in France.

In Quebec, it is common to say Fais-toi-z-en pas rather than (ne) t'en fais pas (don't worry, don't get upset).

In colloquial speech, the verb être is often omitted between je and un(e), with a t inserted: J't'un gars patient. A t is also often inserted after the second person singular: T'es-t-un gars patient.

In colloquial speech, the first person singular of aller is often vas instead of vais. This is also found in the countryside in France, especially in the northwest, where one could hear old people saying "J'vas traire les vaches" ("I'm on my way to milk the cows"), with the r pronounced as in Spanish. Furthermore, in Quebec je vais + verb (future) is often modified to m'as, as in M'as t'tuer, and is likely a contraction of j'm'en vas /Zmã vA;/

One remarkable phenomenon in Quebec French is the potential use of an infinitive phrase in some contexts to replace the si + imperfect hypothetical construct: si j'avais su, for example, becomes avoir su. Although no other dialect or chronolect of French seems to allow the use of non-embeddable hypothetic infinitives, other languages such as Italian have similar structures.

Particle tu

The particle tu is used in colloquially to ask a question whose answer can be either yes or no, or in the equivalent exclamative construction. It has exactly the same usage as France French est-ce que or Japanese か (ka).

• C'est-tu loin, ça ? "Is it far?"
• J'ai-tu l'air fatigué ? "Do I look tired?"
• Y'en a-tu d'autres ? "Are there any others?"
• Ça vous tente-tu vraiment d'y aller ? "Do you [formal or plural] really want to go?"
• Faut-tu être cave pas à peu près ! "How very stupid [that other person] is [to do such a thing]"

Although this construction strikingly ressembles a formal question asked in the 2nd person singular, there is no evidence that the particle tu came from the pronoun tu in the first place. It is actually more likely to come from the 3rd person pronoun il with an euphonic -t- as many near-extinct dialects of France show by using a particle ti in exactly the same way.

Prepositions

The preposition à is often used in possessive contexts, where the French of France uses de; le char à Pierre ("Pierre's car") instead of la voiture de Pierre. This is also found in the informal French of France, such as "Hier j'ai vu la copine à Bruno" ("Yesterday I saw Bruno's girlfriend").

In a number of cases, Quebec speakers prefer to use the preposition à instead of using a non-prepositional phrase with ce ("this"); for example à matin or à soir instead of ce matin and ce soir ("this morning" and "this evening"). Note also à cette heure, pronounced and sometimes spelt asteure or astheure (literally "at this time") for maintenant ("now"), which is also found in Queneau.

These usages of à are considered colloquial (non-written).

In colloquial speech, the combination of the preposition sur + definite article is often abbreviated: sur + le = su'l; sur + la = su'a or sà; sur + les = sès. Sometimes dans + un or dans + les is abbreviated to just dins. In the informal French of France, sur + le also becomes su'l, such as "L'dimanche, il est su'l pont dès 8 heures du mat'" ("On Sundays, he's hard at work since 8am".). Other contractions are not known.

Pronouns

In colloquial speech, a is used instead of elle: A m'énerve = Elle m'énerve. Also y or i is used instead of il, ils, or elles: Y sont fous. In the informal French of France, y also replaces il or ils, such as "Y m'ont tout piqué" ("They stole everything from me"), but elle and elles are replaced by è, such as "È m'a largué" ("She dumped me"). This particularity can also be found in French author Raymond Queneau.

It is common to say chez nous, chez vous and chez eux instead of chez moi, chez toi or chez lui/elle, even if the person in question lives alone.

Regional variations

Beauce

The Quebec Beauce is known to have a peculiar accent, with an especially important, distinctive Joual pronunciation.

Gaspé peninsula

Main article: Gaspésie French

The French heard in the Gaspé peninsula might be the most distinct of all Quebec French subdialects, where it is said that there is a different accent for each village. It holds some resemblance to the French of the Acadian people, the southern neighbour of the Gaspé. Notable bearers of Gaspésie accents are Kevin Parent and René Lévesque.

Quebec City and Montreal

Somewhat significant regional differences exist when comparing the French of the metropolis to that of Quebec's national capital. For example, Montreal French diphthongizes in more contexts than Quebec City French (in words like baleine, poteau or photo). This difference has become a humorous symbol of the traditional Quebec City–Montreal rivalry (it can also be an offensive one, if presented in the wrong context). It is, for example, prominently mocked in the opening number/manifesto of the Montreal-based political and activist humour group Les Zapartistes.

Trois-Rivières

Trois-Rivières and Mauricie French is, as it is geographically, in between of Montreal and Quebec City French, although it is closer to the Quebec City language on many aspects. A notable expression typical of the region is cossin, the equivalent of the American English gizmo. Also, another local trend is to call a bus la bus (with a francophone accent and the word put in feminine form rather than the conventional masculine), in opposition to the Montreal le bus (said with a francophone or anglophone accent).

Saguenay

Main article: Saguenay French

The Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, known as the most regionalist and nationalist of Quebec regions, speaks a French language that is the most different from Montreal French, after that of the Gaspésie. One notable expression of the region is T'es triste (You're sad), actually meaning You're unlucky or You're pathetic.

Outside Quebec

Most francophones of North America have similar dialects to Quebec French, except for the Acadians and the Cajuns who have dialects of their own, and the French who emigrated directly from France to the United States. See also Michif, a language that evolved out of the contact between the French and Cree languages.

See also

• Quebec French lexicon
• Quebec French profanity

Reference work

• Lionel Meney, Dictionnaire Québécois Français, ISBN 2-7601-5482-3 (Montreal, Guérin, 1999) : a comprehensive reference dictionary defining Québécois French usage for speakers of European French
• Léandre Bergeron, The Québécois Dictionary (Toronto, James Lorimer & Co, 1982)
• Le Dictionnaire Québécois instantané
• History of the French Language in Quebec
• History of French in Quebec (in French)
• Trésor de la langue française au Québec (in French)
• Grand dictionnaire terminologique (Office québécois de la langue française)
• The Alternative Québécois Dictionary

eo:Kebekia Franca Dialekto fr:Français québécois