Canadian English

LING 202, Fall 2007

Dr. Tony Pi

Week 5 - Dialects: Québec English

English in Eastern Townships“The Eastern Townships is one of the few regions of Quebec where the first European settlers were not from France. Starting in the 1780s, successive waves of settlers included first Loyalists, then New Englanders looking for good land, and finally Irish, Scottish and English immigrants. In 1861, the Eastern Townships population was 58% English speaking—almost 90,000 people, more than in any other region of Quebec , including Montreal (Rudin, 1985).”

Montreal

Anglophones in Quebec City

• Treaty of Paris (1763)– France cedes territories including Montreal and

Quebec to England following French and Indian War– France did not send enough colonists to North

America• “It sufficed that one of the two countries competing for a vast

continent sent a few thousand settlers each year, while the other sent a few hundred, and the course of history was radically changed. This is both tragic and symbolic, since, just when the French language had reached international predominance in Europe, through its great demographic superiority, it was sealing its fate in the world at large because a few boats more, filled with illiterates, left England every year.” Alfred Sauvy

Quebec City

• Loyalists (1776-1793)

• English and Scots in Lower Canada (1815-1850)

• Irish immigrants (Potato Famine 1845-57)

• main port of entry into Canada, and province’s main commercial centre and administrative capital of the time

• English-speakers once 1/3 of Quebec City region

Montreal Gains Prominence

– 1857• Changing economic activities

– deepening of St. Lawrence River to Montreal– construction of a rail depot

• Changing political activities– British governors establishing federal government in Ottawa– imperial garrisons withdrawn from Quebec City

– Quebec City in latter part of 19th century• economic stagnation• focuses on provincial and ecclesiastical establishments

– consequently less attractive to English-speaking population– Montreal population grew while QC growth dropped sharply– Anglophones abandoned QC to seek work elsewhere– 1900: 15%; 2000: 2% of total population in QC

Couch, Chesterfield, Sofa in QC

• Figure 1 (p. 164) - Golden Horseshoe– chesterfield once had high currency

• Figure 2 (p. 165) - Quebec City– chesterfield did not have as high a currency in

the past as in GH.– sofa showed much higher usage in QC

• highest use for ages 60-69 and 50-59

– couch on rise like elsewhere in Canada, but at a slower rate due to use of sofa

Guarantee in QC

• Figure 3 (p. 166) - Golden Horseshoe– almost all prefer ‘care’ (B) (neutralized variant)– (H): ‘cat’ (British variant)– (G): ‘car’ (rustic)

• Figure 4 (p. 167) - Quebec City– (G): ‘car’ - favoured by older speakers– (H): ‘cat’ - British variant competing with the

neutralized pronunciation that rhymes with ‘care’• prediction: eventually will be replaced by ‘care’

Pop and Soft Drink

• by regionality– indigenes: prefer ‘soft drink’– interlopers: prefer ‘pop’

• Quebec French term:– boisson gazeuze ‘carbonated drink’– liqueur douce ‘soft liqueur’

• but some in midwestern US also prefer ‘soft drink’

Identifying Quebec English (QE)

• Quebec news - local features1. province-specific English expressions

2. straight insertions of French expressions into English

3. adaptations of French items into the flow of English in a typical English way

• Example– Hydro-Quebec, never Quebec Hydro– What are some other examples for each type of

usage?

Adaptations of French

• Different stages of adaptation– directly imported

• francisation– italics– quotation marks

– anglicized• francization

– without italics or quotation marks– English spelling and pronunciation adopted

» e.g., caisse of misfortune

– ‘collision’• words that are interchangeable between English and French• distinct loans from French: para-public/parapublique

SPEAQ Questionnaire

– La Société pour la promotion de l’enseignement de l’anglais, langue second, au Québec (Society for the Promotion of TESL in Quebec)

• CATEGORIES– 0: Universally accepted expressions– 1: Locally accepted expressions– 2: Locally dubious expressions– 3: Locally ambiguous expressions

• Results summarized on p. 128. Discuss.