Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/04

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Subject: [Leica] French Canadian French
From: Marc James Small <msmall@infionline.net>
Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 21:38:16 -0400
References: <BCEKKGNGDPMOIPMEJONBOEJOCKAA.phong@doan-ltd.com>

At 08:07 AM 9/4/03 -0700, Jack McLain wrote:
>I also spend a lot of time in Montreal and Quebec.  They tell me that their
>dialect of french is actually a very old version, Arcadian in origin
>(16th/17th century) and has diverged from the european significantly since
>===========================

I believe that modern linguistic historians, even Gallic ones, admit that
Quebec French (sorry, I am too damned tired to dig out the appropriate
symbols from my Character Map to spell Quebecois properly!  And I have yet
to go look at Mars this evening!) is closer to late 17th/early 18th century
Mainstream French than is Modern Mainstream French, just as US English is
closer to what the British spoke in 1725 than is modern British English.
Small, isolated communities are more conservative than are mainstream
communities.

And, of course, it is wonderful to hear and read French where "roi" is not
a curse-word!

Marc

msmall@infionline.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!

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