***The Accent Thread*** - ALL accent/speech/vowel/language posts go here! [MERGED] (land, household)
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With respect to the conversation yes you do hear stuff like that but mostly when you are in mixed company between francophones and anglophones. Francophones just amongst themselves almost never talk like that - at least not in Quebec. Anglophones when just amongst themselves don't talk like that either.
At most, in Quebec anglophones may pepper their English with the odd French word on even a short expression, but it's very sporadic.
I do have some Quebecer friends where the couple is mixed (one anglophone and one francophone) and their conversations sound a bit like that. And when we're with them it's the same, and often it's even the francophone speaking in English and the anglophone speaking in French.
But with friends who are from wholly francophone families the conversation is always entirely in French.
Yeah I noticed that too. "char" I don' think is an anglicism eiher.
It's the old French word for "cart" or "chariot" that has survived through the centuries in Quebec as a colloquialism for "car".
In fact, the English word "car" originally comes from the French word "char". They can blame William the Conqueror for that, and for two thirds of the words in English.
I'd say the girl and the guy who self-described as ***** (wearing pink) were much more typical of Moncton and SE NB accents and speech and the guy with gray tuque, whose last name I think was Robichaud.
That guy had very little in his accent that would identify him as being Acadian or from on NB or even the Maritimes.
He had a quite standard "Canadian francophone" accent, inasmuch as something like that exists.
If you just heard him speak without referencing a location most people probably wouldn't be able to identify where he's from.
Yeah, I assumed Robichaud was a transplant to Moncton and just focused on the girl. But strangely, Wikipedia tells me he grew up in Moncton?! How did he come by that accent? He did live in Ottawa and Montreal for a few years as an adult, but that's very unlikely to cause a profound change (and certainly hasn't in the accents of other Acadian artists who've done the same).
I expected the girl from Moncton to roll her Rs, at least in some positions in the word, since I was under the impression her generation still did. Like this example here:
So who even knows what on Earth is going on with that generation's accent in Moncton.
The artist wearing pink is from Shediac, which seems to still be firmly rolled R territory even for people much younger than him. But I expect that might start changing in the next several years, since the whole housing prices situation seems to be attracting lots of people from outside the province to Moncton, squeezing lots of NBers out of the Moncton housing market and causing them to look to surrounding places like Shediac instead. This of course leads to increased anglicization of SE NB, but probably also to changes to the accent, if enough young non-R-rolling franco Monctonians or northern transplants set up house there.
Yeah, I assumed Robichaud was a transplant to Moncton and just focused on the girl. But strangely, Wikipedia tells me he grew up in Moncton?! How did he come by that accent? He did live in Ottawa and Montreal for a few years as an adult, but that's very unlikely to cause a profound change (and certainly hasn't in the accents of other Acadian artists who've done the same).
I expected the girl from Moncton to roll her Rs, at least in some positions in the word, since I was under the impression her generation still did. Like this example here:
So who even knows what on Earth is going on with that generation's accent in Moncton.
The artist wearing pink is from Shediac, which seems to still be firmly rolled R territory even for people much younger than him. But I expect that might start changing in the next several years, since the whole housing prices situation seems to be attracting lots of people from outside the province to Moncton, squeezing lots of NBers out of the Moncton housing market and causing them to look to surrounding places like Shediac instead. This of course leads to increased anglicization of SE NB, but probably also to changes to the accent, if enough young non-R-rolling franco Monctonians or northern transplants set up house there.
Those two new videos show slightly different accents, though both are still much more classic SE NB Acadian than Robichaud's.
I don't think it's generational. It's more situational or occupational. I will explain.
I find that in minority francophone communities there is far more variability in level of French and accent (in both French and English) from person to person than in a French-dominant environment such as Quebec.
The reason for that is that in a French-dominant environment such as Quebec, or say, Caraquet-Tracadie, whether you're a schoolteacher or a municipal employee or working for a delivery service, you're speaking in French almost the entire day. Usually only French.
Whereas if you live in Ottawa or Winnipeg, the amount of French you use every day can vary enormously depending on whether you're a schoolteacher at École Gabrielle-Roy or a dispatcher for Joe's Delivery Service.
That makes a lot of sense. I do think there might also be a generational factor, in that most francophone communities outside Quebec and NB (and some in NB, too) are seeing a steady increase of anglophone (or English-preferring francophone) people living in them, so I'd assume that, on the whole, each successive generation in those communities would spend a bit more of their day speaking English than the last. Though that increase is not moving at the same pace in all those communities, of course.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Getting back to the boys in the band, given their involvement in the francophone artistic milieu, they're probably spending way more time every day speaking French than their cousins or siblings living in an anglo-dominated milieu who work at Joe's Delivery Service.
It was not necessarily the same for all of the band members (since in Montreal you can tailor your experience to be mostly franco, mostly anglo, or anything in between), but the one who left the band and subsequently moved back to NS said that in Montreal he spoke more in English than he ever did back home.
Those two new videos show slightly different accents, though both are still much more classic SE NB Acadian than Robichaud's.
Yeah, they're both recognizably SE NB, as is the girl from the previous video, it's just that I'd expect people of the same age who spent their whole lives in the same small city, or even the same small area (Dieppe) of the same small city, to sound much more uniform across the board. The diversity is quite unusual.
Robichaud, on the other hand, if he really spent his whole childhood in Moncton, is a total mystery.
That makes a lot of sense. I do think there might also be a generational factor, in that most francophone communities outside Quebec and NB (and some in NB, too) are seeing a steady increase of anglophone (or English-preferring francophone) people living in them, so I'd assume that, on the whole, each successive generation in those communities would spend a bit more of their day speaking English than the last. Though that increase is not moving at the same pace in all those communities, of course.
It was not necessarily the same for all of the band members (since in Montreal you can tailor your experience to be mostly franco, mostly anglo, or anything in between), but the one who left the band and subsequently moved back to NS said that in Montreal he spoke more in English than he ever did back home.
If you're talking about Jacobus, as I had heard it sounds like he landed in Hawkesbury, Ontario, midway between Montreal and Ottawa. Which is sort of an odd choice for someone involved in the music industry, unless you're originally from there. And he obviously isn't.
They can blame William the Conqueror for that, and for two thirds of the words in English.
a fact that still to this day annoys some old school Anglophones
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