Acadian French


Acadian French is a variety of French originally associated with the Acadians of what is now the Maritimes in Canada. It is spoken by the Acadian Francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities on the Gaspé Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands of Quebec as well as in pockets of Francophones in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the United States, it is spoken in the Saint John Valley of northern Aroostook County, Maine. Besides standard French, New England French is the predominant form of French spoken elsewhere in Maine.

Phonology

Since there was relatively little linguistic contact with France from the late 18th century to the 20th century, Acadian French retained features that died out during the French standardization efforts of the 19th century such as these:
According to Wiesmath, some characteristics of Acadian are:
These features typically occur in older speech.
Many aspects of Acadian French are still common in rural areas in the South West of France. Speakers of Metropolitan French and even of other Canadian varieties of French sometimes have difficulty understanding Acadian French. Within North America, its closest relative is the Cajun French spoken in Southern Louisiana since both were born out of the same population that were affected during the Expulsion of the Acadians.
See also Chiac, a variety with strong English influence, and St. Marys Bay French, a distinct variety of Acadian French spoken around Clare, Tusket, Nova Scotia and also Moncton, New Brunswick.

Affrication

is quite common. For example, mercredi is mercordi, and pauvreté is pauveurté. Je is frequently pronounced euj and Le is frequently pronounced eul.
In words, "re" is often pronounced "er". For instance :
Yves Cormier's Dictionnaire du français acadien includes the majority of Acadian regionalisms. From a syntactic point of view, a major feature is the use of je both for the first person singular and for the third plural; the same phenomenon takes place with i for the third persons. Acadian still differentiates the vous form from the tu form.

Numerals

The following words and expressions are most commonly restricted to Acadian French, though some are also used in Quebec French or Joual.