St. Marys Bay French
| St. Marys Bay French | |
|---|---|
| Region | Clare, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Ethnicity | Acadians |
| |
Early forms | |
French alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| IETF | fr-u-sd-cans |
 In this map of Acadian French, Clare is on the west of Nova Scotia. | |
St. Marys Bay French (
Situation
The speakers of St. Marys Bay French live mostly in Digby County, Nova Scotia, in the villages of Church Point, Comeauville, Corberie, Grosses Coques, Meteghan, St-Bernard, Rivière du Saumon, and Saulnierville.[3] French has been spoken by a minority in this region for some time; in 1941, the number of Acadian French speakers in Digby County numbered 9,560, out of a total of 19,472 residents.[4] By the mid 1970s, the number of residents of Digby County reporting their mother tongue as French was 7,730, or 38% of the population.[5]
Comparison with other varieties of French
The phonemic inventory of Baie Sainte-Marie French is similar to the varieties of Acadian French spoken in Yarmouth County, to the south.[6] However, it has idiosyncratic vowel phonemes, for example /i e o u y œ/ have various diphthongised realisations, as do several nasal vowel phonemes.[7]
| Parisian French | Saint Mary's Bay | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoneme(s) | Example | Phoneme(s) | Example | |
| /ʒ/ | jamais [ʒaˈmɛ] | /x~h/[8] | jama's [xaˈmɑ], [haˈmɛ] | never |
| /ɛj/ | soleil /sɔlɛj/ | /ɑj/ | soleil /sɔˈlɑj/ | sun |
| /ɛʁ/ | terre /tɛʁ/ | /ɑɾ/ | tarre /tɑɾ/ | land |
| /ɛ̃/ | main [mɛ̃] | /ɔn/[9] | main [mɔn] | hand |
| /tʲ/ | tien /tʲɛ̃/ | /tɕ/ | tien /tɕɔn/ | yours |
| /ʃʲ/ | chien /ʃʲɛ̃/ | /ɕ/ | chien /ɕɔn/ | dog |
| /ɑ̃/ | temps [tɑ̃] | /æ̃õ/[10] | teaon [tæ̃õ] | time |
A number of these correspondences are common outside of St. Marys Bay French and even Acadian French. A similar pronunciation of 'jamais' in part of
]In popular culture
Grand Dérangement's song "L'homme à point d'accent" (from the album Dérangé) is sung in St. Marys Bay French.
Notes
References
- Garner, John Elbert (1952), A descriptive study of the phonology of Acadian French, Austin: University of Texas
- Massignon, Geneviève (1962), Les parlers français d'Acadie: enquête linguistique, Université de Paris
- Ryan, Robert W. (1981), Une analyse phonologique d'un parler acadien de la Nouvelle-Écosse (Canada), Centre international de recherche sur le bilinguisme, ISBN 2-89219-101-7