Varieties of French

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"French accent" redirects here. For the pronunciation of English by French speakers, see Non-native pronunciations of English § French.
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French language
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Dialects of the French language in the world

Lebanese French or Levantine French. Levantine French was also spoken by Sephardic Jews in Salonica, Istanbul and Smyrna, by Armenians and Greek bourgeois in the urban centres of Asia Minor, by Syrian Catholics and Melkites in Aleppo and Beirut.[1]

Note that the discussion here refers to varieties of the French language, not to the

Francoprovençal, Occitan and languages of France). See also French-based creole languages
, which are also considered separate languages.

Africa

Main articles:
Maghreb French

French is an administrative language and is commonly but unofficially used in the

alveolar trill
and use of borrowed words from local languages. Many dialects of French found in the continent of Africa are highly influenced by the native languages that are spoken in each respective country. Two examples of the various dialects of African French are Abidjan French, or more broadly Ivorian French, and Kinshasa French.

Abidjan/Ivorian French

While various indigenous African languages are still spoken within the city of Abidjan, as well as within the entire country of the Ivory Coast, French is used by a significant amount of the population as it is the main language used in commerce, education, and government.[3] Abidjan French, or Ivorian French, is linguistically distinct from a "standard" French through its unique phonetic and phonological differences, lexical substitutions, and grammatical borrowings.[3] Many of these linguistic differences are influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the various native African languages spoken in the Ivory Coast. Concerning the phonetics and phonology of Ivorian French, it is not uncommon for the nasal [ɑ̃] phoneme to be produced as [ɑ], specifically at the start of a word while the palato-alveolar fricatives [ʒ] and [ʃ] often possess a degree of difficulty in their pronunciation.[3] An abundance of words from regional African languages are utilized as loanwords in Ivorian French and some meanings of French words have changed over time (ex. the term commerce which in French relates to the domain of "trade, business", in Ivorian French has evolved into meaning a large "shopping street" with many stores where "trade occurs".[3] Additionally, differences in grammar are seen in Abidjan French, as compared to a more traditional French, such as the omission of articles and prepositions in some linguistic contexts.[3]

Kinshasa French

Kinshasa French is the main language used in government and commerce domains in the Democratic Republic of Congo, however this French is highly influenced by the four national languages (Lingala, Swahili, Kikongo, and Tshiluba) that are spoken much more frequently and casually.[4] Many elements of Kinshasa French are also influenced from Belgian French, for reasons relating back to colonial times. The French spoken in Kinshasa varies from a "standard" French in many ways; including the posteriorization of the French anterior vowel [ɥ] (converting it to the phoneme [u]), the delabialization of the phoneme [ɥ] (which becomes [i]), as well as the palatalization of apico-dental consonants that are followed by the anterior vowels [i] and [ɥ] (ex. a French word such as dix [dis] is pronounced as [dzis]).[4]

Canada

Main article: Canadian French

Acadian

Main article: Acadian French

Acadian French is a variant of French spoken by Francophone

Metropolitan French
and even of other Canadian dialects have some difficulty understanding Acadian French.

Notable features include /k/ and /tj/ becoming [t͡ʃ] and /ɡ/ and /dj/ becoming [d͡ʒ] before front vowels and the use of some archaic words.

Chiac

Main article: Chiac

Chiac is a dialect of combined Acadian French and English and is spoken mainly around

Metropolitan French
but are nonetheless derived primarily from earlier dialects of French with little contribution from other source languages.

Newfoundland

Main article: Newfoundland French

Newfoundland French is a regional dialect of French that was once spoken by settlers in the French colony of Newfoundland.

Quebec

Main article: Quebec French

Quebec French is the dominant and most prevalent regional variety of French found in Canada. Although Quebec French constitutes a coherent and standard system, it has no objective norm since the very organization mandated to establish it, the Office québécois de la langue française, believes that objectively standardizing Quebec French would lead to reduced inter intelligibility with other French communities around the world.[citation needed]

Ontario

Main article:
Ontario French

Ontario French is often divided into two categories: North and South. The further north the more French is spoken and the closer the dialect and culture is to Quebec French. Further south, the French is closer to the global standard, with a more English cultural influence as well as a more Parisian grammar and dialect structure. Both Parisian and Canadian French are taught in the French immersion schools.

Notable features include [ɪ], [ʏ], and [ʊ] as allophones of /i/, /y/, and /u/ in closed syllables and affrication of /t/ and /d/ to [t͡s] and [d͡z] before /i/ and /y/ (the word tu is pronounced [t͡sy]).

Long vowels are generally diphthongized in closed syllables (the word fête is pronounced [faɛ̯t]).

United States

Main article: French language in the United States

Several varieties of French emerged in the United States: Louisiana French, New England French and the nearly-extinct Frenchville French, Missouri French, Muskrat French and Métis French.

Louisiana

Main article: Louisiana French

Louisiana French, the largest of the groupings, is spoken mostly in

Louisiana Creole French.[5][6] Colonial French was originally the dialect spoken by the land-holding educated classes. Acadian, the dialect of the Acadians who came to French Louisiana in droves following their expulsion from Acadia during the French and Indian War, was spoken largely by the white lower classes. Louisiana Creole, a creole that developed long before Haitian immigrants arrived in Louisiana, largely developed as the tongue of the Louisiana Creole community and a significant portion of self-identified Cajuns. However, linguists now believe that the Colonial and Acadian dialects have largely merged into modern Louisiana French but remain distinct from Louisiana Creole.[6]

French has gained co-official status with English in Louisiana, and there is both a thriving multi-generational base of speakers as well as a growing network of French immersion schools across the state in order to preserve the language. Louisiana also has a French-language society called CODOFIL (Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane) and cultural institutions dedicated to preserving French such as the Nous Foundation.

Missouri

Main article: Missouri French

Missouri French is now spoken by a handful of people in the Midwestern United States, primarily in Missouri. It is the last remnant of the form of French once spoken widely in the region known as the Illinois Country, which was colonized as part of French Louisiana. It is considered very moribund, with only a few elderly speakers still fluent.[5]

New England

Main articles: New England French and Acadian French

New England French is the local name for Canadian French as it is spoken in New England,[7] except in the Saint John Valley of northern Aroostook County, Maine, where Acadian French predominates.

Caribbean

Haiti

Main article: Haitian French

Haitian French is the variety of French spoken in Haiti.[8] The main difference between Haitian French and the Metropolitan French is in the Haitian speaker's intonation, a rather subtle creole-based tone being used.[8] Importantly, differences are not enough to cause problems between both speakers.[8]

Asia

Cambodian

Main article: French language in Cambodia

Cambodian French is the French of

Teochew and Cantonese
.

Cambodian French is still used as a second language in some schools, universities and government offices, but most of the younger generations and members of the business world choose to learn English. Otherwise, its speakers are generally elderly. Since the 1990s, there has been a small revival of French in Cambodia with French-language schools and centres opening. Many Cambodian students travel to France to receive studies as well as French-language media.[9] Nevertheless, Cambodia has the smallest Francophone population of former French Indochina.

Indian French

Main article:
Indian French

Indian French is the French spoken by some

Pondichéry, Chandannagar, Karaikal, Mahé and Yanam. There is a considerable influence from Dravidian languages like Tamil (Puducherry Tamil dialect), Telugu (Yanam Telugu dialect) and Malayalam
(Mahé Malayalam dialect).

Lao

Main article: French language in Laos

Lao

Indochina despite a decline in the language after the country's independence and the communist takeover. A revival has now raised the number of students learning French to 35%.[9]
In addition, the Laotian élite and the elderly population speak French, which is the diplomatic language of Laos.

Vietnamese

Main article: French language in Vietnam

Vietnamese French is spoken in

Tây Bồi, was spoken by Vietnamese servants in French households during the colonial era. Since the end of the Vietnam War
in 1975, the number of French-speakers in Vietnam and the number of students taking the language have declined, but French remains taught as an optional foreign language in higher education.

Europe

Aostan

Main article: Aostan French

Aostan French (French: français valdôtain) is the variety of French spoken in the Aosta Valley of Italy, where there is a significant trilingual Francophone population. Some expressions, words and phrases are different from Standard French, some of them are similar to Swiss French and some reflect the influence of Piedmontese language or Italian. Both French and Italian overlay the indigenous local language continuum of Aosta Valley, called Valdôtain (locally, patois), which is Franco-Provençal in type.

Belgian

Main article: Belgian French

Belgian French (French: français de Belgique) is the variety of

Champenois and Gaumais
. Notable features include a strong distinction between long and short vowels, the lack of the approximant /ɥ/, and the use of certain Belgicisms.

Jersey Legal

Main article: Jersey Legal French

Jersey Legal French is the official dialect of French used administratively in Jersey. Notable features include some archaic word choices and the words septante and nonante for "seventy" and "ninety" respectively.

Jewish French

Zarphatic
.

Meridional

Main article: Meridional French

Meridional French (French: français méridional) is the regional variant of the French spoken in Occitania. It is strongly influenced by Occitan.

Swiss

Main article: Swiss French

Swiss French (French: français de Suisse, Suisse romand) is the variety of French spoken in the French-speaking area of Switzerland known as Romandy. The differences between Swiss French and Parisian French are minor and mostly lexical.

See also

References

  1. S2CID 150123855
    .
  2. ISBN 978-2-09-882177-4.[page needed
    ]
  3. ^
    S2CID 249701668
    .
  4. ^
    ProQuest 2060963904
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-89925-356-3
    . Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  6. ^ a b "What is Cajun French?". Department of French Studies, Louisiana State University. Archived from the original on September 14, 2010. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  7. ISBN 0-89925-356-3
    . Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  8. ^ a b c "Haiti French Vs. Paris French". Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  9. ^ a b c La Francophonie in Asia, France-Diplomatie, 2005, retrieved 2010-10-14
  10. ^ a b "Jewish French". Jewish Languages. Retrieved 2024-02-05.

External links

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