Section: French

English Words in French

By Nadeau&Barlow | May 17, 2012

**Excerpt taken from the book The Story of French (Ch.17)**

The main reason that English words are not a threat is that most are either fully integrated into French or swiftly abandoned. According to linguist Françoise Gadet, most borrowings from English are either Frenchified within a decade or fall into disuse. In 1964 French linguist Rene Étiemble wrote a scathing pamphlet called Parlez-vous franglais? (Do You Speak Frenglish?), meant to warn his compatriots against the growing number of English words seeping into their language. Twenty years later, hundreds of the English words he used as examples had already gone out of style and were no longer being used (he subsequently argued that this was the effect of his book). Read more »

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Maclean’s Magazine Quotes Jean-Benoît Nadeau on the French Language and Immigrants in Quebec

By Nadeau&Barlow | October 3, 2011

Jean-Benoît Nadeau, co-author of The Story of French is quoted in Maclean’s recent article by Martin Patriquin: Will immigrants save the French language, or hasten its demise? For Jean-Benoît, the issue is not the influx of immigrants into Quebec, but rather Quebec’s limiting definition of the term “francophone.” Read the article

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You Don’t Have to Speak French at Home to Be a Francophone

By Nadeau&Barlow | September 28, 2011

Photo: Veronica Louis

L’office québecois de la langue française’s (Quebec Office of the French Language) just published a report that shows the French language is losing ground in Montreal. French language defenders understandably went up in arms about this.

But appearances can be deceptive. What the study shows is that the proportion of Montrealers who speak French at home is declining. In other words, the report is counting native French speakers, not francophones.

Let us explain. You don’t have to be a French Canadian, and you don’t have to speak French at home to be a francophone. All you have to do is speak French. Period. Read more »

Also posted in French / Americas, Various | 3 Comments

The Story of French: Q & A With Julie Barlow (Part 2)

By Nadeau&Barlow | July 21, 2011

What do you admire about French as a language?

Julie: After writing The Story of French, what I admire most about French is the resilience of French-speakers. We visited 15 French-speaking countries during our research, as well as Louisiana, and we discovered that francophones everywhere are amazingly united in their determination to preserve and spread their language. The French today don’t sound too enthusiastic about their language on the international stage, but trust us, behind the scenes, they are still working hard to promote their language in the world. Read more »

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Drowning in English

By Nadeau&Barlow | June 22, 2011

Jean-Benoit recently attended a conference of the association, Francophonie des Amériques where he heard University of Laval professor Michelle Daveluy speak about her adventures aboard the Canadian Marine’s frigates NCSM Ville de Québec and HMCS Vancouver. Daveluy, a communications ethnologist, spent several weeks at sea with the Canadian marines researching how communication happens in a bilingual military environment. Read more »

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One Million Words ~ Is Quebec French a “Dialect?”

By Nadeau&Barlow | June 2, 2011

Written by Julie Barlow

The American Association of Teachers of French is holding its Annual Conference in Montreal this summer on July 7th, 2011. A member of the AATF recently wrote to us asking if the French spoken in Quebec is really a “dialect” as he had heard from a colleague.

The answer is no. But let’s back up a bit.

What is generally described as a Quebec dialect is a Quebec slang called joual. It is one among many local registers of the language. It is therefore extremely derogatory – or ill-advised– to reduce Quebec French to its slang, just as much as it would be derogatory to reduce American English to its slang, or French from France to argot. Read more »

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Martin Léon

By Julie Barlow | February 12, 2011

If you’re a Quebecker, you’ll probably recognize the background music playing on our speaking page. It’s Quebec singer-songwriter Martin Léon’s song “C’est ça qui est ça”. (And YES, we paid for the right to use it.)

If you’re not a Quebecker, Martin Léon is big star on the Quebec music scene. He’s still pretty young so he’s bound to become an even bigger star, maybe even what you call a monument in Quebec. Other Quebec musicians are starting to record his music, so that’s a good sign. Read more »

Also posted in French / Linguistics, French / Quebec, Various | Leave a comment