Chiac (or ''Chiak'', ''Chi’aq''), is a patois of Acadian French spoken mostly in southeastern

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Chiac is frequently characterized and distinguished from other forms of Acadian French by its borrowings from English and is thus often mistakenly considered a form of Franglais. The word "Chiac" can also sometimes be used to refer to ethnic

Acadians The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French colonial empire, French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern Americ ...

of rural southeastern New Brunswick, who are not considered

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

historically and ethnically because of their separate and distinctive history. They are considered ethnically as "Chiac-Acadian" or simply "Chiac".

Characteristics

As a major modern variety of Acadian-French, Chiac shares most phonological particularities of the dialect. However, Chiac contains far more English loanwords compared to other Canadian French dialects. Many of its words also have roots in the Eastern Algonquian languages, most notably Mi'kmaq. Loanwords generally follow French conjugation patterns; "Ej j'va aller watcher un movie" uses the English-derived loanword "watch" as if it were an "-er" verb. The most common loans are basic lexical features (nouns, adjectives, verb stems), but a few conjunctions and adverbs are borrowed from English ("but, so, anyway").

History

Chiac originated in the community of specific ethnic Acadians, known as "Chiacs, Chiaks or Chi'aq", living on the southeast coast of New Brunswick, specifically near the Shediac Bay area. While some believe that Chiac dates back as far as the 17th or the 18th centuries, others believe it developed in the 20th century, in reaction to the dominance of English-language media in Canada, the lack of French-language primary and secondary education, the increased urbanization of Moncton, and contact with the dominant Anglophone community in the area. The origin of the word "Chiac" is not known; some speculate that it is an alteration of " Shediac" or "Es-ed-ei-ik".

Geographic distribution

Chiac is mostly spoken by native speakers of Acadian French in the southeastern region of New Brunswick. Its speakers are primarily located in the Westmorland County of southeastern New Brunswick and further north along the coast in adjacent Kent County. Further north along the coast, Acadian French resembling

Quebec French Quebec French ( ), also known as Québécois French, is the predominant variety (linguistics), variety of the French language spoken in Canada. It is the dominant language of the province of Quebec, used in everyday communication, in education, ...

is more common as the border with

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

is approached. To the immediate east, west, and south, fully bilingual speakers of French and English are found, and the regions beyond typically have unilingual Anglophones.

In culture

Acadian writers, poets, and musicians such as Lisa LeBlanc, Radio Radio, Fayo, Cayouche, Les Hay Babies, 1755, Antonine Maillet and many others have produced works in Chiac. Chiac is also featured in Acadieman, a comedy about "The world's first Acadian Superhero" by Dano Leblanc.

References

External links

The Chiac verb particle construction
– A linguistics paper (beginning on page 56 of the pdf document) examining certain features of Chiac grammar.
Sang Mêlé
{{Acadia French language Acadian French Canadian French Acadian culture Acadia