On 2020-07-21 6:17 a.m., xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> In theory....
> They both speak French like Aussies and Scots speak English.
> The claim here is continental french has mutated and Quebec french stayed
> closer to 1700s french.
> Je ne sais pas rien!
That claim is false. It is just they evolved differently, because it's a
living language. With different accents, different lexicons.
Not according to several people that are Quebec Francophones and quite educated I know. If I bring the subject up to understand it better, they get quite animated about the view that continental French is anywhere near as similar to its historical antecedents compared to Quebec french.
A person from Quebec will have less trouble understanding a French
person, than the otherway, because they are more exposed to "European
French" than French people are exposed to Quebecois French.[1][4]
This I could believe.
I had a friend who was trying to buy snowboarding gloves in South of France (lost his) and he spoke only a smattering of French. He was asking for 'les gants' I believe and nobody at the sports store seemed to know what he was talking about.
This applies to other languages too:
Ask an American whether they drive a lowry or a saloon, and if they have
spare trousers in their boot in case they spill something.
Lorry. Wellys. Toad in the hole. Cornish Pasties. Kippers.
(And let's just pretend the Cockneys and Manx never get mentioned....lol)
But terminology is only a part of the issue of comprehension. Regionalisms if they are limited in number or that can be inferred from context aren't so bad. It's when language structure is different or they use a LOT more words that aren't common between speaker and listener and where meaning isn't easily inferred. Then again, there's accents that also make it hard to understand even common shared words... my Scots cousin talks fast, quiet and that's hard to pickup. And when I hear some East Indian folk speak, their pacing and cadence is such I have to get them to slow it down and speak clearly. I understand why they go quick (the languages tend to have many long words and to say something I might take 10 seconds to get out, might take them 20 if they go at my pace... so they move faster.... but that makes the accent and cadence more confusing because the pacing is also faster).
Also here in Canada we find that colour is mispelled by our neighbours
but we'd need to wrap our head around the question above as well.[2]
Yes, but most of us outside perhaps of Quebec or the far North live near to the US border (within 100 km) and get a fair bit of US TV and culture as a result. That tends to give us some idea.
You get some odd looks when you are down south and say "easy" is not spelled "ee-zed". "Zed?".... "Oh, yes, you folk would say 'zee'...".
And up here, a coke is a coke, not a pepsi or some other soda/pop.
What's even odder, if you've looked in a Canadian dictionary, is that our spellings are neither British nor American - they are a mix betwixt both. That's why I constantly am frustrated by word processors that only offer US English or UK English. Canadian English is distinct as it borrows from both.
Funnily in Traveller everyone seems to speak the same Galanglic. Unless
there is the hand-waived universal translator.
They all read "Standard Galanglic: Dictionary, Grammar, and Approved Usage" (Imperial Document ID 1977-9946-BX3335.0914-Z) by Imperial Linguistic Standards Bureau.
Vilani get all uncomfortable when you display non-standard usage. They start to get facial tics.
Hub
[1] English is my second language. Born and raised in France, living in
Canada for quite a while.
I'm born here and my smattering of French is slightly more comprehensive than my smattering of Latin, Scottish Gaelic, broad Scots, Russian and Spanish.
I make up for it by being fluent in at least 8-10 computer languages.
[2] as an oversimplication, Canadian English is the Queen's English
spelling and the American lexicon.[3]
That's an oversimplification. Our spelling is not 100% QE and our lexicon includes a bunch of things that the Americans I know have to ask about.
I think it'd be closer to say that Canadian English is sort of like the step-child of revolting colonists and the British monarchy.... messy, vaguely incestuous, and not talked about in polite society. ;)
[3] This is really oversimplifying. It is not that dry cut.
Totally agree. I love that once and a while, I can find a Canadian Dictionary for a world processor. Google I have a bone to pick with... really? None? Thanks Alphabet!
[4] French is also spoken on Ontario (Franco-Ontarians) and in the
maritimes (Acadians, New Brunswick) with their own take.
Acadians are a very distinct society and language is only part of it. So are the folks up the Gaspe. Or the Southern Manitoba French.
And Ottawa Valley French is an offense to my ears. I was taught Parisien french (by a Scot and an Italian... *lol*). My daughter says 'bleu' like 'blur' - for some reason it gains an r sound. I blame some of the relatives in Cornwall...
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