Chiac | |
---|---|
Native to | Canada |
Region | Acadian communities throughout the Maritime provinces, mainly in coastal southeastern New-Brunswick |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | None |
Linguasphere | 51-AAA-am |
Chiac (or Chiak), is a variety of Acadian French spoken mostly in southeastern New Brunswick.[1][2] Chiac is often characterized and distinguished from other forms of French by its borrowings from English. The word "Chiac" (or "Chiacque" for women) can also sometimes be used to describe an Acadian of rural southeastern New Brunswick.
History
Chiac originated in the community of ethnic Acadians living on the rural southeast coast of New Brunswick. While some believe that Chiac dates back as far as the 17th or 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".
Example sentences
- As-tu vu le crab qui crawlait su la beach de soir? (Did you see the crab that was crawling on the beach this evening?)
- "Ej vas tanker mon truck de soir pis ej va le driver. Ça va être right d'la fun." (I am going to go put gas in my truck and drive it tonight. It's going to be so much fun.)
- "Espère-moi su'l'corner, j'traverse le ch'min pi j'viens right back."[3] (Wait for me at the corner, I'm crossing the road and I'll be right back.)
- "Zeux ils pensont qu'y ownont le car." (They think they own the car.)
- "On va amarrer ça d'même pour faire sûr que ça tchenne."[3] (We will tie it like this to make sure it stays.)
- "Asteur qu'ej cher sa, ej'y pensra probably au diferan." (Now that I know that, I'll probably think of it differently.)
- "Ça t'tente tu d'aller watcher un movie?" (Do you want to go see a movie?)
- "Wail na, ca ender up j'y pas iter, ej'ai ender up de passer straight out su'el cushion face platte." (No, I didn't end up going, I ended up passing out.)
- "Ej ché pas...so quosse vous faites de soir?" (I don't know. What are you guys doing tonight?)
- "Moi ej'u Chiac pis ej'u pas bodré ni d'honte d'el dire." (I'm Chiac and I am not bothered or ashamed to say it.)
- "J'aime ta skirt, j'aime la way qu'a hang." (I like your dress, it fits you well!)
- "Ton car é ti en pretty good shape?" (Is your car in working order?)
- "J'get pas ton troube." (I don't understand your problem.)
- "Va waire cri a broche k'e hooké su'el wall d'salon." (Go get the wire that's plugged in the wall of the living room.)
- "C'é pretty right on man, mon truck handle dans les trails." (It's really fun, my truck handles well off-road.)
- "Na, ej che pas entoute ayousser j'ler mis, c'e probably a'cheuqpar d'les environs." (No, I don't know where I put it, it's most likely somewhere around here.)
- "Man, c'té nouvelles light-là sont complicated, j'aimais mieux le four-way stop!" (Man, these new lights are complicated, I preferred the four-way stop.)
- "K'tique k'té?" (Where are you?/Who are you?)
- "Mame, les rules des quads sont tu les mêmes sur les chemins?" (Mom, do the four wheeler regulations apply on the city streets?)
- "Ton truck work tu? Ch'te baillra vingt piace pour une quick drive en ville." (Does your truck work? I'll give you twenty bucks for a quick drive to the city.)
- "T'é pu avec lui anymore, c'é pretty right on ça." (You aren't with him anymore; well that's good news.)
- "On decole tu su la brosse desoir?" (Are we going out drinking tonight?)
- "Sylvie, ça semble comme si tu work out man, moi chu naturally fit though!" (Sylvie, it looks like you have been working out, I'm lucky enough to be naturally fit.)
- "J'vais parker mon car dans le driveway là." (I'm going to park my car in that driveway.)
- "Quossé tu parles about?" (What are you talking about?)
- "Yinque à ouaire on oua bein" (Just by seeing, you see well.)
- "Va waire endans d'la bakery mander si yiavont still la sale su les Râpures." (Go check inside the bakery if they still have the sale on Rappie Pies.)
- "On va faire une run au nord a la weekend, veut tu v'nir?" (We're going on a trip up north this weekend, do you want to come?)
- "Cousse-tu veux chte-dise?" (What do you want me to tell you?)
- "Tchein ton siault d'beluets!"[3] (Hold on to your blueberry bucket!)
- "Chiss qu'est stia quis travle avec le muffler de blower?" (Who is that driving with a broken muffler?)
- "J'étais tellement en djable que j'l'ai horé par dessus la fence." (I was so upset that I threw it over the fence.)
- "J'ai crashé dans l'peteau d'hydro, pis l'car était toute smashé." (I crashed into the telephone pole and wrecked the car.)
- "On a virer une moyenne brosse hier soire, pi sa va su le round two betot desoire." (We went on a big drinking binge last night, and it's going to be round two later tonight.)
- "Tchin tes chulottes." (Keep your pants on!)
- "Ayousque t'as mis mes hardes?"[3] (Where did you put my clothes?)
- "Asteur c'é mon tour."[3] (Now it's my turn.)
- "Clean ton mess, ça semble comme si yia eu un tornado qu'a passer en travers d'icite." (Clean your mess, it looks like a tornado passed through here.)
- "Reste icitte, j'v'aller parker la char à côté du garage." (Wait for me here, I'm going to park the car next to the garage.)
- "Le gars puait assez qu'les genoux m'buckleyiant!" (The guy smelled so much my knees buckled.)
- "C'é right hard de driver standard quand tu commences à driver." (It's very hard to drive a manual stickshift when you're a beginner.)
- "Well ça c'é pretty sharp, man." (Well that's pretty sharp, man.)
- "Check ça out, pi call-moi back." (Gather some information and let me know what's going on.)
- "Cheins tes overhalls pis tes r'change de d'soure." (Hold your overalls and your underwear!)
In the arts
Acadian writers, poets and musicians such as Lisa LeBlanc, Radio Radio,[4][5] France Daigle, Fayo,[6][7] Cayouche, Zero Celsius, Laurie Leblanc, Chiac (Band), Bois Joli (band), Les Hay Babies, 1755[8] 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.[9]
Several films have been made featuring the chiac accent, including:
- Éloge du chiac, by Michel Brault, NFB, 1969 (27 minutes)[10]
- L'Acadie, l'Acadie, by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault, NFB, 1971 (117 minutes)[11]
- Éloge du chiac Part II, by Marie Cadieux, 2009 (77 minutes)[12]
See also
References
- ^ "Chiac". Sang Mêlé. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
- ^ "Chiac | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
- ^ a b c d e Boudreau, Éphrem (2009). Glossaire du vieux parler acadien. Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu: Éditions Lambda ACADIE. p. 50. ISBN 978-2-923255-06-4.
- ^ Radio Radio: Comment ça va?, retrieved 2022-03-17
- ^ Radio Radio - Vuca Vuca (audio), retrieved 2022-03-17
- ^ Fayo: Trample bam, retrieved 2022-03-17
- ^ Laberge, Corinne (2007-06-28). "Le monde de Fayo". Retrieved 2007-08-09.
- ^ Elsliger, Lise (2007-06-26). "Acadian band 1755 together again". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
- ^ "C'est la vie". C'est la vie. 2006-12-08.
- ^ IMDB
- ^ IMDB
- ^ Onesheet Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
Further reading
- King, Ruth. "Overview and Evaluation of Acadie's joual," in Social Lives in Language – Sociolinguistics and multilingual speech communities: Celebrating the Work of Gillian Sankoff edited by Miriam Meyerhoff and Naomi Nagy (2008) pp 137ff
- Chiac: an example of dialect change and language transfer in Acadian French. National Library of Canada, 1987.
External links
- "Et si on parlait chiac ? (How about speaking Chiac?)". 1998-11-04. Archived from the original on 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2011-06-14.
- The Chiac verb particle construction – A linguistics paper (beginning on page 56 of the pdf document) examining certain features of Chiac grammar.