Canadien (was Re: English accent)

[Alice Faber]

Laurence Horn wrote:
>> "It would never occur to a Canadien to describe a Frenchman as
>> speaking French with a French accent."
>>
>> By the way, how frequent is this use in English of the French word for
>> 'Canadian' (masculine singular), capitalized according to English
>> usage, to
>> mean 'French-Canadian'? I don't think I've ever seen it before.
>
> Well, it's certainly used to refer to those French-Canadians who play
> professional hockey in Montreal, a.k.a. Les Hab(itant)s.   ;-)
>

But it's also used to refer to Anglophone Canadians, to Americans, and
even to Finns who play for Les Habs.

--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org