New book: Romance linguistics

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The French Language in Canada
JOHN HEWSON, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Canadian French has had a long and remarkable history; it has been at
home upon this continent for almost 400 years. From 1763 until recent
times it survived upon its own, without substantial input from the
mother country, France, which gave up its North American colonies at the
Treaty of Paris.
        Because of its remarkable history Canadian French has several
outstanding features. One of these is the existence of archaisms, of old
words and expressions that have disappeared or died out in France, such
as the old weights and measures that were in use before the coming of
the metrical system at the time of the French Revolution of 1789. The
Revolution, coming a quarter of a century after the Treaty of Paris, was
largely irrelevant to Canada. Another was the borrowing of Amerindian
terms for the different life experiences of the New World. Some of
these, such as 'caribou', found their way into international French,
others remain purely local borrowings. Then there is the development of
a distinctive regional accent, which other speakers of French recognize
as "Canadian". There is also the development of a distinctive form of
expressive language that has led to Canadian francophones on holiday in
Mexico being nicknamed 'los Tarbanacos' by the Mexicans. Finally there
is the influence of English, since the francophone population in Canada,
largely centred in the Province of Quebec, is surrounded by a
continental sea of English.
        Canadian French is, consequently, a vast and fascinating tableau of
infinite detail, a subject matter with which the Canadian student of
French can become totally engrossed. This brief volume is designed as an
introduction to the subject, with the understanding that the proper way
to approach such complexity is to provide a guide through the maze of
resources so the the students can inform themselves by their own
researches rather than being provided with second hand information.

CONTENTS:  Ch.1: Regional Language and Standard Language - Exercises.
Ch.2: Commentaries: from the earliest travellers to the Atlas
Linguistique de l'Est du Canada -         Exercises. Ch.3: The cultural
matrix: the pioneer life - Exercises. Ch.4: Phonology of Canadian French
- Exercises. Ch.5:    Morphology and Syntax - Exercises. Ch.6:
Expressive language - Exercises. Ch.7: The parameters of linguistic
variation: historical,                 geographical, social - Exercises.
Ch.8: Anglicisms - Exercises.

ISBN 3 89586 571 0.
LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 07.
Ca. 100pp. EUR 26.59 / USD 28 / DM 52 / # 19.




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