Movies Celebrating Chiac

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Hello all!

Since online videos about  language issues are a frequent topic for discussion among ourselves, thought I’d share two which might be useful to those of you interested in sociolinguistic issues surrounding the French language. Because both of these are in French, they might be of limited use to most of you. But they still represent valuable documents about language and identity. Besides, the second of these seems to be available on DVD with English subtitles.

Both movies are about Chiac, a variety of French prominent in the Southeast region of New Brunswick (including Moncton). Like Acadian French, Chiac contains some words from Middle French which have disappeared from other contemporary French dialects. A key feature setting Chiac apart from Acadian French is a large number of loanwords from English. In some cases, Chiac represents a form of code-mixing or even code-switching, yet it typically retains most syntactic structures from French (including some which are specific to Acadian French). For those who know Quebec French, Chiac is somewhat parallel to «Joual» in terms of communicative context and perceived social status of its speakers, despite large social differences between Acadia and Quebec.

(As a semi-disclaimer: my ex-wife is a native speaker of Chiac and a linguist and, in the past, I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about Chiac. I also spent some time in Moncton and participated in a research project on Acadian French. Though I fully understand Chiac, I never dared speak it.)

So, those movies…

The first one is Michel Brault’s classic «Éloge du chiac» (1969). Can’t remember it being mentioned here, in the past, but it’s quite relevant. As it turns out, it’s available for streaming through the National Film Board of Canada site:
http://www.nfb.ca/film/eloge_du_chiac
It doesn’t seem to be available with English subtitles.

Though Brault himself isn’t an ethnographer, his approach to cinematography has influenced a large number of people in ethnocinematography, including Jean Rouch. In this film, Brault’s approach is even closer to ethnography than in other celebrated films. Though it was shot in 1968, some dimensions of it make it feel like it came after the Crisis of Representation.
The main section of that first film is a discussion about language use set in a Moncton high school classroom . Students in that classroom debate as to whether or not “Chiac” should be replaced by a variety of French with fewer loanwords. Among the arguments brought forth is the notion that, without Chiac, Acadians  would likely speak English. Contextual choice of code (using English, Chiac, or a more normative variety of French) is also discussed in several ways. Clearly, Chiac is used as “we-code” and “they-codes” include both English and those French varieties perceived as more normative. Yet the situation is much more complex given the fluidity afforded identity negotiation. All of this comes through, in less than half an hour of conversation.

The second movie is a 2009 followup to «Éloge du chiac», with most of the same protagonists along with several new ones. It’s called, surprisingly enough, «Éloge du chiac - Part 2». Much about this recent film is quite different from Brault’s classic, including visual language and use of humour. But it also contains a lot of useful elements for anyone interested in language change, minority languages, and/or speech communities. As a bonus, this followup contains some comments about the effects of the first film on people’s lives. Could make for an interesting discussion with visual anthropologists and other fieldworkers whose production has opened Pandora’s Box.

And though it’s a followup, it can stand on its own as it contains several excerpts from the first movie.

Looks like Stephen Chrisomalis used “Part 2” in his ANT/LIN5310 course, since he had a link to the trailer:
http://www.nfb.ca/film/celebrating-chiac-part-ii-stub-548962/trailer/celebrating_chiac_part_2_trailer
That trailer has  English subtitles, so it might be easier to use. But, obviously, it’s very limited in what it contains.

The full movie is available here:
http://www.nfb.ca/film/eloge_du_chiac_part_2
Unfortunately, it can only be streamed by individuals who have “campus” access to NFB content. But it’s also available on DVD which, apparently, does include English subtitles. Haven’t seen the subtitled version, but I’d still recommended it for classroom use.

Cheers!

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Alex Enkerli
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Concordia University, Montreal