37.3019, Diss: Sociolinguistics: Nadège Fournier: "Acquisition d’un second dialecte et intégration linguistique : le cas des immigrant·es français·es à Montréal"

Mon Sep 21 18:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3019. Mon Sep 21 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.3019, Diss: Sociolinguistics: Nadège Fournier: "Acquisition d’un second dialecte et intégration linguistique : le cas des immigrant·es français·es à Montréal"

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Date: 18-Sep-2026
From: Nadège Fournier [nadege.fournier at umontreal.ca]
Subject: Acquisition d’un second dialecte et intégration linguistique : le cas des immigrant·es français·es à Montréal

Institution: Université de Montréal
Program: Département de linguistique et de traduction
Degree Date: 2026
Level: PhD

Author: Nadège Fournier

Dissertation Title: Acquisition d’un second dialecte et intégration
linguistique : le cas des immigrant·es français·es à Montréal

Dissertation URL: https://doi.org/10.71781/34905

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

Dissertation Director(s): Julie Auger, Simone Falk

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation examines second dialect acquisition, that is, the
process by which an individual learns a non-native variety of their
first language, typically as a result of geographical mobility. Our
research focuses on the case of French individuals who migrated to
Montréal as adults, for whom Hexagonal French constitutes the first
dialect and Québec French the second dialect. This case is of
particular interest, first, because these mobile speakers belong to a
numerically significant immigrant community whose integration may be
complex (Charrin, 2020; Dupuis, 2005, 2012; Jouan, 2024), and second,
because of the history of asymmetrical prestige between their two
dialects: for a long time, Hexagonal French has enjoyed a high status,
while Québec French has been strongly denigrated (Kircher, 2012). In
2019, we initiated a project on the acquisition of Québec French by
French speakers residing in Montréal, within which we created a
sociolinguistic corpus of spoken French (35 speakers) and collected
experimental data (Fournier & Auger, 2019–2025). This dissertation
presents the methodological approach and the first results of this
project. These findings are presented in the form of three scientific
articles that address dialect acquisition through distinct but
complementary approaches. Different (socio)linguistic competencies are
examined across these articles: the first two studies focus on changes
observed in production, while the third examines changes in perception
over time spent in Québec. The first article presents a preliminary
variationist study on the acquisition of a lexicodiscursive variable,
namely the discourse and consequence markers alors, donc, (ça) fait
(que), du coup and so, among eight French speakers living in Montréal.
The results show that participants who have lived in Montréal for
several years use local forms, in particular (ça) fait (que), whereas
these forms are completely absent from the speech of participants who
are new to the city. However, even among long-term immigrants, the use
of (ça) fait (que) is much less frequent than among Montréalers of
Québécois origin, and the pronunciation of this variant is sometimes
influenced by the phonological system of the first dialect. Finally,
participants tend to adjust their use of (ça) fait (que) according to
the interlocutor present: they use this Québec form more frequently in
the presence of a Québec interlocutor than with a French interlocutor.
The second article focuses on the acquisition of a phonological rule
of Québec French, namely the backing of /a/ in word-final position. An
acoustic analysis of the speech of 19 French speakers living in
Montréal was conducted. The results indicate that individuals who have
lived in the city for several years generally produce more back vowels
than newcomers, but less back vowels than native Québécois speakers.
Thus, this acquisition is partial: not only does the degree of backing
not reach that of native speakers, but the systemic constraints of the
rule do not seem to have been integrated. More specifically,
participants tend to overgeneralise the rule, that is, to apply it in
contexts where it does not apply in Québec French. Furthermore, no
adjustment to the interlocutor was observed. The third article
analyses the ability to identify dialects in French utterances
(Hexagonal and Québec French, homogeneous and hybrid stimuli) in an
experimental task carried out with 131 French participants living in
Québec, 114 French participants living in France and 189 Québécois
participants living in Québec. Overall, the identification pattern of
mobile French listeners tends to differ from that of non-mobile French
listeners and to be closer to that of Québécois listeners. For certain
types of stimuli, their perception falls between the non-mobile
groups. For others, it fully aligns with that of Québécois listeners.
However, despite regular exposure to Québec French, a significant
proportion of mobile participants remain hypersensitive to the
features of this variety, leading to identification errors. The study
also highlights the influence of mobility-related factors on
perception, in particular length of residence and age of arrival in
Québec: French individuals who have been established in Québec for
longer and those who arrived at a younger age display responses that
are closer to those of Québécois listeners than other participants.
Taken together, the three articles demonstrate that a certain degree
of (socio)linguistic acquisition occurs among French speakers over
time spent in Québec. However, this acquisition is limited, in that
the observed behaviours do not fully align with those of Québécois
individuals. In production, the analyses reveal the development of a
hybrid speech combining features of both French varieties as well as
intermediate features. In perception, although there is evidence of
better identification performance, hypersensitivity to features of
Québec French may persist. Documenting the acquisition process and its
limits is essential, as it provides a better understanding not only of
human cognition at the individual level, but also of the dynamics of
language change at the community level.

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