Linguasphere 51-AAA-am | Glottolog None | |
Region Acadian communities throughout the Maritime provinces, mainly around Moncton, Shediac and Memramcook Language family Indo-EuropeanItalicRomanceWesternGallo-RomanceOïlFrenchCanadian FrenchAcadian FrenchChiac | ||
Chiac is a vernacular Acadian French language with influences from English and various Canadian aboriginal languages. It is spoken by many Acadians in southeast New Brunswick, especially among youth near Moncton, Dieppe, Memramcook and Shediac and is becoming increasingly popular among the youth in the area. Chiac is a relatively recent development of the French language whose growth was spurred in the 1960s by the dominance of English-language media in Canada, increased urbanization of Moncton, and contact with the dominant Anglophone community in the area. The word 'Chiac' is believed to be derived from "Shediac". University of Orléans linguist Marie‑Ève Perrot describes Chiac as "the integration and transformation of English lexical, syntactic, morphological, and phonetic forms into French structures".
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The roots and base of Chiac are Acadian French, a spoken French often tinged with nautical terms (e.g. haler, embarquer), reflecting the historical importance of the sea to the local economy. Chiac also contains some older French words (e.g., bailler, quérir, hucher, gosier) which are now deemed archaic by the Académie Française, as well as aboriginal-derived terms, notably from Mi'kmaq, evident in words such as matues, meaning 'porcupine'. Chiac uses primarily French syntax with French-English vocabulary and phrase forms (see below). It is often deprecated by both French and English speakers as an ill-conceived hybrid language — either "bad" French or "bad" English. See franglais for a wider discussion of this phenomenon. The collected works of Goncourt prize-winner Antonine Maillet, and her play La Sagouine in particular illustrate this variation of French very well.
Chiac has been embraced in recent years by some Acadian groups as a living and evolving language, and part of their collective culture. Acadian writers, poets and musicians such as France Daigle, Zero Celsius, Radio Radio, Paul Bossé, Fayo and 1755 have produced works in Chiac. Recently, Chiac has also made its way onto a local television station with Acadieman, a comedy about "The world's first Acadian Superhero" by Dano Leblanc. The animated series, also a comic book, contains a mixture of Anglophone, Francophone, and "Chiacophone" characters. The popular Acadian rap group Radio Radio have also raised the profile of Chiac by rapping almost exclusively in that language. "Acadian" French has been greatly influenced by Chiac as it has spread among the younger generations.