Brayon
 |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Canada, concentrated in the Madawaska region of New Brunswick. | |
| Languages | |
| French (native language), English (as a second language) | |
| Religion | |
| Primarily Roman Catholic | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| French, Québécois, Acadians, Cajun, Métis, French-speaking Quebecer, Franco-Ontarian, Franco-Manitoban, French American |
Brayons are a francophone people inhabiting the area in and around Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. In French, they are called les Brayons or feminine les Brayonnes, and both terms are also used as adjectives, as in Brayon culture, or la culture brayonne. Given their location in New Brunswick, a Canadian Maritime province, they are considered by many to be Acadians; however most residents relate more to Quebec and the majority have strong roots and ancestral ties to Quebec as compared to Acadia, considering that at one point the Madawaska region was considered part of Quebec.
The Brayons view themselves as neither Acadian nor Québécois, affirming that they are a distinctive culture with a history and heritage linked to farming and forestry in the Madawaska area, unlike both the primarily maritime heritage of the modern Acadians and the St. Lawrence Valley history of the Québécois.
Classification of Brayon as a dialect within Quebec French is largely disputed, as unlike Acadian French, for example, Brayon does not possess its own words or definition. The primary difference consists in a simple denotation of certain words due to their pronunciation. In French language, it is a generally found denotation as many words, such as masculine and feminine adjective endings, or the past tenses of some verbs, are homophone. Both Brayon and Acadian are considered dialects of French (as opposed to independent languages), though the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect" may also overlap and are often subject to debate.
One basic distinctive trait of Brayon, however, is made in words such as tache ("stain") and tâche ("task"), where the "a" tends to resemble an open back unrounded vowel /ɑ/, notwithstanding of the circumflex. This in turn highlights the difference of pronouncing "a" in a (3rd singular of the verb avoir, "to have") and à (pronoun "at"), already strong in Quebec French, as compared to Standard French. The same rule also applies to /ɛ/ in maigre ("skinny") and vinaigre ("vinegar"), which transforms into /ɛː/, as in fête ("feast").
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