Québécois French
| Quebec French | |
|---|---|
| Français québécois | |
| Native to | Quebec (mainly), New Brunswick, Ontario, Western Canada, New England |
|
Native speakers
|
6.2 million in Quebec; 700,000 speakers elsewhere in Canada and United States (2006) |
|
Indo-European
|
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| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Office québécois de la langue française |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | queb1247 |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAA-hq & 51-AAA-icd & 51-AAA-ii |
Quebec French (French: français québécois; also known as Québécois French or simply Québécois) is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government.
Canadian French is a frequently used umbrella term for the varieties of French used in Canada including Quebec French. Formerly it was used to refer solely to Quebec French and the closely related varieties of Ontario and Western Canada, but usually is no longer considered to include Acadian French, which is also spoken in some areas of eastern Quebec.
The often derogatory term joual is commonly used to refer to a variety of Quebec French associated with the working class, characterized by certain features perceived as incorrect or bad.
The origins of Quebec French lie in the 17th- and 18th-century regional varieties (dialects) of early modern French, also known as Classical French, and of other langues d'oïl (especially Poitevin dialect, Saintongeais dialect and Norman) that French colonists brought to New France. Quebec French either evolved from this language base and was shaped by the following influences (arranged according to historical period) or was imported from Paris and other urban centres of France as a koiné, or common language shared by the people speaking it.
Unlike the language of France in the 17th and 18th centuries, French in New France was fairly well unified. It also began to borrow words, especially place names such as Quebec, Canada and Hochelaga, and words to describe the flora and fauna such as (cranberry) and (largemouth bass) from First Nations languages.
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