Chiac is an Acadian French dialect spoken in New Brunswick, Canada. It is grammatically French, but it liberally sprinkles its sentences with English words. Emma Jacobs recently became kind of obsessed with Chiac. She kept returning to New Brunswick to hear more of the dialect. And that’s what we hear: musicians, artists, writers and regular folk who speak Chiac every day. And, of course, the superhero depicted above.
PODCAST CONTENTS
00:30 A spin of the radio dial in Moncton, New Brunswick.
1:00 Canada is chock-full of language policies, at provincial, territory and city level.
2:35 Chiac is not Franglais.
In France, stop signs read “Stop.” In Quebec, they read “Arrêt.” In New Brunswick, both words appear on stop signs. (Photo: Emma Jacobs)
5:20 Should a public-service movie about teenage bullying in Moncton include dialogue in Chiac?
6:50 Is Chiac “bad French”?
7:50 The “Stop” sign in New Brunswick.
9:00 Some Acadian history: why Moncton sits on a linguistic border.
10:30 Language rights protests of the 1960s
13:30 Musician Gabriel Malenfant struggled at school to learn academic French.
15:31 Dano LeBlanc and a friend dream up “Acadieman.”
17:00 Singer Caroline Savoie wonders why she was subtitled by French TV.
Caroline Savoie performing in Cap-Pelé, New Brunswick. (Photo: Caroline Savoie)
19:25 How much Chiac is too much Chiac?
19:35 Novelist France Daigle uses formal French in her narration but her character often speak in Chiac.
23:13 Politician Bernard Richard: “We have a saying: ‘We learn French but we catch English.'”
27:25 “Ah papa, j’ai entendue il y a un nouveau jeu qui saute. Puis, il y a pretty awesome.”
MUSIC HEARD IN THE PODCAST
00:00 Podington Bear: Dramamine
13:48 Radio Radio: Guess What?
15:03 1755: C.B. Buddie
17:52 Lisa LeBlanc: J’pas un Cowboy
18:48 Lisa Leblanc: Aujourd’hui, ma vie c’est d’la marde
25:16 Radio Radio: Cliché Hot
29:36 Lisa LeBlanc: Kraft Dinner
Listen above or at iTunes.
The World in Words is also at PRI and on Facebook . There’s a longer version of this post here. And this is me on Twitter.
Too much in 1 post.
a) nobody reads that much at one time, but worse
b) makes it impossible to comment on just 1 thing. and “just 1 thing” is what conversation is all about
/me points at the mythical campfire. and sets the mythical pot of tea.
p.s. caaaaaliss! (Is that Canadian? joal?)
I loved the pod. I think you really gave it a good explanation.