Newfoundland French
Encyclopedia
Newfoundland French or Newfoundland Peninsular French refers to the French spoken on the Port au Port Peninsula
(part of the so-called “French Shore
”) of Newfoundland. The francophone
s of the region are unique in Canada, tracing their origins to Continental French
fishermen who settled in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and not to the Québécois
, or Acadian
s of the Maritimes. For this reason, Newfoundland French is most closely related to the Norman
and Breton
French of nearby St-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Today, heavy contact with Acadian French
— and especially widespread bilingualism with Newfoundland English
— have taken their toll, and the community is in decline.
The degree to which lexical features
of Newfoundland French constitute a distinct dialect is not presently known. It is uncertain how many speakers survive — the dialect could be moribund
. There is a provincial advocacy organisation Fédération des Francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador
, representing both the Peninsular French and Acadian French communities.
, Petit Jardin, Grand Jardin, De Grau, Rousseau Rouge, La Pointe à Luc, Trois Cailloux
, La Grand’terre
, L’Anse-aux-Canards
, Maisons-d’Hiver
and Lourdes
.
There are also nearby Acadian French communities in the Codroy Valley
and Stephenville
. These francophones speak in the Acadian dialect
of French, and not Newfoundland French.
. During the Seven Years War France (and Spain) vied for control of Newfoundland and the valuable fisheries off its shores. Fighting ceased in 1763, with French fishing rights to the western coast enshrined in the Treaty of Paris
. This period saw an influx of Breton
, Norman and Basque
fishermen to the region, though most of the activity was seasonal, and French settlement before the late 1800s was forbidden. Despite British disapproval, the clandestine settlement continued, though without the benefit of schools and essential services. As a result literacy among Francophones was uncommon in the twentieth century. In 1904 ownership of the region was transferred from France to the Colony of Newfoundland.
In addition to French immigration from Europe, Acadian immigrants arrived from Cape Breton Island
and the Magdalen Islands
to colonize Cape Saint-George
, the Codroy Valley
and Stephenville
called "l'Anse-aux-Sauvages" (the Cove of Savages) beginning in the 19th century. Until the middle of the 20th century, fishermen from Brittany who spoke Breton
as their mother tongue, but were educated in French through the Jules Ferry
schools, came to establish themselves on the Port-au-Port peninsula; this is arguably the primary cause for the differences between Newfoundland and Acadian French.
In 1940, the establishment of the American Air Force Base
at Stephenville
began French Newfoundland’s decline. Newfoundland French and Acadian French speakers who had lived and worked their entire lives in relative francophone isolation now found themselves at the heart of an American, Canadian, British and Newfoundlander anglophone economic centre. Families were grateful for the economic opportunities brought by the base, but transmission of French across generations dropped-off dramatically.
The absence of French-language education and the mandatory attendance of all children in English-speaking schools, as well as both radio and television programs in English, caused more recent generations to fail to master more complicated grammar and subject matter in French. English was becoming the only language of the educated.
Patrice Brasseur, a French linguist, has made numerous visits to the island. In speaking with remaining elderly Newfoundland francophones, he has found that French-speaking children were often punished for speaking French at school. Marriages between francophone and anglophone Catholics also became a contributing factor in assimilation, with intermarriages becoming more common from the 1930s onward.
s in Newfoundland now use Acadian French rather than the Newfoundland dialect, though a small number of families still speak a strongly inflected hybrid dialect. Today, 15 000 descendants of French settlers live in the province, and there is a movement to reestablish the Newfoundland dialect as the French language of education in the province. However, schoolchildren in the province are currently being introduced to either standard Canadian French, or an Acadian-influenced variety
thereof.
Port au Port Peninsula
The Port au Port Peninsula is a peninsula in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Roughly triangular in shape, it is located on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland.-Geography:...
(part of the so-called “French Shore
French Shore
The French Treaty Shore resulted from the 1713 ratification of the Treaty of Utrecht. The provisions of the treaty allowed the French to fish in season along the north coast of Newfoundland between Cape Bonavista and Point Riche. This area had been frequented by fishermen from Brittany since the...
”) of Newfoundland. The francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
s of the region are unique in Canada, tracing their origins to Continental French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
fishermen who settled in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and not to the Québécois
Quebec French
Quebec French , or Québécois French, 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....
, or Acadian
Acadian
The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...
s of the Maritimes. For this reason, Newfoundland French is most closely related to the Norman
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
and Breton
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
French of nearby St-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Today, heavy contact with Acadian French
Acadian French
Acadian French , is a regionalized dialect of Canadian French. It is spoken by the francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities in areas in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, by small groups of francophones in Prince Edward Island, in several tiny pockets...
— and especially widespread bilingualism with Newfoundland English
Newfoundland English
Newfoundland English is a name for several accents and dialects thereof the English found in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of these differ substantially from the English commonly spoken elsewhere in Canada...
— have taken their toll, and the community is in decline.
The degree to which lexical features
Linguistic typology
Linguistic typology is a subfield of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features. Its aim is to describe and explain the common properties and the structural diversity of the world's languages...
of Newfoundland French constitute a distinct dialect is not presently known. It is uncertain how many speakers survive — the dialect could be moribund
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
. There is a provincial advocacy organisation Fédération des Francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador
Franco-Newfoundlander
Franco-Newfoundlanders, also known as Franco-Terreneuvians in English or Franco-Terreneuviens in French, are francophone and/or French Canadian residents of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador...
, representing both the Peninsular French and Acadian French communities.
Distribution
Newfoundland French communities include Cap-St-GeorgesCape St. George, Newfoundland and Labrador
Cape St. George is a headland and community of the same name, located at the southwestern tip of the Port au Port Peninsula on the Canadian island of Newfoundland.The headland marks the northwestern limit of St...
, Petit Jardin, Grand Jardin, De Grau, Rousseau Rouge, La Pointe à Luc, Trois Cailloux
Three Rock Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador
Three Rock Cove is a village lacated northwest of Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The population was 94 in 1940; 113 in1951 and 230 in 1956....
, La Grand’terre
Mainland, Newfoundland and Labrador
Mainland is a community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the western shore of the Port au Port Peninsula near Cape St. George....
, L’Anse-aux-Canards
Black Duck Brook and Winterhouse, Newfoundland and Labrador
Black Duck Brook and Winterhouse is a designated place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, consisting of the unincorporated fishing settlements of Black Duck Brook and Winterhouse on the Port au Port Peninsula. The communities had a combined population of 57 in the Canada 2006...
, Maisons-d’Hiver
Black Duck Brook and Winterhouse, Newfoundland and Labrador
Black Duck Brook and Winterhouse is a designated place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, consisting of the unincorporated fishing settlements of Black Duck Brook and Winterhouse on the Port au Port Peninsula. The communities had a combined population of 57 in the Canada 2006...
and Lourdes
Lourdes, Newfoundland and Labrador
Lourdes is a town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The town had a population of 550 in the Canada 2006 Census. The current mayor of Lourdes is Henry "Hank" Gaudon....
.
There are also nearby Acadian French communities in the Codroy Valley
Codroy Valley
The Codroy Valley is a valley in the southwestern part of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.The Codroy Valley is a glacial valley formed in the Anguille Mountains, a sub-range of the Long Range Mountains which run along Newfoundland's west coast...
and Stephenville
Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador
Stephenville is a Canadian town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland....
. These francophones speak in the Acadian dialect
Acadian French
Acadian French , is a regionalized dialect of Canadian French. It is spoken by the francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities in areas in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, by small groups of francophones in Prince Edward Island, in several tiny pockets...
of French, and not Newfoundland French.
Origins
France contested ownership of Newfoundland from 1662 until 1713, when it ceded the island to Great Britain as part of the Treaty of UtrechtTreaty of Utrecht
The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...
. During the Seven Years War France (and Spain) vied for control of Newfoundland and the valuable fisheries off its shores. Fighting ceased in 1763, with French fishing rights to the western coast enshrined in the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
. This period saw an influx of Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...
, Norman and Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
fishermen to the region, though most of the activity was seasonal, and French settlement before the late 1800s was forbidden. Despite British disapproval, the clandestine settlement continued, though without the benefit of schools and essential services. As a result literacy among Francophones was uncommon in the twentieth century. In 1904 ownership of the region was transferred from France to the Colony of Newfoundland.
In addition to French immigration from Europe, Acadian immigrants arrived from Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
and the Magdalen Islands
Magdalen Islands
The Magdalen Islands form a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . Though closer to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, the islands form part of the Canadian province of Quebec....
to colonize Cape Saint-George
Cape St. George, Newfoundland and Labrador
Cape St. George is a headland and community of the same name, located at the southwestern tip of the Port au Port Peninsula on the Canadian island of Newfoundland.The headland marks the northwestern limit of St...
, the Codroy Valley
Codroy Valley
The Codroy Valley is a valley in the southwestern part of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.The Codroy Valley is a glacial valley formed in the Anguille Mountains, a sub-range of the Long Range Mountains which run along Newfoundland's west coast...
and Stephenville
Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador
Stephenville is a Canadian town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland....
called "l'Anse-aux-Sauvages" (the Cove of Savages) beginning in the 19th century. Until the middle of the 20th century, fishermen from Brittany who spoke Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
as their mother tongue, but were educated in French through the Jules Ferry
Jules Ferry
Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion.- Early life :Born in Saint-Dié, in the Vosges département, France, he studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris in 1854, but soon went into politics, contributing to...
schools, came to establish themselves on the Port-au-Port peninsula; this is arguably the primary cause for the differences between Newfoundland and Acadian French.
Contact with anglophone populations, bilingualism, and assimilation
Contact between francophone and anglophone Newfoundlanders had been historically both limited and normally peaceful. In the first half of the twentieth century, the west coast of Newfoundland was roughly evenly distributed with English-speaking and French-speaking families, mostly working within their own linguistic communities. The major exception was the Catholic Church, wherein the priests were nearly always monolingually English-speaking. This strongly encouraged bilingualism in the francophone community and laid the seeds for assimilation.In 1940, the establishment of the American Air Force Base
Ernest Harmon Air Force Base
Ernest Harmon Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The base was built by the United States Army Air Forces in 1941 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement with the United Kingdom....
at Stephenville
Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador
Stephenville is a Canadian town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland....
began French Newfoundland’s decline. Newfoundland French and Acadian French speakers who had lived and worked their entire lives in relative francophone isolation now found themselves at the heart of an American, Canadian, British and Newfoundlander anglophone economic centre. Families were grateful for the economic opportunities brought by the base, but transmission of French across generations dropped-off dramatically.
The absence of French-language education and the mandatory attendance of all children in English-speaking schools, as well as both radio and television programs in English, caused more recent generations to fail to master more complicated grammar and subject matter in French. English was becoming the only language of the educated.
Patrice Brasseur, a French linguist, has made numerous visits to the island. In speaking with remaining elderly Newfoundland francophones, he has found that French-speaking children were often punished for speaking French at school. Marriages between francophone and anglophone Catholics also became a contributing factor in assimilation, with intermarriages becoming more common from the 1930s onward.
Confederation
Since 1949, when Newfoundland became a Canadian province, the use of French on the island has continued to decline. The presence of French was ignored by both governments, similarly to the Mi'kmaq populations, with there being no official position on the matter, but with the de facto policy of assimilation. As a result of the absence of francophone education and religious teaching, Newfoundland French is now only spoken by a handful of elderly residents and is considered moribund. Typically, Franco-NewfoundlanderFranco-Newfoundlander
Franco-Newfoundlanders, also known as Franco-Terreneuvians in English or Franco-Terreneuviens in French, are francophone and/or French Canadian residents of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador...
s in Newfoundland now use Acadian French rather than the Newfoundland dialect, though a small number of families still speak a strongly inflected hybrid dialect. Today, 15 000 descendants of French settlers live in the province, and there is a movement to reestablish the Newfoundland dialect as the French language of education in the province. However, schoolchildren in the province are currently being introduced to either standard Canadian French, or an Acadian-influenced variety
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
thereof.