Louis-Arthur RICHARD, ll. d.

DO THE
FRENCH CANADIANS
SPEAK PATOIS ?
TRANSLATED BY
Miss GLADYS-L. LEGARfi

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 DO THE FRENCH CANADIANS
SPEAK PATOIS?'

It is France who, by her heroism, her tenacity and

her endurance, will have been the principal artisan of
the victory. At the price of sacrifices of which one does
not yet know all, she will have contributed far more dearly
than others to save civilization from the cunning German
barbarism. It is not, therefore, astonishing that every-
where, from the Neutrals as well as from the Allies, she
provokes ardent sympathies, and gives birth to lasting
friendships. France is loved; she is admired, probably, as
never before. Perhaps she has never so well deserved
it as during these bloody years in which her sons gathered
a harvest of glory that would suffice to immortalize more
than one nation. She is loved and admired, it goes
without saying, for her incomparable soldiers, and for all
the virtue which, at the hour of sacrifice and immolation,,
she did not cease to exercise with a touching simplicity;
but she is loved equally for her culture so rich and varied,
and for her language so supple and beautiful.
Already the countries of the world are making a larger
and larger place for her language in their schools, in their
universities, and even in all the manifestations of their
social life. That so instructive report of the Leathes
Commission for example, proves the importance they
attach to the knowledge of French in England. This
current of universal sympathies in favour of the sweet
speech of France ought, therefore, to put an end sooner to
the reign of ostracism which our language is submitted to
in Canada. In all the Provinces of the Dominion it
would seem natural there would be no obstacle to the

1
Reprinted from La Twm Trimeslrielle Canadienne, February
1919.

3c en 3
expansioD of an idiom which, while being that of France,
is as much that of the pioneers of this country. More-
over, this idiom is recognized officially by the Constitution
which rules us, and is spoken by almost one third of the
Canadian population.
However, —
an inexplicable fact on the part of a
majority whose children fought in such a chivalrous
manner to maintain civilization in Europe it seems —
it is the contrary that must happen. In the Wset, par-
ticularly, a merciless attack is being prepared against
what the Leathes' Report justly calls "the most important
language in the history of modern civilization" and "for
us (English) assuredly the most important from all points
of view".
This testimony, which the English Canadians would
have bad taste to reject, is an argument we shall be able
to use advantageously in the next contests. Unfortunate-
ly, it is not a decisive argument. Our adversaries, rarely
short of resources, are going to reply that we do not speak
French, but a miserable patois, without literary value and
of no practical use. One does not forget the hateful cry
91
of Deputy Morphy "Beastly horrible French
: One .

does not forget, either, the statement of Beaverbrooke

in a book every Canadian home makes it a duty to pos-
sess "Others, again, switched off from English to French
:

Canadian patois '. And how many other calumnies do

1

we not read periodically under the signature of Canadian

or of American journalists, some in good faith, but odiously
deceived by slanderers whose power cannot be denied !

Things have greatly changed during the last fifty years.

Formerly, Canadian journalists of English tongue were
seen, in a generous outburst, spontaneously defending our
language against American writers who dared speak evil
of it. i

Then, we speak patois, if we must believe these

gentlemen of the press. They would probably be at a
loss to answer us if we had the audacity to ask them what
constitutes a patois. We would not have the pretention

1
B. Suite: La langue frangaise au Canada, p. 46.
of contesting their knowledge if the point in question were
slang or cant which, doubtless, they speak fluently and,
even frequently, do not write badly at all, but for the
patois . . .

Littreand Beaujean tell us a patois is "a provincia

way speaking which, being formerly a dialect, has
of
ceased to be literarily cultivated and is no longer in use
except for conversation among the people of rural districts,
and particularly among peasants and labourers". Is this
really the case of our language ? Evidently not, since it is
literarily cultivated by prosaists and poets whose works
have sometimes received kind attention from French
critics, and even from the French Academy. We need
not establish a distinction between the language we
speak and the one we write, since our adversaries do not do
so themselves, and since they unite them both in the same
contempt.
If we spoke patois, if the French language were not
literarily cultivated by us, it is likely that the intellectual
ties which unite us to France, would have been severed
for ever the very day our political bonds were broken;
and the French culture, of our days, would have every
chance of being completely foreign to us. But, it is
nothing of the kind. Mr. Funck-Brentano, a French
scholar who once travelled over our country in a cons-
cientious and intelligent manner, and whose testimony
offers our contradictors all guarantee of impartiality, was
thus able to write on the occasion of the entry of Roumania
in the war: "The French culture in Roumania is really
surprising. With the exception of Belgium naturally,
and of French Canada, I do not believe there is another
country which, from this point of view, can be compared
with it". So then, as an important centre of French
l

culture, Mr. F. Funck-Brentano puts Canada ahead of

Switzerland where, for example, one never dreamed of
considering the language written and spoken by the
Roman d Swiss as a degenerated French.

1
Annates yolitiques el litteraires, Paris, 17 sept. 1916, p. ?04.
 — 4 —
if it is true that we habitually employ a
Moreover,
patois, would be useful to know its origin. Where does
it
it come from ? To what type is it connected ? When
and where was it born ? Did our fathers bring it with
them from France and, in this case, have their descen-
dants piously preserved it? On the other hand, if the
ancestral speech was French, have we let ourselves cor-
rupt it, have we committed this fault of reducing it to the
rank of a patois ?
Let us see for ourselves.
First, it is a fact that French was, at the beginning,
the dominating language of the Colony. Officials, sol-
l

diers, members of the clergy, the leading class, and even

the majority of the Colonists spoke French. 2 Among
these last, many, doubtless, did not know French or, at
least, knew it imperfectly, but their patois was doomed to
a rapid decadence like all patois which are contaminated
by a literary language, as modern philologists have been
able to scientifically establish. 3 What is more, "the
mixing of dialects was to greatly facilitate the evolution
of our language towards the French. Mangled and
mixed, the patois forms lost their natural vigour; rooted
up, strength failed them." 4 In other terms, the effect
of mixing various patois is to suppress them if I may
use the expression of a Belgian linguist. The patois were
bound to be particularly mixed at the beginning of the
Colony, when we realize there were some thirty thousand
kinds of them still in France a hundred years ago, that is
to say, almost as many as "communes" 5 and that, again,
our ancestors came from forty provinces, consequently,
from an infinitely greater number of "communes". 6
French imposed itself with such rapidity that La
Potherie was already able to write towards the year

1
Adjutor Rivard Parlers de France au Canada, p. 18.
:

2
Tardivel La langue frangaise au Canada, p. 24.
:

a
A. Dauzat La langue frangaise d'aujourd'hui, p. 11.
:

4
A. Rivard cited, p. 31.
:

5
A. Dauzat cited, p. 194.
:

6
Abbe Lortie Premier congres de la langue frangaise au
:

Canada, p. 8.
1700, "We speak perfectly well here, without a bad
accent. Although there is a gathering of people from al-
most all the provinces of France, the speech of none can
be distinguished from that of the Canadians". The x

first historian of New France, Father Charlevoix, said for

his part in 1722 "Nowhere do they speak our language
more purely; one does not even notice an accent". 2 A
few years before the Cession, Fabbe d'Olivet had written
nearly the same thing. 3 Finally, Montcalm declared in
his Journal (p. 64) that "the Canadian peasants speak
French very well".
So then, most of our ancestors spoke French, at least
those who came from the Isle of France, Touraine, and
Orleans where, quoting Littre, there was no real patois. 4
As to the others, they were not slow to realize the necessity
in which they found themselves of knowing the language
of the majority which, moreover, was that of the Admi-
nistration.
Jean-Baptiste is ingenious. He found the secret of
transforming the descendants of the eight or nine thousand
French emigrants who came two or three centuries ago
to seek their fortunes on the banks of the St- Lawrence,
into one people of three million inhabitants. Those who
are disconsolate at not recognizing the Parisian French in
our speech, no doubt think he is very capable, in addi-
tion, of having given birth to a patois. Unfortunately,
from a linguistic point of view, Jean-Baptiste is far from
having been as fecund as he could have been and should
have been. Certainly, he created words to designate
things not found in France, and which are essentially
Canadian, but the list is not important. Most of them,
however, are so pretty and characteristic that they do
not fail to do honor to the good taste of Jean Baptiste,
and it is regrettable that he did not use more extensively
the right he had of creating them. For he indisputably

1
Quoted by B. Suite, op. cited p. 14
2
Quoted by Tardivel, op. cited p. 30.
* Bulletin du Parler francais, vol. IV, p. 24.
4
Quoted by M. Napoleon Legendre : La langue frangaise au
Canada, p. 83.
 —

— 6 —
had had he not had it, he would have been
this right, and,
able to assume very simply, by virtue of the same
it,

privilege that club men, theatrical people, financiers, or

sportsmen create Parisian slang of which certain words end
at least in receiving the consecration of the French People
if not of the French Academy itself. Would our language
have deserved to be defended so passionately if it had not
had the suppleness to adapt itself to all the conditions of
the surroundings where it found itself transplanted, if
it had been able to designate only by means of periphrases
what we agreed to call "la sucrerie, la poudrerie, la bru-
.
nante, les bordages "? . .

If there is a reproach one could make to Jean Baptiste,

it is rather to have been too often satisfied to frenchify
certain English words to express new things. Also, he
was wrong to borrow from the language of his neighbor
that which he could have created with the resources of
his own tongue. But, like many others, Jean Baptiste
liked to practise the theory of the least effort. He fol-
lowed, in this regard, the example of his French cousins
who, themselves also, have been cultivating anglomania.
How many English words have little by little crept into
the language and are today in daily use in France As !

Mr. Francois Veuillot x so cleverly remarked last winter,

"We can no longer go out without practising "footing";
we can no longer go to an evening party without putting
on our "smoking"; we can no longer travel without taking
a "sleeping"; we can no longer rock except in a "rocking-
chair". "Although the fact may seem paradoxical,
writes Albert Dauzat, a learned French philologist in
La Langue Frangaise d'aujourd'hui, p. 75, —
the borrow-
ings from the English language are sometimes less frequent
in Canada than in France the Canadians say a carrt
:

and not a square, a char and not a wagon, an entrevue and

11
not an interview.
But one wrong does not cure another and if France
was at fault in adopting such a considerable number

1
Mr Frangois Veuillot, a noted Parisian journalist and author
who visited Canada in 1918.
 — 7 —
of English words, It does not follow that we were right.
Quite the contrary, and we shall pay much more dearly
than our ancient mother country for our imprudence in
not sufficiently protecting our language. The more so
because we have not only borrowed words from the English
language, but expressions and figures not in the genius of
our language. Since the days of Tardivel, anglicism has
not ceased to be the enemy that must be fought stubborn-
ly. But this enemy, be it ever so insinuating, has not
yet succeeded in transforming the ancestral tongue into
a new language which, near or far, is allied to patois, and
English writers have no right to judge our language from
the jargon the poet Drummond puts in the mouth of his
"Habitant". And, after all, why does one not realize
that this "habitant", devoid of instruction, endeavors
merely to speak a language not his own, and tortures his
mind trying to make himself understood by the English-
men or the Americans with whom he enters into conversa-
tion! There is, perhaps, more malice than one thinks
in the work of Drummond- But there are men on whose
heads irony glances like water on a duck's back. Decided-
ly, it is a fortitude to feel one's self above ridicule
! It
could not be otherwise but that our idiom felt the influence
of the English language, and it is marvelous to find that
it could have so energetically resisted the surrounding
forces. For English is not only the language of a large
portion of the Canadian population, it is also that of the
mother country, it is the language of our powerful neigh-
bours to the South, it is the language of industry, of
commerce and of finance, it is the language of Parliament
such as we have had for over a century, and it has been
the language of the Administration for a long time.
Since we have, ourselves, submitted to English and,
above all, to American ideas and habits, how could our
language have escaped this influence? Remy de Gour-
mont, whose high ability on the subject of Philology is
well known, wrote somewhere in his "Eslhetique de la
langue francaise" : "It is a well known fact that the
french language of Canada has suffered from english
influence. This reciprocating penetration is much less
 —8—
deep rooted than one would be apt to think. Notwith-
standing, our language across the sea because of its
expansive force retains its creative vitality, and a remark-
able power of assimilation. Words which it has borrowed
from the english language, either remain on the surface
only, and retain their foreign appearance or, as is more
often the case, have been absorbed into the language and
have really become french by this usage".
English words which became necessary have been
disguised to such an extent as to become unrecognizable
and thus we have kept up the best traditions of the
language. Such at least is the statement of Remy de
Gourmont who did not fear to set as an example to the
French philologists the formation of words in the franco-
can adi an language.
Except for Canadianisms and Anglicisms, Jean
Baptiste was content preserving, with a jealous care, the
old linguistic patrimony in all its integrity. As a result
we still use certain archaic words which we are reproached
for having kept under the pretext that they are no longer
current in France. Useless reproach, truly, since such
words have not ceased to be French, and are met frequent-
ly in the writings of authors of the 15th, 16th and 17th
centuries, who were the best artisans of the French
language. One meets them again under the pen of
writers as modern as Messrs Brunetiere and Faguet, 1 not
to mention others. If some of these words are no longer
in the dictionary of the Academy, their French origin is
not dubious, as according to the expression of Oscar Dunn,
they prove our origin and are excellent certificates of
nationality. (Glossaire p. XX.)
Would not be apropos to call to mind here the
it
opinion which the illustrious French savant, Mr. Elisee
Reclus, expressed to Napoleon Legendre about thirty
years ago on the subject of our good old words ? "In
your language", he said, "our French of the old country
again finds many expressions it should have kept, it will
also find some which another centre has forced you to

1
Members of the French Academy.
create and which science claims". Mr. Faguet concluded
1

thus in the Gaulois, 2 an article he dedicated, not long ago,

to French speaking people "1st.:
—
The language they
speak, like all excentric languages, that is to say, far from
the centre, has every chance in the world of being excellent
because it is composed of archaisms. Such is the French
of Geneva, of Lausanne, and such is the French of Canada.
Let them not distrust their provincialisms too much. . .

2nd. Let them be persuaded that everything from the

17th century, even if it has fallen into desuetude, is excel-
lent, is French of good stock, of good standard and irre-
prehensible. 3rd. Whatever comes from the 18th cen-
tury is alwa37 s dubious. 4th. Whatever comes from the
19th century is no authority by itself and must be verified
by looking to the 17th century for reference. 5th. Final-
ly, the worst language of France is the one spoken in Paris."
Those whose delicate ears are offended by our archaic
language and who chide us on this subject, would do well
not to forget that our fathers left France two or three
centuries ago, that we have been separated from them for
one hundred and fifty years and that, down to the middle
of the last century, we had not the slightest contact with
our ancient mother country. We were left to our own
strength and resources. The importation of French books
to Canada was even severely prohibited during three
fourths of the century following the Cession. 3 If, in spite
of all these obstacles, Jean Baptiste had not lovingly and
jealously conserved his tongue, the writers of France
would not find, as they do with naive astonishment the
survival of their language on the banks of the St-Lawrence,
and would not celebrate what one of them has justly
called "the Canadian miracle". It is possible, after all,
that the French Canadians do not speak a patois as one
sometimes hears, but it is certain they have not the
French accent. Mr. Francois Veuillot did justice to the

1
N. Legendre, op. cited p. 40.
2
Quoted in Le Bulletin da Parler frangais, vol. 1, p. 86. The
Gaulois, a leading daily paper, Paris.
3
Abbe Camille Roy : Nos origines lilteraires, p. 23.
 .

— 10 —
•

above affirmation, "I would like, first to hear someone

define the French accent for me. I know the Parisian
accent well and, know tha.t the accent of Faubourg
still, I

Saint-Germain not the same as that of Montmartre. I

is
also know the Norman accent, the Alsatian, and the Mar-
seillais. It is possible that there is a Canadian accent,
and this would merely be the accent of another province
of France". l In fact, each province of France has its
particular accent; the Swiss and Belgians have, likewise,
their own. Could our adversaries tell us the exact place
where French is spoken with this savour they reproach us
for not having ? Apropos of our accent, would I be per-
mitted to give the opinion of a French writer who knew
our country well and wrote a deeply compiled book on
th.3 history of Canada? Taisiswhat Mr. Eugene Revil-
laud wrote some years ago, "The language of the first
(cultivated class) does not differ from that which is spoken
in the polished society of our country, and it is better
protected against the invasion of Parisian slang. As to . .

the people, it seems to me, taking it all in all, they speak

French more correctly than the generality of our peasants. .

The language of the Canadians seemed to me extremely

pure of accent and there is no doubt that a Canadian of
average culture coming to Paris would get in tune, more
easily with the French Theatre which, rightly or wrongly,
has the reputation of being the seat of the traditions of
pure French pronunciation, than a Picard or a Franc-
Comtois, not to speak of the Gascons, the Auvergnats or
the Proven$aux." 2
Are the journalists who accuse us of speaking an old
and degenerated language, good judges in the matter?
Do they know French sufficiently to express such a severe
judgment against us ? We do not think so, and they would
do more useful work, perhaps, in attempting to purify the
English used in certain Provinces of the Dominion, and
what Lord Grey one day likened to a most detestable and

1
Quoted inLe Soleil, Quebec, March 1st 1918.
2
Histoire du Canada, p. 523.
 — 11 —
less comprehensible slang. 1 If there is anyone qualified
to criticise with discernment, the language of Jean Bap-
tiste, it is he whose maternal tongue is French, and not
certain graduates of high schools who have only a super-
ficial knowledge of the French language and, most of the
time, do not even understand it. Well, what do the
French of France, who have visited Canada and have
come in contact with our people, say of the French
Canadian patois ? May I be excused if, in multiplying
quotations, I seem to abuse the privilege? But, is there
a more efficient way of forcing silence upon our adversaries
than to make them face a number of undeniable testi-
monies coming only from those really qualified to appre-
ciate the value of our language ?
Xavier Marmier, of the French Academy, wrote in
1866, "They keep in the practice of our language in
Canada, that elegance, that sort of atticism of the Great
Century. The people themselves speak it quite correctly,
and have no patois". 2 Rameau de Saint-Pere, the his-
torian of "la France aux Colonies" wrote for his part,
"On the banks of the St-Lawrence our language has no
more degenerated than our character". 3 Ampere, the
great French savant, also wrote, "To find living again in
the language, the traditions of the Great Century, one
must go to Canada". 4 H. de Lamothe, the novel-writer
who enchanted our childhood, wrote in 1879, "One soon
hears the sweet speech of France, enhanced, and not
depreciated, by a peculiar accent One understands that
. . .

an isolation of one hundred years has preserved the inte-

grity of the language and its expressions in use during
the first half of the eighteenth century". 5 Mr. Christophe

1
An English periodical, The Saturday Review stated, on March
the 15th 1919, in an article entitled The Decline of English "The
language is horribly stuffed with unintelligible slang from America
and the Colonies. A dramatically familiar form of address is
adopted in writing, and everything is contracted The deteriora-
. . .

tion of the English language ... is even more noticeable in the United
States and the Colonies."
2
Leltres sur VAmerique, vol. I p. 95.
3
La France aux colonies, vol. II, p. 208.
4
Promenades en Amerique^ vol. 1, p. 109.
5
Cinq mois chez les Frangais d'Amerique, p. 29.
 — 12 —
Allart wrote in 1880, "It is a pleasure to talk with the
"habitants" and to hear that good French speech without
any patois, even elegant, but with a very curious archaic
tournure".
Mr. Victor Du Bled, one of the collaborators of the
Revue des Deux Mondes, Paris, wrote in this excellent
review of February 15th, 1885, "It can be affirmed with
all the serious travellers who have visited this country
(Canada) that the Canadians still speak the French of
the 16th and 17th centuries, that so savory and robust
language of Touraine and the Isle of France, with its
special character and Gallic tournures. One finds again
in that idiom, numerous original expressions, old coin
struck with a good die, dating from Rabelais and Mon-
taigne, which we could use to advantage although they are
not recorded in the dictionary of the Academy. More-
over, there does not exist, as was thoughtlessly expressed,
a Canadian patois, and except for the intonation, the inha-
bitants who come out of the primary schools express them-
selves more correctly than our workers and peasants".
Mr. Gailly de Taurines wrote, in 1894, in his book, "La
Nation Canadienne" "In a general way, it can be said the
:

popular language of the Canadians is infinitely better

and more correct than that of France". 1 Viscount
Robert de Caix, "one who has most closely observed
Canada" in the opinion of the former French consul at
Montreal, wrote in 1904 in the "Revue des questions
diplomatiques et coloniales" :"Among the educated
people of Canada, the language is excellent, and of very
good form among the inhabitants of the rural districts,
exclusively French".
Doctor Labori, the great French barrister, on his
return to Paris after a few months visit in Canada, wrote
in Je sais tout of March 15, 1914, "The scorn many
Englishmen and Americans have for the French of our
Canadian brothers is very amusing. In Canada, the
French language is distinguished by a rather marked
native accent which is not that of Norman die, Picardie,

1
Page 246.
 — 13 —
Champagne or Poitou, but, at the same time, participates
of all. There is no more authentic French than this
savory language, piously preserved by the sons of the first
Colonists. No doubt some modern expressions trans-
lated from the English, and some peculiarities of pro-
nunciation disparage it a little for us, but the general
effect is charming and full of attraction, above all, to a
Frenchman. In one sense, the language of Canada,
with what it preserves of archaism, and although a little
rustic, is perhaps more truly French than even that of the
boulevards, being handed down without noticeable alter-
ation from ancestors, many, of whom, came from our
country districts. But many Englishmen who allow
themselves to be deceived by appearances, and fail to
perceive the charm so appealing to us, joke placidly about
it. On the boat one of them said to me in a barbarous
French he believed to be very elegant, "You will see; they
speak French very badly in Canada. When I am in
Quebec, they take me for a Parisian." This agreeable
man, although no fool, had no idea how comical his naive
remark was. I felt the full ridicule of it when, hardly
disembarked at Quebec and speaking to the wharfingers,
coachmen and customs officers, I could at once easily
believe myself in the heart of France, at Poitiers, Rouen,
Tours or Besancon".
Mr. J. J. Jusserand, the French ambassador at Wash-
ington, wro+e not long ago, "The language of the Canadians
and the Frenchmen is the same, both being French. . .

No, there is no possible doubt, and I have had too nu-

merous occasions of hearing their speeches and of talking
with them not to be convinced the cradles of Quebec and
:

Montreal and those of Paris, Lyons or Orleans hear the

same sounds falling from the mothers' lips, hear the same
language —
French —
of which those who speak it have
the right to be proud since a thousand years". * Mr. Rene
Viviani, the well known French statesman, said in a
lecture at Paris on January 18th, 1918, "They (French
Canadians) have helped to maintain, among them, that
which is the noblest and most beautiful among us the —
1
Quoted in Le Devoir, January 19th 1918.
 — 14 —
French language, marvelous instrument of National
unity. . It is that language of the 17th century, so pure
.

and which was since overloaded, perhaps, with neologisms it ;

is that language which, as in a marvelous and remote con-

servatory, has been preserved in its limpid purity as it
was spoken by our fathers". 1
Captain Duthoit, one of the most distinguished pro-
fessors of Lille University, wrote very recently, "The
Canadians have the highest degree of cult in their language.
They speak very pure French, even in the mral districts". 2
The former consul of France in Canada, M. C. E. Bonin,
said at a farewell banquet on the 23rd of last September,
"The French Canadians represent the strongest heteroge-
neous element outside of France, and Montreal al- —
though many ignore it —
is the fourth French city in the
world, after Paris, Marseille and Lyon". 3
Flattering reports, too flattening, one may say. Pos-
sibly so. But since we have enemies who exagerate our
faults at pleasure, why should we not have friends who
feel inclined to exagerate our qualities? And why, also,
should we not oppose the opinion of the latter to that of
the former ? We cannot hope to convince all these latter,
but if some of them are sincere, perhaps we will succeed in
opening their eyes to the truth. As to the others, those
who have not even ignorance for an excuse, their preju-
dices are ineradicable. Hatred is more often the motive
of their attacks against us, and as Bourget says "when one
man hates another, he almost always ends in seeing him
such as his hatred wants him to be". Then, our enemies,
to attain their ends, want to see in us only an almost
dessicated branch of the vigorous and admirable French
trunk. The day they will have succeeded to rbot this
opinion in the Anglo-Saxon heart, and to discredit us
entirely, the hour of iniquity will have sounded, the idea
contained in the well known formula will be realized and
Canada will inevitably become the country of one lan-
guage, as she is already the country of one flag and one
king.
1
Quoted in Le Canada, Montreal, February 28th 1918.
2
Quoted in Le Droit, Ottawa, August 27th 1918.
3
Quoted in The Montreal Gazette, September 23rd 1918.
 ) )

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