Acadian French VS French Speaker | Will I understand it? French Reacts to Acadian French 🇫🇷(Chiac)

I come from a French Canadian background on my father’s side, and an Irish Miq Maq background on my mother’s side. Born in Halifax. I speak French, and English, (along with a few other languages not pertaining to this). When I was 20, I lived in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked as an Au Paire. There I was told often that I spoke French with a Canadian accent. I have often been able to help tourists by translating the language for them. The most interesting time was when I was 18. We were in south Texas, and a couple visiting from London England came into the local convenience store. They spoke a Cockney dialect, and I translated English to English between the Texan storekeeper, and the British customers. Languages are a very great interest to me. Bonne journée.

Their French is supposed to be closest to what French was 300-400 years ago when they left France. Languages change over time, French in France has changed over the last few hundred years, but these guys still hold on to a lot of the original language. It is like a language time capsule. It is not the only Acadian dialect, but Chiac accommodate more English.

I’m Franco-Ontarian and every time I visit Quebec, I’m told that my accent sounds Acadian. Particularly because the way I roll my Rs which I’ve been told is also characteristic of Northern Ontario French. The bilingual community I grew up in is also notorious for speaking Frenglish lol. Thank you for this great video! Loved it! ☺️

Not all acadien speak Chiac, only in the Sud-est part of New-Brunswick (a Canadien province), principalement dans les villes de Moncton et Dieppe. If you go dans la Péninsule acadienne nord-est of New-Brunswick (Caraquet, Tracadie, etc.). Its is a different accent. If you go in the nord-ouest in Edmunston for exemple they speak Brayon, un autre accent différent.

C'était right cool te ouaire reacter a notre way d'parler. Merci j'ai bien enjoyer ca. :)

Grew up in Boston, was about 8 years old when she died, but I still have aural memories of my grandmother on my mothers side. She was born, and grew up in Saulnierville NS. French was her first language, the area she grew up in on the Bay of Fundy was a 50 to 60 mile stretch from Yarmouth to Digby south to north that was, and still is predominantly French/Arcadian/Chiac speaking area. My grandmother emigrated to the US in the 1925, met my grandfather American, in Massachusetts married, mom born in 1929. I vividly remember my grandmother speaking a mixture French/English just like the husband in the first part of the video, especially when she got excited or angry. It seemed to me that she had a very deep, alto speaking voice. She did not teach my mom French, but my mom could mimic her perfectly with the same accents, and inflections. This video really brought back some fond very distant, and closer memories. My grandmothers father was adopted as a 2 year old orphan who’s mother died on the ship that carried both of them from Ireland in 1861. His adoptive family was French speaking Canadian from that town. They let him keep his original name of Duffy. He ended up marrying a cousin of family who’s name was Comeau. So my grandmother was a French speaking Canadian of Irish/French descent whom I remember fondly for double speak to my ears, and lots of spoiling and hugs. 😉

My father was born on the east coast of New Brunswick in the early 1930s in a village almost entirely occupied by Acadians. His mother tongue was French but when his family moved south to the capital, he quickly became Anglicized. He said, "You could get beat up for speaking French in Fredericton in those days." As a result, I grew up speaking only English, my mother's mother tongue. I learned French as a young adult, and one of the things I remember hearing in the course of my learning was that there were nine different French dialects in New Brunswick. Another of my teachers explained that the rolled R was more common among Acadians, but that some children had trouble with it and, therefore, formed the R sound in their throats. She, her husband, and one of her sons rolled their R's but the other son couldn't do it! This could explain the difference between the Acadian couple at the beginning of the video. Also, New Brunswick and Quebec border each other, and I suspect that the closer the community is to the border, the more similar the accent is to one of those spoken in Quebec. PS The couple speak English with a French accent. I would have known they were Acadian even if they hadn't spoken French. Their accent in English is different from yours, though.

I really love the joy you have discovering new things. It a great balance to the frustration that can be brought on by confusion.

Thanks for posting this Marie even though it didn’t go as you expected. Still interesting and fun. I’m going to watch it again to see if I can get more than I got the first time.

Great video Marie. If you think you were confused just think how confused we were 😅😂🤣 keep the videos coming

I'm Acadian, and the first couple is actually not far from where i grew up, and the last guy actually went to my high school. Both of them I had no problem understanding, and the reason for the difference is because each village has a different accent, that explains the difference with the R between the husband and the wife, they probably grew up in neighborhood villages, so you would notice a difference, we would use the same work, but pronounce it differently. The middle video, i had trouble with, but that is because the northern part of New Brunswick has a lot of influence from Quebec and a lot of them are also dependent from the Acadians who got deported from Acadian (Now Nova Scotia) in 1755, by the British. We got scatered every where with over half the population dying. Cajuns are decendents of the survivors who made it to Louisiana. A lot excaped to Quebec amd later returned to New Brunswick, this is mostly the population we now see in the northern part of New Brunswick. The Acadians in the southern part of New Brunswick and in Nova Scotia are mostly the Acadians that hid from the British in the woods or within native villages, or who made their way to the refuge camp in New Brunswick in Miramichi. Being from the southern part of New Brunswick, i have no problem understanding Acadians from Nova Scotia, it's a very simular dialog, but have a very hard time understanding people from the northern part of my own province, almost as much as I would someone from Quebec. Acadians in Moncton and Dieppe area are influenced by living in a community where the population is about half french and half english (i believe in the pass it was more english than french), so they have a large english influence in their dialogue. i also grew up with older parents, who when they went to school, where tought in english, there where no french books provided for french speaking students in the province back in the day, so there was a large english influnce put on them as well from school. The older couple at the beginning of the video would be part of that generation as well. The Acadian history amd culture is very complicated especially for anyone who hasn't lived it, but the main reason for the variation, is caused by the Acadians being seperated and having various different influence on their language over the last 250 years.

The Maritimes are a great place to road trip. Cape Breton is picturesque, and Antigonish is great too. You pretty much can't go wrong driving the coast anywhere in any of the three provinces.

Oh, Marie, this lovely couple is so fun to listen to! What's strange is that I understood the husband better than our English speakers down in Georgia! My first time there, I thought I was in a foreign country! Thank you for a great video!

Stumbled upon this video and really enjoyed watching - hearing them, and your reactions... Acadia extends from the edge of Quebec at New Brunswick then extends east through PEI - that could be some of the differences between the speakers. I used to work with a girl who was from NB - loved listening to her talk! She was back and forth - we had a big group in that job, NB, Quebec City, Montreal, Ontario, Alberta french people - each is quite different, but the east coast, they've got a wonderful rhythm in their speech (if they were Irish, I'd call it a "lilt" but I'm not sure that's the right word).

Madawaska, Maine(USA) has an Acadian Festival every summer and has for many years. If you want to experience an actual “old time France” visit this place at this time of year. Do it soon because the oldest generation like my grandparents who only spoke French are passing away and, so is this French language. It is not spoken much in the youngest (current) generation. This is an “antiquated”, old-time French from 200 years ago. Amazing considering these French-only speaking, elderly population are Americans! No other place in the United States has an ISOLATED French settlement like the St. John Valley (Fort Kent, Frenchville, Madawaska, St.David, Grand Isle, Van Buren).

As someone else commented, Chiac usually refers to the French/ English mixture spoken around Moncton New Brunswick. I remember overhearing a guy saying “ j’suis allé pick up ma blonde at the airport. There are English and French speaking villages in this area and the dialect has been influenced by this and the historical political and economic superiority of anglophones. In the north of New Brunswick, again, as mentioned in another comment, the accent is different. It is obviously Canadian French but different from Quebec French. The ancestors of the Acadians arrived in North America independently from the Québécois. In the early 18th century they had an accommodation with the English and were known as “neutral French”. In the 1750s the English settlers in what is now the US became concerned at their increasing numbers and jealous of their economic success. They took advantage of the conflict between England and France to have them expelled from the land. This is referred to as “Le Grand Dérangement ». Many went to Louisiana. Others hid in the forests and moved north into New Brunswick where they were helped by the native First Nation inhabitants. Their descendants are now the francophone acadians of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. The history of this region is fascinating.I lived there for about three years. I loved it! Vive l’Acadie!

The first couple, especially the woman, brings back memories of my Papa speaking with his cousin. All of his relatives still live in Canada. He was Acadian French.

It was like listening to my Mom & Dad speaking !!! I grew up with this way of speaking, at my parents house... I feel like I'm at home ! Thanks !!!👍

You should look up or react to "Radio Radio", which is a Chiac rap group. Their music is really good and the lyrics are funny and also easily available for reference. New Brunswick is about half French (Acadian, on east coast) and half English, but most people are bilingual. And in Moncton (main city), they developed a mixed language, Chiac, which is mostly using French grammar with lots of English words and expressions mixed into it.

Acadian French is extremely diverse. I'm from Magdalen islands, and we have our unique accents, expression, and usage of old French