Quebec French

There are over 7 million French speaking people in the Quebec province of Canada for whom Quebec French is a primary language. This is a significant reason why French is the official language of the Quebec province. It is the official dialect not only used by the members of government, but also the language used by the media, educational institutions and business houses.

It is one of the prominent varieties of Canadian French dialect that has clear distinctions from the Metropolitan French dialect spoken in Paris. A Quebec French speaker can understand the Metropolitan French dialect but it’s not the same other way round because Quebec French is geographically separated from and more difficult than the French dialects from Europe. Some linguists, however, claim that these variations are still lesser than those compared between Standard German and Swiss German.

Quebec French is known as ‘Canadian French’ outside Canada. Translation companies translating documents and contents for Canadian customers will almost always make sure they are using ‘Canadian French’ instead of a French from France.

Quebec French Origin

Some scholars state that Quebec French is derived from the Classical French dialect in combination with several oil languages that were spoken by the immigrants who settled in the Canadian French colonies after the seventeenth century. Due to the British rule in Canada. The Quebec French dialect could not be refined simultaneously along with the French dialect as spoken in France because the connections between the two nations were cut during this period. That is one of the prime reasons why one can find several features of the older French dialect present in modern Quebec French.

During the nineteenth century, Quebec saw several industrial developments which followed mainly after the evolution of Canadian Confederation. These developments attracted several immigrants from the English speaking nations which resulted in a higher concentration of English speakers in Quebec resulting into influencing the Quebec French dialect by English language. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that Quebec French got accepted as the official language at Federal and provincial level.

There are several variations of Quebec French that could be classified separately on the basis of vocabulary and pronunciation. These different types of Quebec French dialects include but are not limited to: Central dialect, Western dialect, Eastern dialect, Northern dialect, Maritime dialect, Old dialect, New dialect and Quebec City dialect. Out of these dialects, the Quebec City dialect, which is spoken in the central part of Quebec and in the St. Lawrence Valley is considered as the Standard Quebec French dialect mostly due to its complete resemblance to Standard French dialect spoken in Paris.