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Title:
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French Language Maintenance in Ontario, Canada: A sociolinguistic portrait of the community of Hearst
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Author:
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Dan Golembeski
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Indiana University
, Department of French and Italian
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Degree Date:
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1999
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Sociolinguistics
Text/Corpus Linguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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French
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Director(s):
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Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig
Samuel Rosenberg
Julie Auger
Albert Valdman
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Abstract:
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Of the many situations of language contact worldwide, minority language maintenance is extremely rare. Examples of minority language maintenance provide a unique perspective on contact phenomena, and may provide important data for those engaged in language revitalization efforts in other minority communities.
The study focuses on the survival of French in the town of Hearst, Ontario, where the vitality of French has increased despite the fact that French is a declining minority language in the province as a whole, spoken in less than 4% of all households (1996). Although immigration to Hearst from Quebec is in large part responsible for this increase, French language use has spread even to some ethnic anglophones.
The study is divided into two parts: an overview of the macro-linguistic situation followed by an analysis of certain lexical features of Hearst French. The linguistic portrait is based on a sociolinguistic survey of 292 residents who provided self-reports of language use in a variety of communicative contexts. The corpus of oral French was collected in 34 interviews and through participant observation.
Although statistics reveal that the number of francophones has increased dramatically, the survey provides evidence of the increased use of English among French speakers. This increase is, however, offset by other factors, such as improved institutional support for French and the blossoming of Franco-Ontarian culture. Marriage between francophones and anglophones - a factor which has been associated with the decline of French elsewhere - is relatively low. An investigation of the structure of Hearst French contributes to
an understanding of the complex maintenance situation revealed by the survey. The younger generation uses a greater percentage of English loanwords than the older generation. There is however evidence of the standardization of loanword use among younger francophones.
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Page Updated: 24-Nov-2009
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