Newfoundland French or
Newfoundland Peninsular French refers to the French spoken on the
Port au Port PeninsulaThe 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 ShoreThe 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
francophoneThe 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 FrenchThe 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
QuébécoisQuebec 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
AcadianThe 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
NormanNormandy 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
BretonBrittany 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 FrenchAcadian 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 EnglishNewfoundland 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 featuresLinguistic 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
moribundAn 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 LabradorFranco-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 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 CaillouxThree 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’terreMainland 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-CanardsBlack 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’HiverBlack 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
LourdesLourdes 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 ValleyThe 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
StephenvilleStephenville is a Canadian town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland....
. These francophones speak in the
Acadian dialectAcadian 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 UtrechtThe 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 ParisThe 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
BretonThe 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
BasqueThe 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 IslandCape 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 IslandsThe 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-GeorgeCape 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 ValleyThe 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
StephenvilleStephenville 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
BretonBreton 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 FerryJules 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 BaseErnest 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
StephenvilleStephenville 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-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
varietyIn 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.