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Articles

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2006)

Similarités morphosyntaxiques des parlers français de l’Ouest canadien

  • Sandrine Hallion Bres
Submitted
October 15, 2012

Abstract

Only very few studies have been published on the morphology and syntax of the French spoken in Western Canada. Moreover, due to the lack of consistency in the methods used for gathering and/or analyzing the linguistic data, it is quite a daunting task to try and offer a valid synthesis on this matter. Taking into account the studies published so far, we will attempt to highlight the most striking morphosyntactic aspects of three varieties of French spoken in Western Canada, namely: Franco-Manitoban, Michif French and Franco-Albertan. It will then be possible to bring at least some answers to the following questions: do Western French dialects present distinctive linguistic traits that are specifically theirs and distinguish them from Franco-Ontarian, their closest eastern neighbour? Can we find morphosyntactic similarities between these varieties of French that would allow us to classify them as belonging to a single variety? Fundamentally, we attempt to follow new directions for research as proposed by Robert Papen at the Symposium sur les parlers français de l’Ouest held in May 2004 in Saint- Boniface (Manitoba).