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Articles

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2006)

Les parlers français oubliés d’Amérique : le franco-minnesotain et le franco-dakotain

  • Robert A. Papen
Submitted
October 15, 2012

Abstract

Ever since Valdman (1979) the varieties of French spoken in the United-States are relatively well known; nevertheless, there remain two varieties that have never been described: the French spoken in a number of small communities in Polk and Red Lake counties in north-western Minnesota and the Mitchif French spoken at Belcourt and surrounding areas in North Dakota. In this article, the aim is to rapidly sketch the history of the first colonists and residents of these two communities and secondly to describe the basic linguistic features of the French spoken there, comparing them either to their close cousins, the Western Canadian French vernacular varieties, or to Canadian Michif French.