Does Quebecois French really sound old-fashioned?
I have a friend from Paris, France and my another friend is going to a suburb of Montreal as an exchange student to learn French further. But my French friend told her that Quebecois French sounds old-fashioned and rustic.
Is it true?
I mean, British people usually don't say American English sounds old-fashioned and crude. Does Quebecois French really sound that way to French speakers from France?
From what I've heard, Paris people think of Quebec speech as ''rural, peasant-style, inelegant''. Dutch people like Belgian Dutch (Flemish): they find it quaint but cute. Americans like British English, Brazilians don't like Continental Portuguese, Portuguese people like Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation-wise, but they hate it syntax-wise and lexicon-wise.
Maybe Icelandic sounds old fashioned to Norwegians?
Something similar happened to me when I asked one of my French friends and my French teacher (both from France) what Quebecois French sounded like to them. Here is what they said:
French teacher:
It is hard to understand them at times because they speak an older French, but they articulate better.
Friend from France:
I think that their French sounds cute.
In my opinion, le français québecois is the best. It is a truer French--more pure...more sophisticated and gentle. I would even go so far as to say that I prefer it over the Parisian French which depending on the region sounds as if the person trying to spit something out of their mouths. No offense to the French...because it is not all of the regions that sound like this.
I'm french but I don't live in Paris, for me the Quebecois sound cool.
In same time, there are many accent in France. People who live in the south or in the north have different accents.
The parisian accent is the ugliest...too snob.
"Does Quebecois French really sound old-fashioned?"
-- Honestly: yes.
My mother-in-law is from Southern Normandy, she has a very heavy local accent, with lots of peculiar words and sayings that sound absolutely like Canadian French.
To the average Frenchman, Quebec French sounds like the accent traditionally used by farmers in Western and Central France (Normandy, Bretagne, Maine, Berry) ...
As for the spoken language, many vowels in Quebecois French sound very English-like.
This is obvious to someone who speaks European French and is also familiar with American and Canadian English.
For example, in the Quebecois pronunciation of the words ça and là the vowel sounds like something a Canadian or American English speaker would produce in the English words "cot" or "car". It's not a vowel you would hear in France like in là-bas, cas, cotte or ô. I'm certain this is of N. American English influence.
Then there's the pronunciation of a final R, like in dépanneur, that is pronounced a l'anglaise... not to mention all the diphthongs that sound American "redneck-" or cowboy- like; definitely from American English.
But I don't think that the strong Anglo influence is any wonder considering around 30% of the Quebecois are of Irish descent and historically, the French speakers were surrounded by Anglophones.
"For example, in the Quebecois pronunciation of the words ça and là the vowel sounds like something a Canadian or American English speaker would produce in the English words "cot" or "car". It's not a vowel you would hear in France like in là-bas, cas, cotte or ô. I'm certain this is of N. American English influence. "
-- This is absolutely right. Strong tendencies to diphtonguize are also present in Western France (and are seen as very peasant-like), especially in the departments Mayenne and Sarthe. There is no doubt that in Canada this has been further encouraged by English influence. With for instance the word "fleur" being pronounced just like an intermediate between standard French and English "flower".
Same phenomenon in the Cajun country. It is less known that this also occurs in Europe, in the Channel Islands. Jerriais, the (virtually extinct) Norman dialect that used to be spoken on Jersey, sounds eerily similar to Quebec French
For what it's worth this are my favorit french langauges....
1. Belgian French (so easy to understand & follow along)
2. Quebecois French (so laied bak & down to earth, someone easy to follow)
thats about it.
Hey, there is no Belgian French...
Except for a few special words (septante, nonante), most people in Wallony are undistinguishable from their north-eastern French neighbors when they speak.
In Liège, the language is generally cleaner than in most French towns.
The Belgian accent sounds somewhat "German" !
Ur right Roland, when a Belgian speaks french it sounds more "clean" & clear rather than an acctual French person. :-D
People in Wallony speak french like French people (except from south of the France)
They have only a light accent . Like many French in France, in fact.
Would anyone mind to put a link with Belgian people speaking French?
It would be helpful to understand if it's really different from French spoken in France.
Cheers!!