Language Features and Development History of Montreal, Canada

Because Quebec and France are across the sea, their historical experience and political, economic and cultural environment are different from those of France, there are some differences between Quebec French and French native French, mainly in pronunciation, intonation and vocabulary. The most obvious difference between Quebec French and native French lies in pronunciation and intonation. French-speaking foreigners are not used to the French spoken by the locals when they first arrive in Quebec, especially the intonation. The main characteristics of this kind of pronunciation and intonation are: disyllabic tendency, stress shift, impure tone and rhythm.

Secondly, vocabulary. Since 1763, when France and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, the contact between Quebec and France was interrupted for more than a century. When French developed rapidly in France, Quebec French still stayed in the ancient French stage of Louis 14. The changes and developments in France have little influence on Quebec French. Most of the old French has been eliminated in France, and some have lost their original intention or added new ideas, but they still exist in Quebec. On the other hand, French immigrants from 17 to 18 not only came from all over France, but also had different occupations, identities and cultural attainments, so there were various dialects and jargon in French. Most of the immigrants are fishermen in western France, especially the French dialect in the central and western Quebec dialect and fishermen's jargon.

In addition, in the natural environment and climate different from France, immigrants invented many new words for survival and communication. Most of these news are French derivatives, and some of them are composed of common nouns, which not only conforms to French word formation but also reflects the characteristics of life in North America. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the living and social environment in North America for nearly 400 years is inevitably influenced by foreign words on Quebec French. The first is the influence of English. There are many words, phrases or sentence patterns that imitate English. Secondly, there are more than 100 Indian words in Quebec French. In a word, the influence of ancient French, news and foreign words is another major feature of Quebec French. Various features are intertwined, giving Quebec French a gorgeous local color and making it a very dynamic language. Some people call it Quebec French, others call it New French, and some even call it Rual (Montreal colloquial language). Quebec people are proud of their unique language. If you tell the local residents that you don't understand their French, they will reply, "Never mind, you will get used to it soon." If you say that their French is not pure, they will say, "No, this is our own language, and we like this language."