Cover not available
Article published In:
English World-Wide
Vol. 36:3 (2015) ► pp.277–314

English in the Gaspé region of Quebec

| McGill University

This paper reports on the first-ever linguistic study of the variety of English spoken in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, which is 86 percent French-speaking. An on-line survey was used to gather data from 200 participants on 58 phonological, grammatical and lexical variables, drawn mostly, for comparative purposes, from earlier research on Canadian and Quebec English. The analysis, focusing on data from the 124 participants who still live in the Gaspé region, produces a complex linguistic portrait of the community. It displays a unique mixture of Canadian, Quebec, Maritime and rural features, reflecting its location near the boundary between Quebec and New Brunswick, with evidence of both convergence with and divergence from Quebec English as spoken in Montreal. It also shows more frequent use of several Gallicisms, or borrowings from French, suggesting that this effect of language contact is encouraged by its minority status.

Keywords: Canadian English, borrowing, borders, geolinguistic diffusion, sociolinguistics, Quebec English, dialect variation, language contact
Published online: 3 November 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.36.3.01bob
References
Avis, Walter S
1956 “Speech Differences along the Ontario-United States Border. III. Pronunciation”. Journal of the Canadian Linguistic Association 21: 41–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baxter, Laura
2010 “Lexical Diffusion in the Early Stages of the Merry-Marry Merger”. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 16 (2): 11–19Google Scholar
Boberg, Charles
2000 “Geolinguistic Diffusion and the U.S.-Canada Border”. Language Variation and Change 121: 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 “The Phonological Status of Western New England”. American Speech 761: 3–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004a “The Dialect Topography of Montreal”. English World-Wide 251: 71–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004b “Ethnic Patterns in the Phonetics of Montreal English”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 81: 538–568. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004c “Real and Apparent Time in Language Change: Late Adoption of Changes in Montreal English”. American Speech 791: 250–269. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005a “The North American Regional Vocabulary Survey: Renewing the Study of Lexical Variation in North American English”. American Speech 801: 22–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005b “The Canadian Shift in Montreal”. Language Variation and Change 171: 133–154. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 “Regional Phonetic Differentiation in Standard Canadian English”. Journal of English Linguistics 361: 129–154. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 The English Language in Canada: Status, History and Comparative Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 “English in Quebec, Canada: A Minority Language in Contact with French”. World Englishes 311: 493–502. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Surveys: The Use of Written Questionnaires in Sociolinguistics”. In Christine Mallinson, Becky Childs, and Gerard Van Herk, eds. Data Collection in Sociolinguistics: Methods and Applications. London: Routledge, 131–141.Google Scholar
2014 “Ethnic Divergence in Montreal English”. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 591: 55–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Art
1986 Words and Expressions of the Gaspé. Campbellton, NB: The Graphic. [A later edition, under the title Mots and Phrases of the Gaspé, appeared with a new foreword dated 1995, from an unknown publisher.]Google Scholar
CASA (Committee for Anglophone Social Action)
2010 A Portrait of the English-Speaking Community of the Gaspé Coast. [URL] (accessed February 1, 2014).Google Scholar
2014a “A Brief History of the Gaspé Peninsula, the ‘Birthplace of Canada’”. [URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
2014b “Demographics”. [URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
Chambers, J.K
1995 “The Canada–US Border as a Vanishing Isogloss: The Evidence of Chesterfield ”. Journal of English Linguistics 231: 155–166. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998a “Inferring Dialect from a Postal Questionnaire”. Journal of English Linguistics 261: 222–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998b “Social Embedding of Changes in Progress”. Journal of English Linguistics 261: 5–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 “Region and Language Variation”. English World-Wide 211: 169–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 “Dynamics of Dialect Convergence”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 61: 117–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 “Geolinguistic Patterns in a Vast Speech Community”. Linguistica Atlantica 281: 27–36.Google Scholar
Chambers, J.K, and Troy Heisler
1999 “Dialect Topography of Québec City English”. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 441: 23–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chambers, J.K, and Chia-Yi Tony Pi
2004 Atlas of Dialect Topography (On-Line). [URL] (accessed January, 2014).Google Scholar
Clarke, Sandra
1993 “The Americanization of Canadian Pronunciation: A Survey of Palatal Glide Usage”. In Sandra Clarke, ed. Focus on Canada. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 85–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Newfoundland and Labrador English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dow, Cynthia
2014 “Survey of Gaspé English Submitted to International Journal”. The Gaspé Spec. 40 (19), May 14, p. 5.Google Scholar
Fee, Margery
2008 “French Borrowing in Quebec English”. Anglistik 191: 173–188.Google Scholar
Garrett, Raymond
1982 “The Loyalists of Gaspesia: 1784-1984”. [URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
Gaspé Spec, The
n.d. [URL] (accessed February 1, 2014).
Grant, Pamela
2010 “Contemporary Quebec English Usage: Reflections of the Local”. In Elaine Gold and Janice McAlpine, eds. Canadian English: A Linguistic Reader. Kingston, ON: Strathy Language Unit, Queen’s University, 177–197.Google Scholar
Grant-Russell, Pamela
1999 “The Influence of French on Quebec English: Motivation for Lexical Borrowing and Integration of Loanwords”. LACUS Forum 251: 473–486.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Donald E
1958 “Notes on Montreal English”. Journal of the Canadian Linguistic Association 41: 70–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Institut de la statistique du Québec
2013 “Bulletin Statistique Regional, Édition 2013. Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine”. Quebec City: Gouvernement du Québec. [URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
Kurath, Hans
1949 A Word Geography of the Eastern United States. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William
1963 “The Social Motivation of a Sound Change”. Word 191: 273–309. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1972 Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
1991 “The Three Dialects of English”. In Penelope Eckert, ed. New Ways of Analyzing Sound Change. New York: Academic Press, 1–44.Google Scholar
Labov, William, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg
2006 The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Leddy-Cecere, Thomas, Kenneth Baclawski Jr, Nacole Walker, and James Stanford
2011 “New England Borderlands: A New Investigation of the East–West Boundary”. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 171: 15.Google Scholar
McArthur, Tom
1989 The English Language as Used in Quebec: A Survey. Kingston, ON: Strathy Language Unit, Queen’s University.Google Scholar
McDougall, David J
n.d. “Two Centuries of Settlement of the Gaspé Coast by English Speaking People”. [URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
Munroe, Helen C
1929 “Montreal English”. American Speech 51: 21.Google Scholar
Nagy, Naomi
2001 “ ‘Live Free or Die’ as a Linguistic Principle”. American Speech 761: 30–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poplack, Shana
2008 “French Influence on Canadian English: Issues of Code-Switching and Borrowing”. Anglistik 191: 189–200.Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana, James A. Walker, and Rebecca Malcolmson
2006 “An English ‘Like No Other’?: Language Contact and Change in Quebec”. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 511: 185–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poteet, Lewis J
1992 Talking Country: The Eastern Townships Phrase Book. Ayers Cliff, QC: Pigwidgeon Press.Google Scholar
Pratt, T.K
ed. 1988 Dictionary of Prince Edward Island English. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Pringle, Ian, C. Stanley Jones, and Enoch Padolsky
1981 “The Misapprehension of Ottawa Standards in an Adjacent Rural Area”. English World-Wide 21: 165–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Richardson, Mary, and Joëlle Gauvin-Racine
2012 Community Portrait of New Carlisle. Quebec City: Direction du développement des individus et des communautés, Institut national de santé publique du Québec.Google Scholar
Rudin, Ronald
1985 The Forgotten Quebecers: A History of English-Speaking Quebec, 1759–1980. Quebec City: Institut québécois de recherche sur la culture.Google Scholar
Russell, Pamela
1997 “An Investigation of Lexical Borrowings from French in Quebec English”. LACUS Forum 231: 429–440.Google Scholar
Scargill, Matthew Henry
1957 “Sources of Canadian English”. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 561: 610–614.Google Scholar
Scargill, Matthew Henry, and Henry J. Warkentyne
1972 “The Survey of Canadian English: A Report”. English Quarterly 51: 47–104.Google Scholar
Senate of Canada
2011 The Vitality of Quebec’s English-Speaking Communities: From Myth to Reality. Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages. Ottawa: Government of Canada.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada
2012 “New Carlisle, Quebec (Code 2405040) and Bonaventure, Quebec (Code 2405) (table). Census Profile. 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-316-XWE”. Ottawa. Released October 24 2012 <[URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
2013a “Gaspésie - Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec (Code 24019) (table). National Household Survey (NHS) Profile. 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 99-004-XWE”. Ottawa. Released June 26 2013 <[URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
2013b “Gaspé, V, Quebec (Code 2403005) (table). National Household Survey (NHS) Profile. 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 99-004-XWE”. Ottawa. Released June 26 2013 <[URL] (accessed January 1, 2014).
Thomas, Charles K
1961 “The Phonology of New England English”. Communications Monographs 281: 223–232.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, and Natalie Schilling-Estes
1997 Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Boberg, Charles
2016. Newspaper Dialectology: Harnessing the Power of the Mass Media to Study Canadian English. American Speech 91:2 ► pp. 109 ff. DOI logo
Friesner, Michael, Laura Kastronic & Jeffrey Lamontagne
2021. Dynamics of Short-a in Montreal and Quebec City English. American Speech 96:4 ► pp. 450 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 march 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.