• lugal@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    I never got this: why do people in France speak an American language instead of a European one?

    • MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      French-Canadian from Quebec here: the same way an American will use a french word mid sentence to add a certain je-ne-sais-quoi

      But they tend to go way overboard with them, ending with bastardized, barely comprehensible french. And they dare correct us when we use the proper french terms instead of the ones they abuse.

    • bratosch@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I don’t get it. How is French an American language? I don’t understand the meme overall either

      • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        French is spoken in France and parts of north America. Most people are very emotional about their native language so they feel every deviation of it is just wrong.

        The most common and seemingly natural view is that France French is “right” and oversea French is not but honestly it’s arbitrary. OP turned it around and so I did too, eventhough I myself live in a non French European country. Well, we all hate our neighbors and the enemy is my enemy is my friend I guess.

          • weariedfae@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            IIRC that’s correct.

            Kinda like how the American accent is closer to OG British English than the current British English pronunciation.

          • joneskind@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I’ve been believing this for a very long time but I’ve seen a video made by a French Canadian that proved me wrong

            As a matter of fact, when first immigrants arrived in Nova Scotia, most of the French people weren’t even speaking French, but regional dialects.

            What happened is that immigrants had to spend long periods of time in big ports of France before taking the boat to the new World and this is how they learned to speak French.

            But English was the language mainly used for trades, and local French speakers included a lot of English words in their daily dictionary (which were then exported to France)

            Then England took control of Canada and tried to eradicate the French spoken there because they thought it was impure and perverted.

            French speakers were pissed, and began to protect the language with tough anti-English rules

            • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              Uh pretty sure protection of French language (and Catholicism) was agreed on from the start. Otherwise there would have been rebellions.

              • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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                9 months ago

                Language, religion, and laws. This is why Quebec is predominantly French, doesn’t use British common law like America and the rest of Canada, and was predominantly catholic at a time when a lot of places required you to follow the king’s (or queen’s) religion.

                • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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                  9 months ago

                  And why a Catholic school board exists in the entire country. We’re far past the point it should be allowed to exist, but afaik it’s in the constitution and hard to get rid of.

              • joneskind@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                Before the moment England took control of the Canada there wasn’t any protective law because there wasn’t a need to.

                Protection measures appeared after that

                • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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                  9 months ago

                  I’m responding to “tried to eradicate the French spoken there”. When they took over, I’m pretty sure they agreed to the French language and Catholicism from the very beginning. They didn’t try to eradicate it. Protection didn’t come from failed eradication attempts, protection was agreed to from the start.