Quote:
Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker
Yeah, I actually think I have better pronunciation than that woman at 15 minutes in.
It's too bad we didn't preserve and promote Newfoundland French. I prefer the way that guy sounds, for example, than the hostess.
Here are few gorgeous (no seriously... French fisherman... row on over) examples from St-Pierre-et-Miquelon, which is close to how Newfoundland French was:
• Video Link |
There is world of difference between the people from SPM and Franco-Newfoundlanders from just across the water. These people very obviously speak continental European French, while the people from NL speak a variant of North American French.
There are a few things typical of NA French that I picked up, but not many.
For example the older fisherman said he could continue to work if he stayed "smatte" which is an Acadian word corrupted from the English word "smart" but it doesn't mean exactly the same thing. The reporter incorrectly translated it for her continental French viewers as "healthy and strong" but in this sense he probably meant "hard-working and tough".
Smatte can also mean "smart-ass" in another context.
Also one person said
peut-êt' which is also common in NA French, whereas European francophones tend to pronounce all of the syllables:
peut-être. But overall if these people walked down the street in Montreal people would automatically think they were European francophones.
A school system will do that to you.