A Linguistic Perspective on Ontarian French

Abstract

Dans cet article nous passons en revue les principaux resultats des recherches ricentes consacrees au frangais de l'Ontario. A la lumi&re de ces resultats il apparait que le francais de l'Ontario n'est pas un jargon hybride (conception populaire) mais un authentique dialecte du frangais ayant des rapports 6troits avec le frangais du Quebec et le frangais europlen contemporain ou pass6. Nous montrons pourquoi il est nicessaire de faire la lumi&re sur le frangais de l'Ontario et indiquons que les educateurs franco-ontariens pourraient jouer un r1le important en diss6minant chez leurs 6l.ves une image plus positive du fran?ais ontarien. It appears clearly from the results of several linguistic studies devoted to Ontarian French that the latter constitutes an authentic Canadian dialect of French. Although it differs in several ways from standard French, it is no less authentic. These results should perhaps come as no surprise to contemporary linguists. However, they stand in sharp contrast to the popular views on Ontarian French which can be found both among the Anglo-Ontarian community and among some of the members of the Franco-Ontarian community. The headline of an article on Ontarian French published in the Toronto Globe and Mail (1977) constitutes a capsulated example of such views: French Language is Bastardized in Ontario. In the present article we would like to: (i) briefly review some of the recent findings on Ontarian French, (2) try to show why views such as the ones disseminated by the Globe and Mail are not only inaccurate but also harmful to the Franco-Ontarian community, and (3) examine some of the implications that the recent findings on Ontarian French may have for French language instruction in Ontario.