Variation in Canadian French usage from the 18th to the 19th century

Abstract

Abstract On the basis of private documents (letters, diaries), this article discusses the language use of Canadian French writers from different social classes from the beginning of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century. It first examines the relationship between the writers and the norm and their use of conservative and innovative features with regard to spelling and grammar. Next, it looks into the extent to which non-standard spelling use could be paralleled with vernacular use of morpho-syntactic features. ne montre pas mon griffonage jan ai honte moi-même ‘Do not show my scribbles, I am ashamed of them’ (18th century)