1. Introduction
Ça fait quelques mois que je remarque que plusieurs, surtout plus jeunes, ont arrêté d'accorder les anglicismes. Suis-je le seul à avoir remarqué ? Du genre, « je vais stopper » devient « je vais stop » ou « on pourra checker » devient « on pourra check ». Criss que ça me gosse. […] Je me sens vieux à poser cette question-là, pis j'ai juste f*** 28 ans.
For a few months now I've been noticing that many people, especially younger ones, have stopped conjugating anglicisms. Am I the only one who's noticed this? Like, “je vais stopper” becomes “je vais stop” or “on pourra checker” becomes “on pourra check”. Christ, it gets on my nerves. […] I feel old just asking the question, and I'm only 28, FFS.
(Dadou02, Reddit, June 2020)
This article investigates speakers’ attitudes towards the use of English-origin lexical items (so-called anglicisms) in Quebec French. Generally speaking, the common practice in Quebec French has been to integrate lexical borrowings from English into the French language (Poplack Reference Poplack2018). In sentences (1) and (2) below, the integration of English-origin verbs can be audible and readable, with the ending -er marking the infinitive form in “cope” and the ending -ait marking the imperfect in “polish” (translations not in original):
(1) Je serais pas capable de coper avec. (‘I couldn't cope with this.’)
(2) On lavait les planchers à la main, tu sais, puis après ça on polishait avec notre fessier. (‘We washed the floors by hand, you know, then after that we polished them with our butts.’)
(Poplack Reference Poplack2016: 381)
In recent years, however, some French-speaking Quebecers have been using the bare form of the verbs, as noted by Dadou02 above; this is especially observable among young Quebecers. In such instances, the English-origin verbs are inserted into the syntax of the French language but remain morphologically unintegrated. Sentences (3) and (4) were overheard spoken by young Quebecers and illustrate this emerging usage of the morphologically unintegrated forms:
(3) Peux-tu bring le trailer quand tu vas venir ? (‘Can you bring the trailer when you come?’)
(4) Je vous rassure, on ne voulait pas sneak une proposition. (‘Let me reassure you, we weren't trying to sneak a proposition in.’)
This change of practice for the use of English-origin verbs is most probably a linguistic innovation that is emerging from young French speakers in the Montreal area (M-E Bouchard Reference Bouchard2023a). This is not surprising, as recent studies on Montreal's new Francophonie indicate that young Montrealers are highly multilingual, that they have a greater tolerance for code-switching, bilingual talk, and other inventive uses of language, and that there is a positive shift in attitudes towards multilingualism (Lamarre et al. Reference Lamarre, Paquette, Kahn and Ambrosi2002, Low et al. Reference Low, Sarkar and Winer2009).
I ask the following two research questions: What are the attitudes of French-speaking Quebecers towards the use of anglicisms in general, and towards the emerging use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verb forms more specifically? Results of an online questionnaire on attitudes towards the use of anglicisms are analyzed to answer these questions. The article is divided into four sections: a presentation of the existing literature on language attitudes and the use of anglicisms in Quebec French, a description of the methodology, the results regarding attitudes towards the use of anglicisms, and finally, discussion and conclusion.
2. Background
In this section, I present the existing literature on language attitudes and the use of anglicisms in Quebec French.
2.1 Language attitudes
The study of language attitudes has roots in social psychology, but it spans several social disciplines, including social psychology, sociology of language, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, communication, and discourse analysis (Cargile et al. Reference Cargile, Giles, Ryan and Bradac1994). The literature on language attitudes is vast and dates back almost a century (e.g., Pear Reference Pear1931, Allport and Cantril Reference Allport and Cantril1934, Allport Reference Allport and Murchison1935). Since about 1960, hundreds of language attitude studies have been conducted throughout the world and across various languages (for reviews on the topic, see Cargile et al. Reference Cargile, Giles, Ryan and Bradac1994, Fuertes et al. Reference Fuertes, Gottdiener, Martin, Gilbert and Giles2012, Dragovejic et al. Reference Dragovejic, Fasoli, Cramer and Rakic2021); they are generally defined as evaluative reactions to language varieties. The definition usually also includes reactions to the users of these language varieties (Lambert et al. Reference Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner and Fillenbaum1960, Grosjean Reference Grosjean1982). Therefore, the study of language attitudes is concerned with the social meanings people assign to different language varieties (e.g., meanings assigned to a standard variety of French versus a non-standard one) or language usage (e.g., meanings assigned to the use of anglicisms in the French language) and their speakers. While drawing on a diverse array of methodologies, language attitude studies make use of three main investigative techniques: societal treatment, indirect method, and direct method.
With societal treatment, researchers use and analyze pre-existing information. This method includes, for instance, analyses of policies (Bourhis Reference Bourhis, Coupland and Jaworski1997) and documents (Rickford and Traugott Reference Rickford, Traugott and Greenbaum1985), discourse analysis (Liebscher and Dailey-O'Cain Reference Liebscher and Dailey-O'Cain2009), and ethnographic studies (Stevens 1983, Hammine Reference Hammine2020). It is concerned with the public treatment of language varieties. The indirect method, on the other hand, focuses on the participants’ evaluation of speakers of language varieties (rather than the language varieties themselves). The most well-known indirect method for investigating people's attitudes towards language varieties is the matched-guise technique, developed in the 1950s (Lambert et al. Reference Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner and Fillenbaum1960). The objective of the matched-guise test is to circumvent the conscious stereotypes that participants may want to hide from the researcher and attempt instead to determine their actual attitudes. The third technique, the direct method, consists primarily of interviews, questionnaires, and self-reports in which participants are asked to express their opinions and beliefs about particular language varieties, features, or usage. This is the most traditional technique and was the method used in the present study. Such direct means of data collection are far from perfect, however. One frequent methodological criticism is the unreliability in uncovering participants’ genuine attitudes, as they tend to report socially desirable attitudes or beliefs they assume that the researcher is looking for rather than their own attitudes – especially if society would perceive these attitudes as undesirable (Garrett et al. 2003).
As noted, attitudes about language fall into two main groups (Dragojevic et al. Reference Dragovejic, Fasoli, Cramer and Rakic2021): attitudes about different language varieties and attitudes about speakers of different language varieties. Attitudes about language varieties themselves are formed from beliefs and opinions about structure (e.g., a language being perceived as having a logical structure), value (e.g., a language being perceived as pleasant), and sound (e.g., a language being perceived as sounding soft). On the other hand, attitudes about speakers include status (e.g., the perceived intelligence and leadership skills of the speakers) and solidarity (e.g., the perceived likeability, friendliness, and sociability of the speakers). Most studies show a clear pattern regarding these two dimensions: a language that is evaluated positively in terms of status is associated with prestige and social and economic power, whereas a language that is evaluated favourably in terms of solidarity is generally associated with feelings of attachment, appreciation, belonging, and kindness.
2.2 Language attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in Quebec French
In Quebec, the term ‘anglicism’ is quite negatively charged. Anglicisms in Quebec can be a sensitive topic, and as Planchon (Reference Planchon2018) notes, everybody in Quebec has an opinion on the matter. Since the nineteenth century, anglicisms in Quebec have been perceived as an enemy (Tardivel Reference Tardivel1880), as a threat to the maintenance of the French language (Hagège Reference Hagège2006), or as a sign of unequal power (Deshaies Reference Deshaies1984), among other things. They have been associated with the deterioration of the French language, a belief that has fuelled ideologies of purism that have persisted to the present day (C. Bouchard Reference Bouchard1998, Walsh Reference Walsh2014). The perception that anglicisms constitute a threat can still be used in the public discourse to promote the use of the French language, as is the case with the Fondation pour la langue française (n.d.), a charitable organization dedicated entirely to the promotion of French in Quebec and Canada. They created short 16-second videos for social media consisting of six slides each in which we see different sentences being anglicized over time, with a final plea not to lose one's French. Here are two examples:
(5) J'ai appelé ma mère (2000) → J'ai callé ma mère (2010) → J'ai call ma mom (2020) → J'ai call my mom (2030) → I called my mom (2040) → Ne perds pas ton français. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2748959595395396)
(6) J'ai échappé mon téléphone (2000) → J'ai droppé mon téléphone (2010) → J'ai drop mon phone (2020) → J'ai drop my phone (2030) → I dropped my phone (2040) → Ne perds pas ton français. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij52ZIB92QM)
It is noteworthy that these include the morphologically unintegrated form of English-origin verbs in the 2020 slides as a step in their imagined language shift towards English.
Talking about anglicisms in Quebec is rarely a purely linguistic issue; rather, it is a historical, political, and social matter (Heller Reference Heller1982). According to St-Yves (Reference St-Yves2006), English started to be perceived as the principal source of corruption of the French language in Canada starting in the 1860s. In Quebec, “language equals identity” (Planchon and Stockemer Reference Planchon and Stockemer2016: 29), so addressing any influence of English on French implies diving into the history of a nation that defines itself by its language and has fought to survive and still struggles to exist in an English-dominant North America. Successive Quebec governments of all political stripes have therefore implemented language policies to protect and enhance the use and status of the French language. Notably, in 1977, Quebec adopted the Charter of the French Language, making French the only official language of the province and reinforcing its position as the public language of education, work, commerce, and community life. This, of course, does not shield French from the influence of English, as the dominant language in Canada, North America, and the rest of the world.
According to the results of the last census (Statistics Canada 2021a), the proportion of French speakers in Quebec and in Canada as a whole is in decline. In Quebec, the proportion of individuals who reported speaking French as a first language went from 82% in 1991 to 75% in 2021 (Noël and Croteau Reference Noël and Croteau2022). This has sparked a great deal of discussion in the media, though the picture is more nuanced than the more alarmist commentators might admit. For instance, the lower proportion of French as a first language is most probably related to the number of immigrants (i.e., individuals who speak a language other than French as a first language) rather than to French speakers assimilating to English (Noël and Croteau Reference Noël and Croteau2022). Different media outlets also responded from different perspectives – for example, while many French-language newspapers focused on the decline of French, other (mainly English) newspapers highlighted the rise of linguistic diversity (Osman Reference Osman2022).
2.3 Language attitudes towards the use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs in Quebec French
Several studies have investigated attitudes towards Quebec French (e.g., P. Bouchard and Maurais Reference Bourhis, Coupland and Jaworski1999, Maurais Reference Maurais2008, Kircher Reference Kircher2012, Chalier Reference Chalier2021, and many others), but none consider attitudes towards morphologically unintegrated forms. M.-È. Bouchard (Reference Bouchard2023a) provides the first variationist study on the use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs in Quebec French. This work investigates the correlation between speakers and their evaluation of different lexical insertion strategies, as well as the social factors that constrain the use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs. A total of 675 French-speaking Quebecers participated in this study through an online written questionnaire. The study is divided into three parts. In the first part, participants were invited to evaluate the use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs in 14 different sentences presented to them (e.g., Je vais aller me get une bière au dep ‘I'm gonna go get me a beer at the corner store’, Mon jeu vient de crash ‘My game just crashed’, Il a été cancel ‘He got cancelled’). They were asked to answer the question “If you heard someone say this sentence, would it sound acceptable to you?” by using a Likert scale with five points (totally acceptable, rather acceptable, rather unacceptable, totally unacceptable, I don't understand the meaning of this sentence). The results indicate that young Quebecers from Montreal with a high level of proficiency in English evaluate the use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs more favourably. Participants from Quebec City disfavoured the use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs compared to participants from Montreal (especially) and elsewhere in the province. Note that compared to other major cities in the province, there is a lower number of official language bilingual residents (42.7%) in Quebec City. French is the first language of 96.3% of the Quebec City residents (Statistics Canada, 2021). The results showed no difference between genders.
In the second part of the study, the participants were presented with ten pairs of sentences with similar meanings but different insertion strategies for the English-origin verbs: in one sentence the lexical borrowing was morphologically integrated into the French language, and in the other it was not (e.g., J'ai domp ma blonde ‘I dumped my girlfriend’ versus J'ai dompé ma blonde Footnote 1). Participants were asked to select the sentences they would use. Figure 1 illustrates the percentages for individual verbs’ unintegrated and integrated forms. We can see that the morphologically unintegrated forms for the pairs enjoy/enjoyé, kick/kické, and pass/passé are used more frequently. For the other pairs, especially with the words ghost/ghosté and skip/skipé, a higher proportion of participants reported using the morphologically integrated forms compared to the unintegrated forms.Footnote 2
Percentage of use of different English-origin verbs for each pair of sentences (M.-È. Bouchard Reference Bouchard2023a: 19). MUEV = morphologically unintegrated English-origin verb, MIEV = morphologically integrated English-origin verb.
Results from the statistical analyses investigating the correlation between the reported use of the unintegrated forms and different social factors indicate that young French speakers from Montreal use the morphologically unintegrated forms the most. However, for this part of the study, English proficiency was non-significant, and participants who do not have a university degree were more likely to use the unintegrated forms.
The third part of the study consisted of a background questionnaire (regarding gender, age, education level, English proficiency, hometown, and current place of residence) that was used to investigate possible correlations between the background information for the participants, their attitudes towards the use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs, and their reported use of the latter.
Expanding on this study, the current article will delve into the open-ended answers provided by participants about their attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in Quebec French.
3. Methodology
3.1 Data collection
An online questionnaire was created with Qualtrics for the collection of data regarding the use of anglicisms and attitudes towards them. The questionnaire was shared online through the social media site Facebook. I posted a link to the questionnaire on my own Facebook page and those of most of the French-speaking CEGEPs in the province of Quebec.Footnote 3 The use of social media platforms as a recruitment tool for research is growing in popularity, partly because it enables researchers to access a large number of participants in a limited timeframe (Gelinas et al. Reference Gelinas, Pierce, Winkler, Cohen, Lynch and Bierer2017). However, it does present disadvantages. In this case, a high number of the questionnaires returned were incomplete and thus excluded (378 out of 1053, with 675 questionnaires completed successfully). Other disadvantages of online questionnaires include sampling issues (e.g., a higher number of youths and females participated to the study), response bias (e.g., participants tend to answer in a way they believe would be perceived favourably by the researchers or by society in general), and the difficulty of interpreting participants’ answers (e.g., it is usually not possible to ask for clarification) (Kircher Reference Kircher, Kircher and Zipp2022). It is important to take these into consideration when discussion the results.
The methodology is the same as M-E Bouchard (Reference Bouchard2023a), explained in section 2.3. The current study consists of a qualitative analysis of the participants’ answers to the third part of the questionnaire, specifically the open-ended question “Do you have anything to say about the use of anglicisms in Quebec French?”
3.2 Participants
The participants are 675 French speakers who grew up and currently live in the province of Quebec (514 females, mean age = 26, range = 14-76). All of the participants have their high school diploma and have at least some knowledge of English (with more than half the participants reporting their level of English as advanced (n = 345)). A high proportion of the participants come from (35.4%) or currently live (37.0%) in Montreal, the largest city of the province. The profile of the participants is summarized in Table 1. The names of the participants in this article are pseudonyms.
Profile of the participants (n = 675)
3.3 Method of analysis
Thematic analysis is commonly used in qualitative research to produce an understanding of datasets. It is “a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns (themes) within data” (Braun and Clarke Reference Braun and Clarke2006: 79). In other words, it allows researchers to summarize what the participants report and experience, capturing the data in a broad sense.
I followed the six phases of analysis as described by Braun and Clarke (Reference Braun and Clarke2006). I first read and reread the dataset in search of meanings and patterns, taking an inductive approach (not applying any hypotheses or theories beforehand). I moved from a set of specific observations to a more general set of propositions about those observations. I then generated codes for the ideas or attitudes that were repeated in the dataset. Generally speaking, the more frequently an idea, a word, or a code appears in the dataset, the more likely it is to become the basis for a theme. I searched for key themes by collating codes. A theme is a dominant or unifying idea that “captures something important about the data in relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set” (Braun and Clarke Reference Braun and Clarke2006: 82). These themes generated a thematic map of the analysis, which will be presented in the next section. I named each theme by using an excerpt from the dataset, thus defining themes using the participants’ own words. Excerpts of examples for the different themes are used to examine and discuss the findings.
4. Results
In this section, I introduce different attitudes towards the use of anglicisms that emerged from the dataset. The question “Do you have anything to say about the use of anglicisms in Quebec French?” was deliberately broad and allowed participants to address and share whatever they considered worth sharing with me (the researcher). The participants’ answers can be divided into three main groups: attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in general, attitudes towards the emerging practice characterized by the use of morphologically unintegrated forms, and description or information about anglicisms. The responses in the last group were not included in the analysis, as they do not represent an attitude (in grey in Table 2). The responses in the first group can be divided into two subgroups: favourable attitudes towards anglicisms and unfavourable attitudes towards anglicisms. The responses that display favourable attitudes towards the use of anglicisms that are morphologically unintegrated were also not included because there were only two of them (0.4% of all responses). These numbers are presented in Table 2. In this section and through a selection of excerpts that are representative of the data and that highlight patterns across participants, I show how these multiple attitudes can be linked to a sense of belonging to a French-speaking cultural heritage.
Results: Attitudes towards the use of anglicisms (N = 455)
4.1 Favourable attitudes towards the use of anglicisms (in general)
Ça donne de la couleur à notre français québécois.
It gives our Quebec French colour
For a number of participants, the use of anglicisms “gives colour” to the variety of French spoken in Quebec. Figuratively speaking, donner de la couleur à une langue or colorer une langue means making it colourful in a particular way. In this sense, the use of anglicisms makes Quebec French special, distinguishing from other varieties of French – especially French from France, which is often participants’ choice of comparison. The three following open-ended responses exemplify how this idea of colouring the language with the use of anglicisms is perceived as a positive characteristic of Quebec French.
Je trouve que ça donne une couleur au Québécois et que c'est une appropriation du langage. Je trouve ça bein chill.;)
I find they give colour to Quebec French and that it's a way of appropriating the language. I find that pretty cool.;)
(Sophie, woman, 20 years old, Sherbrooke)
Je crois que, sans en abuser, ça donne de la couleur à notre français québécois. Les anglicismes font partie de notre quotidien, partie du joual Footnote 5 et on ne devrait pas en avoir honte, ça fait partie de notre langue et de notre histoire.
I think that when it's not overdone, it gives colour to our Quebec French. Anglicisms are a part of our daily life, a part of joual, and we shouldn't be ashamed of them, they're a part of our language and our history.
(Laurence, woman, 19 years old, Sherbrooke)
Je trouve que les anglicismes colorent notre langue. […] D'après moi, l'idée est d'exploiter les richesses de toutes les langues qui viennent enrichir la nôtre avec leur vue différente sur le monde.
I find that anglicisms colour our language. […] My view is that the point is to exploit the riches of all the languages that come enrich our own with their different views of the world.
(Anne, woman, 19 years old, Sherbrooke)
For Sophie, using anglicisms is a way to appropriate the language, meaning to take it and make it one's own, distinct from other varieties of French. She shows her positive attitude towards the use of anglicisms by choosing the word “chill”, an English-origin lexical term used in Quebec French to mean “cool”; here, it means that using anglicisms is not perceived as a problem. Laurence uses the metaphor of giving colour to the language as well, but also associates the use of anglicisms with identity by saying that it is part of joual and the history of French-speaking Quebecers. This association of anglicisms with identity emerged as a distinct and meaningful theme in the dataset and will be discussed again below. Laurence normalizes the use of anglicisms by saying that it is part of her everyday life; what is commonplace and frequent should not lead to shame. For Anne, using anglicisms (and borrowings from other languages) is a way to embellish and develop the French language. Borrowing items – which she perceives as resources – from other languages is a way to add different views of the world to the French language. In sum, a number of participants expressed favourable attitudes towards the use of anglicisms through their use of the colouring metaphor. To them, anglicisms bring something particular and unique to the variety of French spoken in Quebec.
C'est pratique d'utiliser des anglicismes même si parfois ça scrap les phrases.
Using anglicisms is handy even if it does mess sentences up sometimes
One common belief among participants is that anglicisms are useful; they serve a linguistic function for the speakers. This attitude was expressed by many, but in a variety of ways, indicating that anglicisms play different roles in their speech. The participants’ answers relating to the practicality of anglicisms can be grouped into three main motivations: anglicisms are useful for 1) better expressing an idea, 2) emphasizing an idea or a word, and 3) using fewer words. The most frequently mentioned of these motivations relates to the better expression of an idea. Participants reported using anglicisms when “the English words better represent what we want to say” or because “the words in French don't represent exactly what I'm trying to say” (translated). This perceived expressive economy obtainable in English as compared to French has long been expressed as a justification for some borrowings in France as well (Picone Reference Picone1996). This semantic motivation (to be more precise, to better express an idea, or to fill a perceived semantic gap) is often reported as one of the most frequently mentioned motivations for lexical borrowings (cf. Winford Reference Winford2003, Onysko Reference Onysko2004, Lupu Reference Lupu2010, Weinreich Reference Weinreich2011). Philippe's answer details this sort of motivation:
Je pense que dans certaines situations, ils permettent de mieux comprendre le message. Par exemple, “share mon écran”. Beaucoup de jeunes utilisent pas le mot “partager” parce qu'ils n'utilisent pas ce mot dans la vie de tous les jours, tandis que share est plus utilisé.
I think that in some situations, they make the message easier to understand. Take “share mon écran”. A lot of young people don't use the word “partager” because they don't use that word in their everyday life, whereas share is used more often.
(Philippe, man, 20 years old, Montreal)
Philippe is drawing a semantic distinction between “share” and “partager”. With the growing use and popularity of communication platforms as well as online classes and meetings, it has become quite common to hear the expression “share mon écran”. The English verb “share” generally translates as “partager”, and “partage d’écran” is the officially sanctioned translation for “screen sharing”; however, in Quebec French the borrowing “share” specifically means sharing access to one's computer screen through an online communication platform. As such, it is contextually more precise than “partager”, and for that matter more precise than “share” is in English. Another participant gave the example of “screenshot”, writing that this word “makes more sense” than “capture d’écran”, which sounds “much less natural than screenshot”. It is not surprising that a number of examples came from technology, as it is well known that many English-origin borrowings in many languages come from the world of technology (Onysko Reference Onysko2004, Vincent Reference Vincent, Neveu, Blumenthal, Hriba, Gerstenberg, Meinschaefer and Prévost2014).
A second role played by the use of anglicisms is that of emphasizing an idea or a word:
Les anglicismes aident à mettre l'emphase sur une idée qui désire être exprimée. Par exemple « il a drop out du programme » me parait plus dramatique que « il a abandonné le programme. »
Anglicisms help to emphasize an idea you're trying to express. For example, “il a drop out du programme” feels more dramatic to me than “il a abandonné le programme”.
(Pierre, man, 22 years old, Montreal)
In this example, Pierre considers that the use of an anglicism turns the situation into something more serious, more “dramatic”. Here the anglicism plays an emotive function. Emphasizing a word or an idea allows the speaker to draw the listener's attention to it, to exaggerate or invest more emotion into an idea. In this sense, “drop out du programme” is less neutral than “abandonner le programme” (‘withdraw from the program’). Additionally, in this example, the participant demonstrated the use of a morphologically unintegrated English-origin verb that was not given as an example in the questionnaire.
A third role attributed by participants to the use of anglicisms is efficiency: the possibility of expressing the same idea in English with fewer words than would be needed in French.
Des fois certains mots nous permettent de mieux exprimer cette affaire/émotion avec moins de mots, [c'est] donc beaucoup plus pratique.
Sometimes some words let us express something or some emotion in fewer words, so [that's] a lot more practical.
(Julie, woman, 23 years old, Saint-Bernard (Beauce))
The notion of “saving time” (ça sauve du temps) is expressed as a positive function of the anglicisms. The anglicisms are perceived by Julie (and others) as more straightforward or efficient for expressing an idea because English needs fewer words.
All in all, these three main ideas show how anglicisms are perceived as a product of communicative needs. They are used to express ideas in ways that are clearer and more precise, and thus more efficiently.
Je crois que ça fait partie d'une langue qui change.
I think it's part of a changing language
A number of participants consider the use of anglicisms in Quebec French part of the natural process of language evolution. In this sense, borrowing lexical items from English is perceived as a manifestation of “evolution”, “adaptability”, and “vitality”. The use of anglicisms as a natural sign of language evolution is generally perceived as a consequence of contact with English in two ways: geographical contact (Annabelle) and the hegemony of English in a vast number of spheres (Marie-Hélène).
Toutes les langues évoluent, se mélangent et deviennent quelque chose de nouveau. Une langue qui n’évolue pas a tendance à mourir. Nous sommes français à la base, certes, mais la langue la plus parlée autour de notre province est l'anglais. Un mélange fonctionnel était à prévoir à un certain point.
All languages evolve, mix together and become something new. A language that doesn't evolve tends to die. We are fundamentally French, certainly, but around our province English is the most spoken language. A functional intermixture had to be expected at some point.
(Annabelle, woman, 31 years old, Montreal)
C'est normal que la langue évolue en fonction de ce qui est à la mode/le plus utile. L'anglais prend tellement de place dans le monde de la culture, de la science, du travail, c'est juste normal que les locuteurs adoptent certains mots/expressions.
It's normal for language to evolve according to what's in fashion or whatever's most useful. English takes up so much space in the worlds of culture, science, work, it's just normal for speakers to adopt some words /expressions.
(Marie-Hélène, woman, 37 years old, Quebec City)
For Annabelle, the fact that French-speaking Quebecers are a minority in North America and surrounded by English speakers inevitably leads to a certain form of language mixing. Since French is a minority language, it is the one that borrows words from English, the dominant language. Language mixing can lead to new language varieties – in this case, to Quebec French. Following this line of thought about language contact, Marie-Hélène's comment addresses the global spread of English. The dominance of English is obvious in communication, technology, entertainment, diplomacy, business, academia, and the internet, for instance, and has been widely studied (Dewey Reference Dewey2007, Baker Reference Baker2009, Gayton Reference Gayton2016, and many others). In these spheres, English serves as a lingua franca. This spread of English appears to be accepted uncritically by Annabelle and Marie-Hélène, who see the influence of English on Quebec French as “predictable” and “normal”. This acceptability reproduces an ideology that supports the hegemony of English (cf. Macedo et al. Reference Macedo, Dendrinos and Gounari2015, O'Regan Reference O'Regan, Rubdy and Tupas2021, Park and Wee Reference Park, Wee, Rubdy and Tupas2021).
Les anglicismes font partie de notre culture québécoise.
Anglicisms are a part of our Quebecois culture
The collective identity of French-speaking Quebecers was created both in relation to and in contrast with English speakers. The choice of speaking French embodies Quebecers’ struggle to exist in a majority English-speaking North America. The question of language in Quebec is first and foremost a question of identity. As Létourneau (Reference Létourneau2002: 109) wrote: “Au Québec, la langue constitue à n'en pas douter, par l'héritage et le potentiel qu'elle porte en elle, le point le plus sensible – l’écueil en même temps que la possibilité – à toute entreprise de rénovation de l'identitaire québécois.” (‘There is no question that in Québec, language is, as a matter of heritage and due to all the potential it holds, the sorest spot for any attempt to give the Québecois identity a makeover, the obstacle as well as the means.’) The ideology of “good French” that started circulating in the middle of the nineteenth century and the idea that French-speaking Canadians should speak a variety closer to Parisian French clearly disapproved of the use of anglicisms. The possible anglicization of French was associated with assimilation, contamination, suppression, and eventual loss of the language (Létourneau Reference Létourneau2002). Such ideologies are still present, as will be discussed further below. But as we can see in the following two excerpts, anglicisms are also perceived as being a characteristic of the French-speaking Quebecer identity, distinguishing Quebecers from other French speakers. The use of anglicisms is part of how they speak and who they are.
Je crois que l'utilisation des anglicismes dans le français québécois est sa particularité qui le rend si intéressant! De plus, savoir utiliser les deux langues en même temps tout en se comprenant, c'est assez complexe. J'en suis très fière de cette particularité du langage québécois.
I think that the use of anglicisms in Quebec French is the feature that makes it so interesting! On top of which, knowing how to use both languages at the same time while still understanding each other is pretty complex. I've very proud of this particularity of Quebecois language.
(Louise, woman, 22 years old, Montreal)
Je trouve que l'utilisation des anglicismes est maintenant intégrée dans le français québécois. Ça fait partie de notre culture. C'est ce qui nous définit, nous les québécois. Ça donne aussi un autre sens à ce qu'on veut dire. On s'exprime donc d'une manière encore plus élaborée et diversifiée!
I find that by now, using anglicisms has been integrated into Quebec French. It's a part of our culture. It's what defines us Quebecers. It also gives another meaning to what we want to say. So we express ourselves in an even more sophisticated and diverse way!
(Alice, woman, 18 years old, Lévis)
This positive attitude towards anglicisms as constituting a marker of Quebecers’ language practice and identity, as exhibited by Louise and Alice, contrasts with previous studies on the use of anglicisms in Quebec (e.g., Walsh Reference Walsh2014). It may be a more recent development, and possibly a belief espoused by young people. Identities and language practices of young Quebecers, especially in Montreal, are shaped by recent waves of immigration and global processes (Low et al. Reference Low, Sarkar and Winer2009). These changing attitudes might be related to the growing popularity of the idea of identity-based pluralism.
4.2 Unfavourable attitudes towards the use of anglicisms (general)
Je trouve ça vraiment laid!
I find it really ugly!
Existing research on language attitudes shows that people have aesthetic associations (e.g., beautiful versus ugly) with different language varieties and that these varieties can be located hierarchically in terms of aesthetic dimensions. For instance, Boets and De Schutter (Reference Boets and de Schutter1977) showed that there is a link between the perceived aesthetic pleasantness of a language variety and its intelligibility. According to Rastall, “all of our verbal behaviour as a sender or receiver is also constantly monitored from an aesthetic point of view” (Reference Rastall2008: 104).Footnote 6 For instance, M-E Bouchard (Reference Bouchard2023b) showed that learners of French evaluate certain varieties of French (e.g., from Quebec and France) more positively than others (e.g., from Côte d'Ivoire and New Brunswick) when considering whether a variety is “beautiful” or not. I suggest that the speaker from Moncton (New Brunswick) was evaluated the most negatively because of her use of anglicisms. In terms of perceived aesthetics, the use of anglicisms is also perceived negatively by some of the participants in the current study, as presented in the subtitle above and in the following two excerpts.
J'utilise rarement des anglicismes parce que je trouve que ce n'est pas beau. Pour moi c'est comme lorsqu'une personne porte des chaussettes non identiques, ça me dérange.
I rarely use anglicisms because I don't find them beautiful. For me, it's like when someone wears socks that don't match, it bothers me.
(Catherine, woman, 21 years old, Beloeil)
[Les anglicismes ne sont] pas vraiment dans mon langage courant… en général les oreilles me frisent quand c'est trop.
[Anglicisms] aren't really part of my everyday speech… generally speaking, they make my ears bleed when it's too much.
(Juliette, woman, 18 years old, Lévis)
Catherine considers anglicisms to be “not beautiful”. She compares using them to wearing mismatched socks – which is something that annoys her. This comparison highlights the unaesthetic quality of the use of anglicisms, but also its non-standard nature: one is expected to speak French only, just as one is expected to wear identical socks. This idea that anglicisms are “ugly” is part of a long discursive tradition in Quebec that dates back to the beginning of the nineteenth century and that has been written about at length (in political discourse, essays, newspapers, literary texts, etc.). In the second excerpt, Juliette uses the expression “les oreilles me frisent” (literally ‘my ears curl up’) to convey her dislike and negative reaction when hearing anglicisms. Again, this physical reaction expresses a dislike for the use of anglicisms.
J'ai bien peur pour mon français.
I'm afraid for my French
French speakers in Canada are constantly exposed to a bilingual environment, and the influence of English cannot be ignored (Planchon Reference Planchon2018). It is known that communities that live in situations of social and language contact tend to use more borrowings than others that do not (Valdman et al. Reference Albert, Auger, Piston-Hatlen, Valdman, Auger and Piston-Hatlen2005).Footnote 7 Given the centuries-old coexistence of French and English in French Canada, it is not surprising to see English-origin lexical terms being integrated into the variety of French spoken in Quebec (and into other varieties of French in Canada).Footnote 8 But the fight against anglicisms had begun by at least the middle of the nineteenth century (Létourneau Reference Létourneau2002), at a time when assimilation of Canada's French-speaking population was the official goal of the British authorities. The use of anglicisms was associated with the supposed poor quality of the French language in Quebec, and the intelligentsia started a language correction campaign:
Dès la première moitié du XIXe siècle, le Canada français avait commencé à prendre conscience du fait que, pendant la période d'isolement qui avait suivi la Conquête, un certain écart s’était creusé entre le français du Canada et celui de France, notamment sous l'influence de l'anglais. Il avait également pris conscience de l'importance de son image linguistique dans le combat de résistance qu'il devait livrer aux pressions assimilatrices du Canada anglais. Ce double constat allait bientôt donner naissance à un mouvement de rectification langagière et provoquer l'apparition des premiers dictionnaires canadiens.
Beginning in the first half of the 19th century, French Canadians began to realize that during the period of isolation that followed the Conquest, something of a gap had appeared between Canada's French and that of France, particularly due to English influences. They also came to appreciate the importance of French Canada's linguistic image to the resistance they needed to wage against the assimilationist pressures of English Canada. This dual realization would soon lead to a movement of linguistic rectification and the appearance of the first Canadian dictionaries.
(Mercier Reference Mercier, Cormier and Boulanger2008: 61)
This campaign led to the publication of dictionaries and collective works that were used to convey prescriptive discourses presenting a linguistic ideal for French in Canada and to promote the ideology of a standard language. The ideology of “good French” that started circulating in the middle of the nineteenth century and the idea that French-speaking Canadians should speak a variety closer to Parisian French clearly condemned the use of anglicisms. The possible anglicization of French was associated with assimilation, contamination, suppression, and eventual loss of the language (Létourneau Reference Létourneau2002). Although a number of participants in this study seem to demonstrate greater openness to the use of anglicisms, these discourses around the use of anglicisms as endangering French is still very present, as we can see from the following excerpts:
Je crois qu'il faut faire attention de ne pas trop remplacer les mots francophones par des mots anglophones de peur que nous perdions le français à petit feu.
I think we have to take care to not replace too many francophone words by anglophone words, otherwise we risk losing French by a thousand cuts.
(Paul, man, 27 years old, Sherbrooke)
Je le déplore complètement. Vraiment dommage. Comme si nous n'avions pas les mots en français. Comme si nous abandonnions notre langue. Comme si nous bafouions l'héritage de nos anciens, de nos aînés et ancêtres. Comme si nous consentions à être “enterrés”, négligés, diminués… t'sais, le p'tit peuple… né pour un p'tit pain… pas trop brillant… celui qu'on peut assimiler.
I absolutely deplore it. A real pity. As if we didn't have the words in French. As if we were giving up our language. As if we scorned the heritage of our old people, our elders and ancestors. As if we were consenting to be “buried”, neglected, diminished… y'know, the little people… born for bread crumbs… [they're] not too bright… those who can be assimilated.
(Silvie, woman, 57 years old, Sept-Îles)
Paul clearly establishes the link between using English words (remplacer des mots francophones par des mots anglophones) and the possibility of losing French (que nous perdions le français à petit feu). Sylvie pushes this idea further and associates the use of anglicisms with the erasure of their French-speaking heritage and the behaviour of a social group that is easily assimilable and not very smart.
As mentioned above, the use of anglicisms has been viewed by many as a sign of contamination and deterioration of the French language. This belief is associated with language purism, an ideology that has been central in the French-speaking world (cf. Bourhis Reference Bourhis, Coupland and Jaworski1997, Hornsby Reference Hornsby1998, Weinstein Reference Weinstein, Jernudd and Shapiro2011, Vigouroux Reference Vigouroux2013, Walsh Reference Walsh2014, Elchacar and Salita Reference Elchacar and Salita2019). Purist beliefs, closely associated with the fear of losing French, also emerged in the participants’ answers:
Le français est une belle langue qui devrait être parlé… en français!
French is a beautiful language that should be spoken – in French!
(Aude, woman, 80 years old, Deschambault)
Quand c'est trop c'est trop, quand c'est rendu que c'est plus des mots anglophones, c'est pu du français. Il faut réapprendre aux jeunes à parler avec des mots français. Des fois les phrases sont tellement plein de mots anglais qu'on comprend même plus le sens de la phrase.
When enough is enough, when you get to the point where the majority of words are English, it isn't French any more. We have to reteach young people to speak using French words. Sometimes sentences are so full of English words that you can't even understand what the sentence means.
(Josiane, woman, 23 years old, Gatineau)
Such puristic orientation among participants is not surprising and corroborates previous studies of purism among speakers of Quebec French (cf. Walsh Reference Walsh2014).
4.3 Attitudes towards the emerging use of morphologically unintegrated forms (specific)
Les anglicismes sont mal utilisés par les jeunes.
Young people don't use anglicisms correctly
The use of morphologically unintegrated English-origin verbs is recognized by most participants (who are aware of it) as a feature that characterizes the language practices of young Quebecers – as was highlighted at the very beginning of this article with the question found on Reddit. It is well known that language constitutes a flexible set of resources that teenagers and young adults draw on to construct and display their identities (Bucholtz Reference Bucholtz2000). Language has been taking on new forms and stylistic practices have been changing rapidly in the new millennium with new media (Bucholtz Reference Bucholtz2000). In the following three answers from participants, we see how they associate this emerging use of anglicisms with younger speakers.
Je m'habitue tranquillement à la montée de la nouvelle utilisation des anglicismes par la plus jeune génération (j'ai 32 ans et on n'utilisait pas du tout les mêmes anglicismes). Ce que je ne suis pas capable d'appliquer, et qui m’écorche les oreilles chaque fois, c'est qu'ils ne conjuguent pas les anglicismes, donc ça ne sonne pas super à mes oreilles (dire « j'ai skip » au lieu de « j'ai skippé »).
I'm slowly getting used to the rise of the younger generation's new way of using anglicisms (I'm 32 and we didn't use anything like the same ones). What I'm unable to do, and what makes my ears bleed every time, is that they don't conjugate anglicisms, so it doesn't sound great to my ears (saying “j'ai skip” rather than “j'ai skippé”).
(Claire, woman, 32 years old, Sherbrooke)
Il semble y avoir une différence majeure dans l'utilisation des anglicismes entre générations. Je suis de celle qui “accorde” l'anglicisme (enjoyé, crashé, skippé, etc.) tandis que les plus jeunes (35 ans et moins ?) semblent utiliser l'anglicisme dans sa version originale (enjoy, crash, skip). Dans mes oreilles, le beat n'est pas bon (comme l'aurait peut-être dit DédéFootnote 9!).
There seems to be a major difference between how generations use anglicisms. I'm one of those who “conjugate” anglicisms (enjoyé, crashé, skippé, etc.), while younger people (35 and under?) seem to use the original form of the anglicism (enjoy, crash, skip). To my ears, the beat isn't right (as Dédé might have said!).
(Samantha, woman, 26 years old, Shawinigan)
Ça me décourage! Non seulement les jeunes utilisent des anglicismes mais ils ne les adaptent pas, ils sont bruts anglais, pas « accordés ». La prochaine étape (ou génération), ils vont skip tous les mots français.;-)
I find it discouraging! Not only do young people use anglicisms, they don't adapt them, they're raw English, not “conjugated”. The next step (or generation) will skip all the French words.;-)
(Sara, woman, 36 years old, Quebec City)
The emerging insertion strategy is described as lacking something: it does not have the agreement features that the English-origin verbs have when the “older” generations use them. Studies on the use of English-origin lexical items in Quebec French have shown that these items borrowed from English are usually integrated into the French grammar (Poplack Reference Poplack2018). For instance, in the case of a verb borrowed from English, the borrowed verb is assigned an inflection from French (person, tense, mood). This integration into the French language can be audible (and readable), as in, for instance, the examples given by Samantha, with the ending -é that marks the past participle of enjoy, crash, and skip. But younger speakers are changing this practice (M-E Bouchard Reference Bouchard2023a). The borrowed verbs are not necessarily integrated into the French language. Instead, speakers use the bare form of the verb; the verb is inserted into the syntax, but it remains morphologically unintegrated, as in j'ai give up ‘I gave up’. It is unclear when/how exactly this practice emerged, but as mentioned by Claire and Samantha, most participants associated this practice with speakers who are 35 years old or younger. The three participants (who are not users of this feature) have unfavourable attitudes towards this practice: for Claire, this emerging use hurts her ears, for Samantha, the beat is wrong, and Sara is discouraged by this practice and fears that future generations might choose to “skip” all the French words.
Je dois d'abord traduire dans ma tête pour comprendre!
I have to translate in my head first to understand!
The emerging insertion strategy for the use of anglicisms is often associated with misunderstanding by participants, or with needing a longer amount of time to process the information.
Je pense qu'on les assimile bien, mais les générations plus jeunes en utilisent des nouveaux… mon dieu que je me sens vieille quand je les entends parler et que je ne comprends pas tout ce qu'ils disent!
I think we assimilate them easily, but the younger generations are using new ones… Lord, I feel so old when I hear them talking and I can't understand everything they say!
(Maryse, woman, 27 years old, Quebec City)
Fossé de générations, on finit par ne plus se comprendre!
Generation gap, we all end up not understanding each other!
(Roger, man, 53 years old, Gatineau)
Ça me prend toujours un délai avant de comprendre un anglicisme non accordé! On dirait que ça déconstruit toute la phrase.
It always takes me a moment before I understand an unconjugated anglicism! It's as if it deconstructs the whole sentence.
(Geneviève, woman, 39 years old, Quebec City)
Throughout the participants’ answers, the use of morphologically unintegrated forms is referred to as a “new” practice – as in Maryse's comment about young people who use “new” anglicisms that she does not always understand. This emerging practice is creating a contrast between the use of anglicisms between younger French-speaking Quebecers and older ones, even a “generation gap” according to Roger. This gap refers to a significant difference between two groups of speakers, and Roger considers this gap to be so big that it becomes difficult for young and not-so-young generations to understand each other. Age is certainly a key factor in sociolinguistics; age stratification for the use of any linguistic variable can reflect changes in the speech of a community (e.g., Cedergren Reference Cedergren1984, Fowler Reference Fowler1986, Trudgill Reference Trudgill1988). Geneviève reports that she needs more time to understand an anglicism that is not morphologically integrated compared to integrated ones. For some, the delay in understanding what is being said is explained as needing time to translate the message, as mentioned in the subtitle above.
5. Discussion and conclusion
This article has investigated speakers’ attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in Quebec French. These language attitudes can be divided into two main groups: attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in general, which include the more traditional use of anglicized verbs, i.e., English-origin words that are morphologically integrated in the French language (e.g., il m'a ghostée ‘he ghosted me’), and attitudes that are specific to the more recent use of anglicisms in Quebec French, i.e., English-origin words that are not morphologically integrated in the French language (e.g., il m'a ghost). In both groups of attitudes, the attitudes can be divided again into two groups: favourable attitudes and unfavourable attitudes. The language attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in Quebec French as discussed throughout the article are summarized in Table 3.
Attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in Quebec French
The themes summarized above show two important findings regarding the use of anglicisms in Quebec French. First, there is a higher number of favourable attitudes towards the general use of anglicisms. This contrasts with previous studies on attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in Quebec French and the dominant discourse in the media. This result could be biased by the high number of young participants in the study (mean age = 24 years old), with young people perceiving the use of anglicisms more favourably than their older counterparts. According to Bucholtz (Reference Bucholtz2000), one of the richest influences on speech is youth culture. Language is a flexible set of resources that teenagers and young adults can draw on to display their identities, and their diverse stylistic practices can change rapidly. This result could also be related to global processes, recent waves of immigration, and an opening to the world, which have been having an impact on the use and perception of Quebec French – especially in Montreal (Lamarre et al. Reference Lamarre, Paquette, Kahn and Ambrosi2002, Low et al. Reference Low, Sarkar and Winer2009). Regardless of these possible influences from younger and urban participants, the data show that participants are emotionally attached to their French-speaking cultural heritage. This attachment can be expressed through unfavourable attitudes (fear of losing French) or through favourable attitudes (anglicisms colour the language, they are practical, they are part of the natural process of evolution of a variety that belongs to Quebecers, and they are part of Quebec culture). In some ways, the attitudes (whether favourable or not) show attachment to the French language – regardless of whether the participants are in favour of the use of anglicisms or not. Using anglicisms can indicate belonging to a French-speaking cultural group of Quebecers. Not using them can indicate a desire to maintain French as the language of a distinctive and French-speaking cultural group in Canada. These contradictory beliefs coexist in a society that is surrounded by English speakers and dominant language ideologies related to English (cf. Sterzuk and Shin Reference Sterzuk, Shin, Lanvers, Thompson and East2021, Vessey Reference Vessey2021).
Second, most comments (60 out of 62) about the most recent use of anglicisms, i.e., using the bare forms of English-origin verbs without integration into the French grammar, were unfavourable. This mirrors Dadou02's comment on Reddit in the epigraph to this article. This study has found evidence of linguistic hierarchies where, for some, French spoken without the use of anglicisms is more highly valued. This was shown in previous sociolinguistic studies (cf. Walsh Reference Walsh2014) and can be associated with the ideology of purism that is prominent in Francophonie. The novelty of this study is the hierarchy created between the use of anglicisms that are morphologically integrated (e.g., on pourra checker ‘we can check’) and of those that are not (e.g., on pourra check). Anglicisms that are not morphologically integrated into the French language are perceived by many participants as incorrect. They are perceived as challenging communication and understanding between users and non-users of these forms. Participants associate the use of the unintegrated forms with young people. This supports my findings in M-E Bouchard (Reference Bouchard2023a), where I argued that younger French-speaking Quebecers are the ones using the morphologically unintegrated forms the most.
We can place the participants’ beliefs about the different forms of anglicisms along a continuum, with the morphologically integrated forms more positively evaluated than the morphologically unintegrated ones. The dominant attitudes towards the use of morphologically unintegrated forms are negative; however, this might change if the phenomenon becomes more widespread. In light of its findings on attitudes towards the use of anglicisms in Quebec French, this study calls for further research on the use of morphologically unintegrated forms.
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