Chiac

Not to be confused with Franglais or Acadian French.

Chiac (or Chiak, Chi’aq), is a patois of Acadian French spoken mostly in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada.^[1] Chiac is frequently characterized and distinguished from other forms of Acadian French by its borrowings from English and is thus often mistakenly considered a form of Franglais.

Chiac
Native to	Canada
Region	Acadians in southeastern New-Brunswick
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Romance Oïl French Canadian French Acadian French Chiac
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

An immigrant couple living in Massachusetts, United States, speaking a version of Chiac.

The word "Chiac" can also sometimes be used to refer to ethnic Acadians of rural southeastern New Brunswick, who are not considered French Canadian historically and ethnically because of their separate and distinctive history. They are considered ethnically as "Chiac-Acadian"^[2] or simply "Chiac".

Characteristics

As a major modern variety of Acadian-French, Chiac shares most phonological particularities of the dialect. However, Chiac contains far more English loanwords compared to other Canadian French dialects. Many of its words also have roots in the Eastern Algonquian languages, most notably Mi'kmaq. Loanwords generally follow French conjugation patterns; "Ej j'va aller watcher un movie" uses the English-derived loanword "watch" as if it were an "-er" verb. The most common loans are basic lexical features (nouns, adjectives, verb stems), but a few conjunctions and adverbs are borrowed from English ("but, so, anyway").

History

Chiac originated in the community of specific ethnic Acadians, known as "Chiacs, Chiaks or Chi'aq",^[2] living on the southeast coast of New Brunswick, specifically near the Shediac Bay area.

While some^[who?] believe that Chiac dates back as far as the 17th or the 18th centuries, others^[who?] believe it developed in the 20th century, in reaction to the dominance of English-language media in Canada, the lack of French-language primary and secondary education, the increased urbanization of Moncton, and contact with the dominant Anglophone community in the area.^{[citation needed]} The origin of the word "Chiac" is not known; some speculate that it is an alteration of "Shediac" or "Es-ed-ei-ik".

Geographic distribution

Chiac is mostly spoken by native speakers of Acadian French in the southeastern region of New Brunswick. Its speakers are primarily located in the Westmorland County of southeastern New Brunswick and further north along the coast in adjacent Kent County.

Further north along the coast, Acadian French resembling Quebec French is more common as the border with Quebec is approached. To the immediate east, west, and south, fully bilingual speakers of French and English are found, and the regions beyond typically have unilingual Anglophones.

In culture

Acadian writers, poets, and musicians such as Lisa LeBlanc, Radio Radio,^[3] Fayo,^[4] Cayouche, Les Hay Babies, 1755, Antonine Maillet^[5] and many others have produced works in Chiac.

Chiac is also featured in Acadieman, a comedy about "The world's first Acadian Superhero" by Dano Leblanc.^[6]