Re: Did the Normans speak Canadian French?

What a strange question. Does anybody believe that French, or Norman
French, or Québec French are languages that never changed from 1066 to
the 18 th century ?

The standard prononciation of French in the 17th century was "Rwé
franswé" for Roi François or Roi Fançois . This can be seen, if not
heard , in Corneille's theatre. This became obsolete about the end of
the 18th century, and the spelling was modified by 1800/1820 :
Français (adjective) or François (name). specialists refer to rimes
in Corneille theatre as rimes normandes, which is wrong. He was born in
Rouen, but that was standard French as spoken at the court in his time.


Le Détroit - founded about 1700 by a man of the south-west, Antoine
Laumet, who called himself "De la motte-Cadillac- might have been
pronounced "Le Détroué", "le Détrwé" for a short period.
If it was spellt "le Destroit" the S was not pronounced at that time.
ES it is just archaic spelling for é, like in "Hostellerie". Accents
did not exist before the 15th or 16th century.

The Normans who rules England lived in the 11th century. They were
followed by the Plantagenets, who were from Anjou, or, like Richard
C?ur de Lion, spoke only langue d'oc, which in his time was closer to
portuguese, as written then , if you ever had a look at troubadour or
galician poetry ( certainly not "norman french").
They spoke varieties of French that nobody would understand in the 18th
century, let alone today; even in Jersey.

Does strait come from French or Latin ? same origin as Strictus, strict
? The French sometimes had difficulties whith words starting with st
str, sk, etc (escalier, escale, echelle, eskiff, équipe, estampe).

Most French settlers came from the west , but that is a very large
area. In town, Paris French must have been spoken as well. in
Louisiana, it was still possible fifty years ago to tell the people
that came from France or St Domingue (New Orleans, St Martinville) from
the Acadian country folks.

You are welcome in Normandy. You will find few people speaking dialects
(near Cherbourg and near Le Havre). And not many in Jersey.

Posted from Caen .

.

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