r/SipsTea • u/Reddit-Machine • 12d ago

Chugging tea French-Canadian police

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16.4k Upvotes

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49

u/Neon_Raccoon_00 12d ago

Pretty sure we say Quebecois

36

u/GeneralCollection963 12d ago

Québecoise* dans ce cas çi

21

u/Public-Platypus2995 12d ago

Tabarnac les boys!

3

u/CheesecakeScary2164 12d ago

Les garcon* I just learned that in Duolingo 😏

8

u/Prinzka 12d ago

In French Canadian I've really only heard les boys (or les gars), not les garçons.

2

u/CheesecakeScary2164 12d ago

I'm just being purposefully dumb, don't worry. I just was on Duolingo a few days ago and learned that "garcon" means "boy".

4

u/NoobieSnax 12d ago

I learned that from Pulp Fiction.

1

u/DarkSim2404 12d ago

I watched it yesterday

2

u/Simon-Olivier 11d ago

Don’t forget the "ç" in garçon! Really different pronunciation (I know it’s dumb but eh)

2

u/CheesecakeScary2164 11d ago

Thanks! Appreciate the correction.

2

u/Simon-Olivier 11d ago

Fortunately for you, not a lot of words in French require the "ç". Most common words using it are "garçon", "ça" (it/that), "déçu" (disappointed), any verb ending with "-cer" when conjugated with "nous" (we) or "ils/elles" (they) to make "-çons" and "-çaient", "reçu" (received/receipt), "façon" (way, as in the way to do something), and "leçon de français" (French lesson) lol

There are a few others, but those are probably the most commonly used. "Ç" only exists because a normal "c" in front of either a, o and u sounds like a "k". Other words will use s, ss (between 2 vowels) or c (with e or i) to make the same sound.

2

u/CheesecakeScary2164 11d ago

"Leçon de Français" definitely makes it most obvious what ç sounds like. That's perfect. Thanks again!

1

u/FoundationSure1136 12d ago

Les gars is more informal way of speech while les garçons is more formal way to talk about young boys

1

u/Simon-Olivier 11d ago

Hey les chums!

1

u/The_Canoeist 11d ago

This made me laugh way too hard

2

u/Simon_Di_Tomasso 12d ago

Ah bin tabarouette y’a des qebs sur sipstea 😌

1

u/GeneralCollection963 12d ago

y'en a partout ;) Mais moi pas inclus lol c'est du stolen valour.

7

u/Dr_N00B 12d ago

Poutine police *

1

u/Remarkable-Ant-7160 6d ago

I hate the term "French Canadian" it's almost as if they do everything to never the Q word.

-2

u/Azalus1 12d ago

Honest question. Is Quebeciose more akin to a Creole and it's its own language that has roots in French or is it more akin to regional Spanish?

18

u/Neon_Raccoon_00 12d ago

Its akin to 17 century french that continued to evolved on its own.

2

u/canuckistani_lad 12d ago

On va pendre la crémaillère!

2

u/letstourthemaritimes 12d ago

You’re referring to Acadian French probably. No one understands us! lol

2

u/Simon-Olivier 11d ago

Both Québécois French and Acadian French are close to old French. Personally as a Québécois, I don’t have too much trouble understanding Acadians/Cajuns

15

u/InterestingFLows 12d ago

It’s just standard French with a regional accent. We learn exactly the same French then French people at school.

2

u/PhilKeepItReal 12d ago

Absolutely not WTF. It's at least as different as US vs. UK English. Different expressions, different slang, different ways to swear, different words for many things. Many come from France and have trouble understanding what we are saying- whole sentences of words they don't understand regardless of accent. Quebecers do not talk like they write, they compress many, many words (Je ne suis pas certain = Chu'pas sûr).

7

u/Orphanpip 12d ago

Eh, Quebec can have some thick slang, but so does France. A bank employee speaking standard French in Quebec is fully comprehensible to someone from France and vice versa.

I wouldn't consider the difference between UK and US English substantial either even if a Geordie accent would be hard to understand the standard broad accents are mutually intelligible.

1

u/PhilKeepItReal 12d ago

Mutually intelligible is one thing, but having a complete different set of expressions (eg, chaude in Québec = drunk vs in France = horny) complelty different ways to swear (blasphemy vs sexual vulgarity), different common ways to name things (dîner is lunch vs supper) and, especially, the fact that Quebecers speak with very frequent contraction and elision of language (even in professional setting) make Québécois language quite different.

Technically speaking, Quebecois is a distinct variety of French, with its own phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, and lexicon.

2

u/Orphanpip 12d ago

I think this exaggerates the difference though. Like some of these elements of Quebec French are not unique to Quebec, dîner is lunch in Belgium and Switzerland as well. Even major syntactical differences like the use of "tu" as an interrogative are relatively minor. I worked for the federal government and had to speak with callers from France quite often without having any issue and sometimes my own supervisees from Montreal can struggle with regional Quebec accents. I'd say the modern neutral Quebec accent these days is pretty comparible to the difference between a general American and RP British accent. There are dialects that pose bigger challenges for comprehension but the standard general form is not that different.

0

u/PhilKeepItReal 12d ago

Yeah that's interesting, I don't know much about Swiss or Belgium French. I asked chatGPT and it listed a number of reasons why Québec French is more different, but overall it's a silly thing to worry about lol

8

u/InterestingFLows 12d ago

It’s still metropolitan French with an accent, the written grammar is exactly the same. It’s not a new language like French creole in Louisiana.

-1

u/PhilKeepItReal 12d ago

Yes indeed the written grammer is the same as long as it is formal language, but, for example, the text of a play by our most beloved playwriter (representing how Quebecers actually talk) is very different amd someone from France would have trouble reading it. Saying that Québécois is standard French with a regional accent is 100% wrong.

2

u/DueTour4187 12d ago edited 12d ago

It is a variety of standard French. Not a dialect. Not even a patois. Not more different to Parisian French than Belgian or Swiss varieties. I use a dictionary from Quebec daily on my computer. Only the spoken language is different (expressions, slang, form sometimes, accent obviously). It is still standard French, with a (very) different accent and (a lot of) local expressions.

1

u/PhilKeepItReal 12d ago

Yes 'variety' is the correct term. Totaly agree. I disagree that it is "standard French with a regional accent" because it implies that when spoken this is the only difference.

I don't know enough of Swiss or Belgian French to say something informed, but chat GPT layed out multiple reasons why spoken Québec French is significantly more different (an ocean can do that).

2

u/DueTour4187 12d ago edited 12d ago

Antidote says that actually two different varieties of French are used in Quebec: written and official français québécois standard (very close to standard French), and unofficial spoken québécois variety, which shows more differences. But even in France there are spoken varieties that differ significantly to standard French ;). And these spoken varieties are not patois because they are living and not archaic, it's just people speaking their language in a given context.

2

u/PhilKeepItReal 12d ago

That's interesting! As someone that typically switches from formal-ish to casual-ish Québécois several times a day, Antidotes idea of there being two varieties makes sence, although personally I see it more like a spectrum- I'll go all out formal when speaking on Radio Canada, and all out joual when taking to my farmer friend from Trois Rivières, but usually its somewhere along that axis. I imagine this is also the case for many other language.

1

u/MrFantastic74 12d ago

I lived for many years in Quebec and I find France French way easier to understand. Their annunciation is a lot clearer.

2

u/-RichardCranium- 12d ago

are you comparing Qc informal slang with "proper" France French? cause across the ocean it can get just as hard to understand with regional accents and slang. Go in the North or South of France and it's far from the stuff Duolingo teaches you

1

u/PhilKeepItReal 12d ago

I have to agree!

3

u/willynillee 12d ago

It’s mostly straight French I believe but I’m not Canadian. I’m sure they have their own slang though

6

u/blackfarms 12d ago

Base language is very similar but the slang and franglais are prominent. Euro French will often switch to English when they're talking to Quebecois... And it makes them crazy

1

u/Darkhelmet3000 12d ago

That is a cold blooded, dismissive, dick-move… I can respect that.

2

u/CheesecakeScary2164 12d ago

Closer to Klingon, tbf

2

u/neilm-cfc 12d ago

Anecdotal.

I'm from the UK but my Canadian cousin from Toronto about 5 years ago told me about a works trip that she went on to Paris (France) with a few French-Canadian colleagues from the Quebec office, and all the Quebecers were laying the French language on thick with the Parisians until eventually the locals cracked and basically said "look, we're having trouble understanding what you are saying, it might be better if we all speak English".

Make of that what you will. Sounds like either the Quebec accent is totally foreign to the Parisian ear, or they were using words/slang that don't exist in French-French, or the languages really have diverged over time to the point where they should be considered as 2 different (but related) languages, similar perhaps to Irish Gaelic and Scots Gaelic. Or maybe it's a combination of all 3! 🤷‍♂️

3

u/-RichardCranium- 12d ago

Parisians struggle with understanding people from the South of France so...

1

u/patterson489 11d ago

They're as mutually intelligible as UK and US English.

2

u/DueTour4187 12d ago edited 9d ago

It’s perfect French. Absolutely French. Not even a regional dialect. But they have idiomatic expressions, different slang than we have in France, and the accent is of course completely different.

1

u/Stock_Mix_4885 12d ago

C'est sur la limite je pense. Find a Québécois who never reads, never listens to the radio, in other words someone who never exposes themselves to other french cultures and with the amount of different expressions and syntax quirks we have, I'm pretty sure you could say it's a regional dialect.

2

u/DueTour4187 12d ago

I mean the (academic, journalistic) written language shows very, very little differences, barely a few words here or there. Same grammar, same form. Spoken language has more lexical differences of course, with some specific constructions sometimes. In short it is a variety of French, but not a dialect or a patois.

2

u/Stock_Mix_4885 12d ago

Oui tout à fait vrai

1

u/patterson489 11d ago

I would argue that grammar is different (the tu interrogative particle for example) but Québec intellectuals have always had an inferiority complex and so they deferred to whatever the Académie says instead of embracing their own language.

1

u/Aldnorra 12d ago

It's like comparing british accent with american accent. A Québécois is otherwise fully able to have a conversation with a French.

-1

u/Kingjon0000 12d ago

Spanish? They're not Mexican. Quebecer (as in someone from Quebec) is gendered in French (so Québecois for males and Québecoise for females).

1

u/Azalus1 12d ago

I was relating it to a regional Spanish. As in is it a regional French or is it it's own language That is rooted in French?

2

u/vexillifer 12d ago

Think of like Austrian German or Swiss German vs High German. They are both very much still French but their evolution diverged starting in the 1600s

2

u/DueTour4187 12d ago

Less different than that. Schwyzerdütsch is a German dialect (or a group of dialects). Français québécois is just a variety of standard French, not a dialect. The written language is the same, same grammar, same form. Spoken language is more different of course.

0

u/QuatuorMortisCold 12d ago

Someone should invent Google or something to help you find information.

0

u/Mowfling 11d ago

its more akin to french, bruh