Joual

{{further|History of Quebec French}}

The creation of Joual can be traced back to the "era of silence", the period from the 1840s to the 1960s and the start of the Quiet Revolution.{{Cite thesis |last=Prins |first=M. |title=The Joual Effect: A Reflection of Quebec's Urban Working-Class in Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs and Hosanna |date=2012 |degree=MA |publisher=Arizona State University |hdl=2286/R.I.14644 |hdl-access=free |id={{ProQuest|1010987064}}}} The "era of silence" was marked with stark stigmatization of the common working man. Written documents were not shared with the typical working class man, and the very strict form of French that was used by elites excluded a majority of the population. The Quiet Revolution during the 1960s was a time of awakening, in which the Quebec working class demanded more respect in society, including wider use of Québécois in literature and the performing arts. Michel Tremblay is an example of a writer who deliberately used Joual and Québécois to represent the working class populations of Quebec.{{Cite book |last=Dargnat |first=Mathilde |title=Michel Tremblay: le "joual" dans Les belles-sœurs |date=2002 |publisher=L'Harmattan |language=fr}} Joual, a language of the working class, quickly became associated with slang and vulgar language.{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}} Despite its continued use in Canada, there are still ideologies present which place a negative connotation on the use of Joual.{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Although coinage of the name joual is often attributed to French-Canadian journalist André Laurendeau, who in October 1959 wrote an article in Le Devoir criticizing the quality of the French language spoken by French Canadian students, the usage of this term throughout French-speaking Canada likely predates this text.{{Cite journal |last=Laurendeau |first=Paul |date=1987 |title=Trésor de la langue française au Québec (XXII) |url=https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/qf/1987-n67-qf1219140/45320ac/ |journal=Québec français |language=fr |issue=67 |pages=40–41 |issn=0316-2052}}

The actual word Joual is the representation of how the word cheval (Standard French: {{IPA|fr|ʃəval|}}, {{gloss|horse}}) is pronounced by those who speak Joual. ("Horse" is used in a variation of the phrase {{lang|fr|parler français comme une vache}} {{gloss|to speak French like a cow}}, i.e. to speak French terribly; hence, a put-down of the Québécois dialect.) The weak schwa vowel {{IPA|[ə]}} disappeared. Then the voiceless {{IPA|[ʃ]}} was voiced to {{IPAblink|ʒ}}, thereby creating {{IPA|[ʒval]}}. Next, the {{IPA|[v]}} at the beginning of a syllable in some regional dialects of French or even in very rapid speech in general weakened to become the semi-vowel {{IPA|[w]}} written {{angbr|ou}}. The end result is the word {{IPA|[ʒwal]}} transcribed as Joual.{{Citation needed|reason=there is no evidence of this|date=April 2013}}

Diphthongs are normally present where long vowels would be present in standard French. There is also the usage of sontaient, sonté (ils étaient, ils ont été).

Although moé and toé are today considered substandard slang pronunciations of moi and toi, these were the original pronunciations of ancien régime French used in all provinces of Northern France, by the royalty, aristocracy, and common people. After the 1789 French Revolution, the standard pronunciation in France changed to that of a previously-stigmatized form in the speech of Paris, but Quebec French continued to evolve from the historically older dialects, having become isolated from France following the 1760 British conquest of New France.Marc Picard, "La diphtongue /wa/ et ses équivalents en français du Canada." Cahiers de linguistique de l'Université du Québec 1974, 4.147–164.

Joual shares many features with modern Oïl languages, such as Norman, Gallo, Picard, Poitevin and Saintongeais though its affinities are greatest with the 17th century koiné of Paris.Henri Wittmann, "Le français de Paris dans le français des Amériques." Proceedings of the International Congress of Linguists 16.0416 (Paris, 20–25 juillet 1997). Oxford: Pergamon (CD edition). [http://www.nou-la.org/ling/1998a-fpparis.pdf] Speakers of these languages of France predominated among settlers to New France.

It could be argued that at least some aspects of more modern Joual are further linguistic contractions of standard French. D'la (de la) is an example where the word de has nearly fallen out of usage over time and has become contracted. This argument does apply to other words, and this phenomenon has become widespread throughout contemporary French language.

A defining characteristic of the sociolect is the deliberate use of the pronoun tu to indicate a question. The pronoun maintains its traditional usage, that of representing the second person singular, but is also used in conjunction with a verb, to indicate a question.{{cite web |title=Tu - Definition |url=https://www.je-parle-quebecois.com/lexique/definition/tu.html |website=Je Parle Quebecois |access-date=30 January 2023}} Tu is used, for this purpose, regardless of the technically relevant grammatical person. This is because tu, in this use-case, is a contraction of the antiquated t-il particle originating from 13th century France,{{cite web |last1=Tanguay |first1=Felix |title=D'où vient le "-tu" interrogatif, et "c'est-tu" pertinent de l'enseigner? |url=https://correspo.ccdmd.qc.ca/document/dou-vient-le-tu-interrogatif-et-cest-tu-pertinent-de-lenseigner/ |website=Correspondance |publisher=Centre collégial de développement de matériel didactique |access-date=30 January 2023}} which was used to indicate a question.{{cite web |last1=Nadeau |first1=Jean-Benoit |title=Est-ce français de dire " tu veux-tu " ? |url=https://lactualite.com/societe/est-ce-francais-de-dire-tu-veux-tu/ |website=L'actualité |access-date=30 January 2023}} For example, in metropolitan french, a question may be asked as simply "Veut-il manger?" whereas in Joual, it may be asked as "Il veux-tu manger?"

Another significant characteristic of Joual is the liberal use of profanities called sacre in everyday speech.Gilles Charest, Le livre des sacres et blasphèmes québécois. Montréal: L"Aurore, 1974; Jean-Pierre Pichette, Le guide raisonné des jurons. Montréal: Les Quinze, 1980; Diane Vincent, Pressions et impressions sur les sacres au Québec. Québec: Office de la langue française, 1982.

{{main|List of French words of English origin}}

There are a number of English loanwords in Joual, although they have been stigmatized since the 1960s,The standard reference to this subject is Gilles Colpron, Les anglicismes au Québec: Répertoire classifié. Montréal: Beauchemin. instead favoring alternative terms promoted by the Office québécois de la langue française. The commonality of English loanwords in Joual is attributed to the unilingually anglophone nature of the factory owners, business higher-ups, and industrial supervisors which employed the majority of French-speaking blue-collar workers throughout 20th century.Alexandre Lafrenière, Le Joual et les mutations du Québec. La question de la langue dans la définition de l’identité québécoise,mémoire de maîtrise (sociologie), Université Laval, 2008. This need to use English in workplace environments, when referring to technical elements of the worker's labour, caused the gradual integration of English loanwords into French.{{Cite web |title=Joual {{!}} l'Encyclopédie Canadienne |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/le-joual |access-date=2023-02-02 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca}} These words would eventually come to be conjugated and integrated as though they were traditionally French words (such as "Check" becoming the verb "Chequer"). The usage of deprecated anglicisms varies both regionally and historically. In the table below are a few common Joual words of English origin.

Some words were also previously thought to be of English origin, although modern research has shown them to be from regional French dialects:

• Pitoune (log, cute girl, loose girl): previously thought to come from "happy town" although the word pitchoune exists in dialects from southern France (possibly coming from the Occitan word pichona, "little girl"), now used to mean "cute girl".{{Citation |title=pitoune |date=2022-12-06 |url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=pitoune&oldid=31069702 |work=Wiktionnaire |language=fr |access-date=2023-02-01}}
• Poutine: was thought to come from "pudding", but some have drawn a parallel with the Occitan language (also called Provençal or Languedoc) term podinga, a stew made of scraps, which was the previous use of the term in Montreal.{{Citation |title=poutine |date=2022-12-06 |url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=poutine&oldid=31068145 |work=Wiktionnaire |language=fr |access-date=2023-02-01}}

The two-act play Les Belles-sœurs by Canadian writer Michel Tremblay premiered in 1968 at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Montreal. Many consider it to have had a profound impact on Canadian culture, as it was one of the first times Joual was seen on a national stage. The play follows a working-class woman named Germaine in Montréal. After winning a million trading stamps, she invites her friends over to help paste them into booklets to redeem them. But Germaine is unsuspecting of her jealous friends who are envious of her winnings.{{cite web|url=http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Les%20belles-soeurs|title=Les Belles-soeurs|website=Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia|access-date=21 February 2019}} The fact that the play was originally written in Joual is very important to the socio-linguistic aspect of the women. The characters all come from the working class and for the most part, speak in Joual, which at the time was not seen on the main stage. The play was cited at the time as a "radical element among Quebec critics as the dawn of a new era of liberation, both political and aesthetic".{{Cite book |last=Usmiani |first=Renate |title=Michel Tremblay |date=1982 |publisher=Douglas & McIntyre |series=Studies in Canadian Literature, 15 |location=Vancouver}}

When Les Belles-sœurs premiered in Paris, France in 1973 as it was originally written, in Joual, it was met with some initial criticism. One critic described it as difficult to understand as ancient Greek.{{Cite journal |last=McEwan |first=Barbara |date=1986 |title=Au-delà de l'exotisme: le théâtre québécois devant la critique parisienne, 1955–1985 |journal=Theatre History in Canada / Histoire du théâtre Canada |language=fr |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=134–148}} Tremblay responded, "a culture should always start with speak to herself. The ancient Greeks spoke to each other". {{Verify quote|date=August 2021}} The popularity of the play has since caused it to be translated into multiple languages,{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}} raising controversies in the translation community over retaining the authenticity of Les Belles-sœurs even when not performed in the original dialect of Joual.{{Cite journal |last=Malone |first=Paul |date=2003-01-01 |title="Good Sisters" and "Darling Sisters": Translating and Transplanting the Joual in Micheal Tremblay's Les Belles-Soeurs |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/7065 |journal=Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada |language=en |issn=1913-9101}}

Writing in Joual gave Tremblay an opportunity to resist cultural and linguistic "imperialism" of France, while signifying the secularization of Québec culture.{{Cite journal |last=Dunnett |first=Jane |date=2006 |title=Postcolonial Constructions in Québécois Theatre of the 1970s: The Example of Mistero buffo |journal=Romance Studies |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=117–131 |doi=10.1179/174581506x120082 |s2cid=143556398}}

• Anglicism
• Association québécoise de linguistique
• Basilect
• Bilingualism
• Canada
• Canadian French
• Canadien (disambiguation)
• Chaouin
• Chiac
• Cockney
• Demographics of Quebec
• Franglais
• French Canadian
• French Canadians
• French language in Canada
• Language contact
• Language planning
• Languages of Canada
• Linguistic description
• Magoua
• Mixed language
• Mockney
• Post-creole continuum
• Quebec (disambiguation)
• Quebec English
• Quebec French
• Quebec French lexicon
• Quebec French phonology
• Quebec French profanity
• Quebecer (disambiguation)
• Québécois
• Sociolinguistics
• Standard French

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Joual Article on Joual at Canadian theatre]
• [http://www.nou-la.org/ling/1973a-joual.pdf Article on Joual in La Linguistique journal]
• [https://www.angelfire.com/pq/lexique/lejoual.html A few excerpts of texts in Joual]
• http://www.yorku.ca/paull/articles/1990h.html
• http://www.yorku.ca/paull/articles/1992.html
• http://www.yorku.ca/paull/articles/2004b.html

{{French dialects by continent}}

{{Gallo-Romance languages and dialects}}

Category:Quebec French

Category:Culture of Quebec

Category:Languages of Canada

Category:Oïl languages

Category:Slang

Category:Sociolinguistics

Category:Language varieties and styles

Category:Working-class culture in Canada