Saintongeais dialect

{{Short description|Oïl dialect of historical Saintonge, Aunis, and Angoumois}}

{{About||the French wine grape also known as Saintongeais|Jurançon (grape)|another French wine grape known as Saintongeais|Négrette}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Saintongeais

| nativename = séntunjhaes

| states = France

| region = Charente, Charente-Maritime, Gironde

| speakers = ?

| familycolor = Indo-European

| fam2 = Italic

| fam3 = Latino-Faliscan

| fam4 = Latinic

| fam5 = Romance

| fam6 = Italo-Western

| fam7 = Western

| fam8 = Gallo-Iberian{{Cite web |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/shif1234 |title=Glottolog 4.8 - Shifted Western Romance |date=2022-05-24 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=Glottolog |last1=Hammarström |first1=Harald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231127113834/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/shif1234 |archive-date=2023-11-27 |url-status=live |publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |last2=Forkel |first2=Robert |last3=Haspelmath |first3=Martin |last4=Bank |first4=Sebastian}}

| fam9 = Gallo-Romance

| fam10 = Gallo-Rhaetian?

| fam11 = Arpitan–Oïl

| fam12 = Oïl

| fam13 = Poitevin–Saintongeais zone

|isoexception = dialect

|glotto = sant1407

|glottorefname = Santongeais

|map = Saintongeais.svg

|mapcaption = Linguistic area of Saintongeais the Charentes and the Northern part of Gironde

}}

Saintongeais ({{IPA|fr|sɛ̃tɔ̃ʒɛ|-|LL-Q150 (fra)-Lyokoï-saintongeais.wav}}; endonym: séntunjhaes) is a dialect of Poitevin–Saintongeais{{Cite web |title=Langues régionales |url=https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Sites-thematiques/Langue-francaise-et-langues-de-France/Politiques-de-la-langue/Langues-de-France/Langues-regionales |access-date=2020-01-01 |website=Ministère de la Culture |language=fr |archive-date=2020-02-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200210104100/https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Sites-thematiques/Langue-francaise-et-langues-de-France/Politiques-de-la-langue/Langues-de-France/Langues-regionales |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Poitevin-saintongeais (dialecte) |url=https://data.bnf.fr/en/16147295/poitevin-saintongeais__dialecte_/ |access-date=2021-11-21 |website=data.bnf.fr |language=en}} spoken halfway down the western coast of France in the former provinces of Saintonge, Aunis and Angoumois, all of which have been incorporated into the current departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime as well as in parts of the neighbouring department of Gironde and a town{{Which|date=December 2021}} in Dordogne. Although many of the same words are used in both Charente departments, they differ in what they mean or in how they are pronounced.

Saintongeais, which is a langue d'oïl variety, and Gascon, which is a langue d'oc variety, have significantly influenced the Acadian and Cajun dialects of French spoken in Canada and the United States respectively.[http://pivetea.free.fr/canada.htm] In the 20th century, almost half of the Acadian population has Poitevin and Saintongean roots. Acadian French has, despite everything, retained a great originality in relation to Quebecois precisely because of its Poitevine and Saintongean origins. At the phonetic level, the number of preserved dialect features is greater than that of Quebec, especially in the communities of Old Acadia, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and that in particular [jh] Saintongeais is maintained there to the present day.