Le Choc des patois en Nouvelle-France: Essai sur l'histoire de la francisation au Canada by Philippe Barbaud (review)

488 LETTERS IN CANADA 1984 alphabetique et de la presence de pres d'une centaine de pages de Divers (Miscellaneous), il s'agit d'un ouvrage de lecture plutot que d'un outil de reference. Le livre, qui s'averera neanmoins tres utile aupres des anglophones pour une comprehension du frant.;ais quebecois usuel, se termine par un certain nombre de courts appendices-digests dedoubles: Grammaire/Grammar et Prononciation/Pronunciation du frant.;ais quebecois , OrthographelOrthography et Grammaire/Grammar du fran<;ais acadien, plus sept pages de vocables acadiens. (TERENCE R. WOOLDRIDGE) Philippe Barbaud. Le Choc des patois en Nouvelle-France: Essai sur l'histoire de la francisation au Canada Presses de l'Universite du Quebec. 204. $16.9.5 Eminently readable, this short text provides a good deal of information, both on the historical development ofthe French language in Canada and the explanations advanced to account for it. The first and third chapters sum up available literature on the subject. In the first, aptly titled 'Dossier de l'origine du parler canadien-frant.;ais,' the work of Stanislas L. Lortie and Adjutor Rivard is summarized, and subsequent contributions of Canadian and French historians and linguists are examined for new and pertinent information. In the third, 'La France aux trente idiomes,' the author presents the results of Henri-Baptiste Gregoire's questionnaire, as interpreted by Canadian and French dialectologists. The juxtaposition of their writings, as diverse as glossaries (Meniere 1880), sociopolitical analyses (De Certeau 1975) or textbooks (Guiraud 1978), all based on a reconstruction of the linguistic geography ofFrance, helps the reader appreciate the importance accorded to Gregoire's survey. The authorcomments onthe type ofquestions asked in the questionnaire, singling out those relevant for obtaining linguistic data. Reinterpreting the results of the same questionnaire, the author proposes a map of France with three main classes of speakers: dialectal 'patoisants,' semi-dialectal 'semi-patoisants,' and speakers of Standard French or 'francisants,' these three defined not according to geographical boundaries but sociolinguistic factors such as degree of schooling, sex, and economic, cultural and political status. This sociolinguistic approach, outlined in the Introduction, forms the theoretical base for the author's conclusions as presented in the fourth chapter, 'L'Emergence de la langue maternelle des Canadiens-frant.;ais.' Citing recent studies which stress the importance of the mother's linguistic behaviour for a child's language acquisition, Barbaud uses the term 'langue maternelle' to mean, literally, thelanguageofthe mother. He maintains that, in the light of evidence from sociolinguistic research on the role of women in language maintenance and change, mere lists of HUMANITIES 489 immigrants from France in the period 1608-60 and tables illustrating their linguistic distribution cannot provide sufficient explanation for the direction taken by the French language in Canada. Barbaud proposes a predictive model based on woman's central role in the dynamics of language diffusion, I un modele predictif qui fasse porter l'essentiel de la dynamiquede l'assimilation sur les epaules des femmes d'antan' (p 142). Based on detailed information about the speakers' background, this proposed recursive model defines the language spoken by father and mother, predicting from it the variety of language spoken by their daughter who, as mother, will provide the linguistic input for the next generation. By the application of his model, Barbaud explains rather convincingly the homogeneous character of contemporary Canadian French. Itremains to be seen whether the model is sophisticated and sure enough to predict the future evolution of a multidialectal, bi- or multilingual society. This is a book that is both informative and challenging. One can only regret that it has not been translated into English, and hope that it soon will be. (SUZANNE WHALEN) Pierre Anctil and Gary Caldwell, editors. Juifs et realites juives au Quebec Serie II, Les communautes ethnoculturelles, no. 7 Institut quebecois de recherche sur la culture. 371. $13.00 paper In recent years, the Institut quebecois de recherche sur la culture has been producing important research tools - bibliographies and surveys of research, as well as innovative studies - examining various facets of the cultural institutions in Quebec. One of the most active areas of publication has been the field of ethnocultural studies of minority groups within Quebec. The first volume in this series, an annotated bibliography by David Rome and others, Les Juifs du Quebec, which served as an introductory study, is now fleshed out with this new anthology by Pierre Anctil and Gary Caldwell. As the editors point out in the Introduction, their intention is not to produce original research on the sociology of Jewish culture in Quebec, but to provide a synthesis of the state of knowledge on the question in a single comprehensive volume. But this study is novel within its context, for it makes available for the first time in French and within a university milieu the results of much research undertaken by the Quebec Jewish community itself. Surprising as it may seem to an outsider from a position where the QuebecJewish community seems closely identified with bilingualism, the gap between francophone Quebecker and the Jewish community is great, caused in part by an anti-Semitic strain in Quebec nationalism (subject of ...