Westdale Secondary School - Le Raconteur Yearbook (Hamilton, Ontario Canada)

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MUIIERN S The French of Quebec By F. G. Millar, B.A., B.Paed. T IS a commonly accepted notion that the French spoken by our fellow-Canadians of French origin is a corrupt habitant patois, very different from Parisian French, and that, if one wishes to learn French, he should by no means take the easy and inexpensive method of sojourning for a time in our sister province. Quebec French does differ from Parisian French: but then so does Toronto English differ from Oxford English, and for similar reasons. The people of Quebec were completely cut off from France from the time of the Conquest up to almost the end of the ninteenth century. Even since that time, a comparatively small number of French-Canadians have had any contact with the mother country. It is, therefore, quite understandable that some dif- ferences in speech have developed in more than two hundred years of separation. The French-Canadians, to begin with, were of two classes: the clergy, army officers and civil officials who spoke the court language of the seven- teenth century, and the habitants, speaking a com- posite of the dialects, but mainly the Norman speech of the race of sailors and farmers or Nor- mandy and Brittany. The crucible of time fused these elements into a speech hardly distinguishable from the French of the classical period interlarded with modes of speech and turns of expression derived from the people of the northwest coast of France. You may call this a patois, if you like, but it is of high descent. The main peculiarities of this speech have been carefully studied and accounted for historically by a number of competent students. The Societe du Parler Francais au Canada has collected and pub- lished in its journal very complete vocabularies of French-Canadian words. Mr. Adjutor Rivard, author of Chez Nous and other fascinating essays on French Canada, wrote a small book entitled La Langue Francais au Canada, which sets forth the main pecularities of Canadian French. A few of the characteristic differences may be of interest to readers of this magazine. The first and most characteristic difference is the archaic pro- nunciation of the oi in moi, toi, soir, which is sounded moe, toe, soerf' Louis XIX' prob- ably said L'etat c'est moe. lt is easy to prove by the rhymes in the poetry of this epoch that the above was the current pronunciation. The oui of the afiirmative and of Louis was sounded none and Lorie, and so on. :Xt first these sounds are very confusing to one who expects the sounds of Parisian French, and they have been one of the main causes why visitors have thought Canadian French a miserable patois. They are merely archaisms no worse than the New England gotten. The vowel is generally given the open sound, as in English bit, instead of the closed sound, ai is often sounded like the a of English pat in the ending of the imperfect and conditional tense and elsewhere and the and e are given the same sound. Another peculiarity is the sounding of the final consonant in places where it is silent in modern French. Proper names like Amyot, Pouliot, .loliet sound the t, lVords like droit, froid. are pronounced drct, fret fnote the voiceless t sound for the final Md in both singular and plural. It is quite natural that a race of sea-rovers like the Normans and Bretons should retain nautical phrases even after they had swallowed the anchor and set up on shore as farmers, traders and coureurs de bois. So a fall of snow is une bordee fbroadsidel de neigef' To my surprise I was once ordered by a friend: .Xmarrez fmoorl le chevalln I ani told that marrer and demarrern are used of automobiles too! Quaint arcliaisms abound: icite for ici, itou for aussi. Some small English boys in a certain school were asked by the French master if they could speak French. Nearly all held up their hands. One lad was slow but finally raised his hand with the words: Moe itou! Louis XIV would have understood him perfectly even if a modern Parisian would have been puzzled. The word patates fpotatoesl is universally used for the more modern Upommes de terref' Patates is a word about which many jokes have been made, and the car- CContinued on Page 611 27 P J

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AL I By Peter F. llenderso HEX school opened last Fall. we found that many of our friends had left us. Some were working, some were at home, but the majority were continuing their studies at universities. XYe sin- cerely hope that these people may continue to enjoy great success and prosperity during the coming years. Listed here are the various places to which our friends and former school-mates have gone. As usual, McMaster has claimed the greatest portion of our students. Those attending are: Mary Boutilier, Norah llrown, Elizabeth Chil- man, Elizabeth Chubbuck, Eric Crowther, McCon- nell Davis, Frank Dent, AYilliam Doherty, XYilliam Duncan, Mary Eager, Velma Shaver and Henry Sprague, stars of last year's lladminton team, ,Iohn M. Elliot, -loyce Ford-Smith, XYilfred Ginsberg, Lloyd Haines, Paul johns, Margaret Johnston, whose home is now in Spain, Alex. McKay, Eliza- beth Morwick, .lohn A. Oates, Mary Syme, Dorothy Yan Sickle, ,lean Morley, Inez XVarrender, Russell XYarren. David Moodie, Marguerite Young and Charles Peebles. Those accepted by Queens are: lien Finkelstein, Haig Leckie, Norm. Clark, Graham Eby. Ed. lloodless, hlohn XYilson, Gord. Baxter and XYilliam Looselev. Don Manson, -lack XYhiteside, Carson McGowan and Phil Ambrose are attending Toronto Univer- sity. Their sterling work here is proof that they will suceed in Toronto. XYith aspirations of becoming a sojer boy. George XX'ard is at Royal Military College, Kingston. At Business College are the following: lleryl Baines. Lois Crickmore, XYilliam llaslam, ,lack Heritage, Charles Scott. and ,lames Morrow. Normal School has picked up Isabel Greenhill, Betty McKerracker. and Hildred XValsh. Hoping to become housewives, dietitians and such, four fair damsels, namely, Mary Louise Har- rison, Mary Cattell, Dorothy Ketchen and Eleanor Magee, have decided to broaden their epicurean ideals at Macdonald Hall. lVe wish you the best of luck, girls! 26 A great many of last year's graduates are taking special Grad. courses at XVestdale Tech., while others are in Special Commercial. Those taking special Grad. course are: Kay Clark, George Drago- mautz, Richard Gill, Victor Harrison, Gord. Hazell. Tom Kernaghan, Frank Kirk, Webster MacFar- land, Matthew McPherson, blames Provias, 'loe Rosart, Douglas Sager, Mlilliam Szedor, Albert Young and Russ. Brown. In Commercial Special are: Ruth Abbott, Ettie Balloch. Freda Cooley, .lohn Greenaway, XVilhel- mina Koster, Edith Leith, Dorothy Liss, Helen Smith, Evelyn Swanborough, Constance Count, Grace Meiler, Audrey Jones, Mary Carrington, Helen Hausen, john Van Sickle, Pearl Chaunce. Richard Elstone, Mary Bilton and 'Io Spence. Others at school here are: Norma Crickmore. Arthur Strauch, Marion Thornton, Bert Duncan, lYill MacPherson and Lewis Smart. Last year's students at home are: Ivy Blain, Lawrence Chubb, Erma Hamilton, C. Murray, Lorine XVallace, Lloyd Gapes, Albert Baker, Mary Mulholland, Michael Romanoff, Thelma Adams, Myrtle Hoth, Naomi Knapp, Ross Lony, Irene Richardson, Michael Sansone, Margaret Thirston and Frances Thomp- son. Some of our students have taken positions in the Mcstinghouse factory. These include: Margaret Andrews. Emlyn James, Kathleen Slack, Mar- guerite Swarts, and Florence Bradley. Sam Agro is playing in an orchestra. Tom .Andrews is a clerk in Duff's store. Those who have secured positions in offices are: Mary Elliot, john Hill, Helen Mulholland, Mar- garet Vichett, Norma Santos, Eleanor Smith, Norman Wilson and Austen Akleatherley. Mary Fitzpatrick is doing secretarial work: Ava .Iannett and Ida Omerod are at the Bell Telephone. Monica McCarthy is in the Remington Rand fac- tory. Nettie Morton is with McDonald's Printing Co. .lean XYilcox is married, we wish her happi- ness. Stanley Brezicki is a truck driver, and Edward Burden is a shipping clerk at Eatonls. Leslie Clark has gone in for farm work. Vincent Elliot is sell- fContinued on Page 591

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LE IlACONTEUll Le Francais Editor, Helen Sadler. Un Tour de Bretagne Yoyageons en Bretagne par quelques lettres ecrites par des gens qui y ont ete. D'abord visitons Saint-Malo. C'est la patrie de jacques Cartier, qui a decou- vert le Canada. C'est aussi la patrie des celebres marins Duguaj'-Trouin et Surcouf: la maison natale de Duguay-Trouin existe encore: elle date du seizieme siecle. Enfin Saint-Malo est la patrie du grand ecrivain Cliateaubriand surnomme 'le Pere du Romantisme'. Nous partons de Saint-Malo et entrons dans Saint-Brieuce. Une place publique est ornee de la statue du connetable Du Guescling c'etait un guerrier fa- meux qui combattit toute sa vie contre l'Angleterre. ll fut fait prisonnier par le Prince Noir a la bataille de Navaretteg le Prince Noir liC1llIIlCll3. a Londres et demanda une enorme rancon pour lui rendre la libertef' Nous nous approclions de llarlaix. En 1522 les Anglais capturerent Morlaixg ils y entrerent par surprise: mais les defenseurs de la ville se precipiterent sur les Anglais et les tuerent presque tous. .-Xpres cet exploit la ville de Morlaix ajouta 21 ses armes les mots 'S'ils te mordent. mords-les'. C'est un jeu de mots, car les mots 'mords-les' et 'Klorlaix' ont la meme prononci- ation. Enfin nous visitons Brest. Brest est celebre par deux batailles navales. lin 1694 la flotte anglaise, commandee par Lord Berkeley, fut defaite par les Francais. Exactment un siecle plus tard, en 1794, la flotte francaise fut defaite par l'amiral Howe. Dans cette derniere liataille le navire francais, Le Yengeur, refusa de se rendre et fut coule par les Anglais. L'episode du Vengeur est une des gloires militaires de la France. ll faut que nous terminions notre voyage. Peut- etre pouvons-nous le continuer une autre fois. Saviez-vous qu': Un monologue est une conversation entre deux personnes, un mari et sa femme. Un polygone est un perroquet mort. On ne trouve pas l'azote en Erin parce qu'il n'est pas trouve dans un etat libre. Un hypocrite est un garcon qui vient a l'ecole. en souriant. 28 Une lettre ei Elma Hard de Fernand Foret: En France, les deputes et les senateurs qui etaient en vacances vont reprendre leur travailg cela va etre un evenementg ils vont surement renverser le ministere et aussi le President de la Republique. En France, la majorite du peuple est fatiguee du gouvernement actuel, dirigie par Laval qui voud- rait s'etablir dictateur comme l'a fait Hitler en Allemagne et Mussolini en Italie, mais lieureuse- ment nous sommes a la veille d'une revolution et Laval ne fera pas ce qu'il voudra. Une lettre a Mary Carrington de Paulette Autenor: qC'est une decription de Noumea ecrite par une fille qui demeurey Il faut que je vous parle un peu de la colonie. C'est une ile de 50 km. de long, +0 de large. Elle est surtout montagneuseg c'est un pays minier. lfagriculture y est beaucoup developpee. Il n' y a que tres peu d'usines. L'ile est entouree d'une ceinture de recifs qui rend tres dangereuse la navi- gation. On pratique beaucoup la peche. La popu- lation est de 16000 habitants. Yous savez que c'es1 une ile perdue a l'autre bout du monde. Tous les sports sont pratiques a Noumea. En hiver nous avons beaucoup de distractions mais en ete nous n'avons rien at part le cinema, heureuse- ment que le pays est tres cbaud alors nous allons at la campagne prendre des bains a la riviere, et presque tous les soirs au bord de mer car il n'est qu' 51 500 metres de la maison. je sais nager mais je fatigue tres vite. -Vaime beaucoup le bal. Ma soeur joue au baskett mais elle prefererait le jeu du tennis. Pls Ulf :lf .-Xvez-vous entendu celui-ci? 'le n'aurais jamais cru, Russ, que tes etudes me coutent si cher, dit M. Eden a son fils. l'Et remarque bien, que je suis encore de ceux qui etudient le moms. dit Russ. Cette Conte est-elle entierement originelle? Pas entierement. Yous trouverez un peu des mots dans le dictionnaire. Pk if Pk Un homme cita en justice son voisin pour l'avoir appele un rhinoceros. A la cour il admit que la description lui avait ete donnee il y a cinq ans. Mais pourquoi avez-vous decide de demander Vassistance de la loi, maintenant? -Eh bien, vous voyez, a repondu l'homme, je ne suis alle au jardin zoologique que la semaine passee.