Brayons, also called Madawaskayens, are a

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

people inhabiting the area in and around

Madawaska County Madawaska County (2016 population 32,741), also known as the "New Brunswick Panhandle", is located in northwestern New Brunswick, Canada. Over 90% of the county's population speaks French. Its Francophone population are known as "Brayons." Fore ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada, including some parts of northern Maine. In French, they are called or feminine as in ''Brayon culture'', or . Given their location in New Brunswick, and that most Brayons descend from

Acadian The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...

s who escaped the

Deportation of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian peo ...

, they are considered by many to be Acadians. However, some residents relate more to Quebec and have strong roots and ancestral ties to Quebec. The Madawaska region used to be part of Quebec when it was called

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

. Brayons have a distinctive culture with a history and heritage linked to

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

in the Madawaska area, unlike both the primarily maritime heritage of the modern Acadians and the

St. Lawrence Valley The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

history of the Québécois.

Dialect

Unlike

Acadian French Acadian French (french: français acadien, acadjonne) is a variety of French spoken by Acadians, mostly in the region of Acadia (region), Acadia, Canada. Acadian French has 7 regional accents, including chiac and brayon. Phonology Since there w ...

, for example, Brayon does not possess its own words or definitions. The primary difference consists in a simple denotation of certain words due to their pronunciation. Many gramamtical forms, such as masculine and feminine adjective endings or the past tenses of some verbs, are homophones in Brayon. Both Brayon and Acadian are considered dialects of French (as opposed to independent languages), but the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect" may also overlap and are often subject to debate. One basic distinctive trait of Brayon, however, is made in words such as ("stain") and ("task") in which the "a" tends to resemble an open back unrounded vowel , despite the circumflex. That in turn highlights the difference of pronouncing "a" in (3rd singular of the verb , "to have") and (pronoun "at"), which is already strong in Quebec unlike in France. The same rule also applies to in ("skinny") and ("vinegar"), which become , as in ("feast").

Etymology

The term Brayon is thought to have come to reference inhabitants of the Madawaska area as well as their variety of French through

malapropism A malapropism (also called a malaprop, acyrologia, or Dogberryism) is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterance. An example is the statement attributed to ...

. "Brayon" used to be written as "Breillon".Yves Cormier, Dictionnaire du français acadien, Fides, 2009 (ISBN 978-2-7621-3010-2), p. 109. The origins of the word Brayon are not well known. It is hypothesized to have maybe been derived from the verb "Brayer" (to pull on a rope), the noun "Braie" ("old clothes" in certain dialects of the West of France), or the verb "Broyer" (to crush - the inhabitants of the region used to crush

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

Geography

The border between New Brunswick and Quebec and to some extent

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

traditionally did not matter much to the people of the area, which caused commonalities and close relationships between Brayons and Québécois and parts of northern Maine; likewise, Brayon French is not completely restricted to Madawaska County. This view of uniqueness led (at least jokingly) to the founding of the République du Madawaska during the

Aroostook War The Aroostook War (sometimes called the Pork and Beans WarLe Duc, Thomas (1947). The Maine Frontier and the Northeastern Boundary Controversy. ''The American Historical Review'' Vol. 53, No. 1 (Oct., 1947), pp. 30–41), or the Madawaska War, wa ...

, wherein some Brayons, disgusted with the actions of both

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

interlopers on their historical lands, declared themselves allied with neither and independent. Of course, the ''république'' was never formally recognized and was ultimately split by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty into American and Canadian parts.

Other uses

Brayon(ne) is also the name of the inhabitants of the

Pays de Bray The Pays de Bray (, literally ''Land of Bray'') is a small (about 750 km²) natural region of France situated to the north-east of Rouen, straddling the French departments of the Seine-Maritime and the Oise (historically divided among the ...

in northwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

(Normandy,

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inféri ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

and Picardy,

Oise Oise ( ; ; pcd, Oése) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 ...

Dialect

Etymology

Geography

Other uses

References

Further reading