The Société du parler français au Canada (SPFC) ("French Speech in Canada Society") was a
learned society that endeavoured to study the
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
spoken in
Canada in the course of the 20th century. Founded on February 18, 1902
[SLMC.]
(1930) Glossaire du parler français au Canada. Société du parler français au Canada
", in the ''Site for Language Management in Canada'', 2006, retrieved October 19, 2009 by
Adjutor Rivard
Adjutor Rivard (22 January 1868 – 17 July 1945Claude Verreault.Adjutor Rivard (1868-1945)", in the site of the ''Laboratoire de lexicologie et lexicographie québécoises'', retrieved October 25, 2009) was a lawyer, writer, judge and linguist ...
and
Stanislas-Alfred Lortie,
two
Université Laval professors, it made important contributions to
lexicography in
Quebec and Canada.
The SPFC ceased to exist in the 1960s. In 2002, the
Université Laval,
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
The Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) is a branch of the Université du Québec network founded in 1969 and based in the Chicoutimi borough of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. UQAC has secondary study centres in La Malbaie, Saint-Félicien ...
and
Université de Sherbrooke marked the SPFC's 100th anniversary of foundation with a colloquium held at the
Musée de la civilisation and presided by French linguist
Bernard Quemada. The history of the SPFC was the object of a book by Quebec linguist
Louis Mercier.
Founding members
The 24 founding members of the SPFC included eight Université Laval professors and nine members of the catholic clergy:
Studies
At its foundation, the SPFC gave itself a program of studies which was published in its first bulletin:
* The study of French
philology, and particularly the study of the French language in Canada in its history, its character and its condition of existence;
* The examination of the dangers threatening the French speech in Canada: the influence of the milieu, the habitual and necessary contact with foreign
idiom
An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...
s, the gradual deformation of a popular language left to itself, the tendencies to decay of modern literature, commerce and industry, and a too pronounced taste for
old forms;
* The search for the best means to defend the language against these various dangers, to restitute what it has lost, and to restore its already deformed expressions, while preserving its special character;
* The work needed to make the French spoken in Canada a language answering at the same time to the natural progress of the idiom, the respect of tradition, the requirements of new social conditions, and the genius of the French language (''génie de la langue française'');
* The publication and propagation of works, studies and bulletins to this goal.
Activities
The SPFC published a bulletin from its foundation up until 1918 and set up the first two of three
Congresses on the French language in Canada (1912, 1937 and 1952).
In 1930, the SPFC published the ''
Glossaire du parler français au Canada'', the result of some thirty years of research. The glossary is still a reference today among researchers.
Presidents
The following persons held the presidency of the SPFC:
[Louis Mercier, ''La Société du parler français au Canada et la mise en valeur du patrimoine linguistique québécois (1902-1962)'', p. 401-402]
Notes
References
* SLMC.
(1930) Glossaire du parler français au Canada. Société du parler français au Canada, in the ''Site for Language Management in Canada'', 2006
; In French
* LexiQué.
La Société du parler français au Canada (1902-1962), in the site of the ''Laboratoire de lexicologie et lexicographie québécoises'', June 6, 2007
* Verreault, Claude.
Adjutor Rivard (1868-1945), in the site of the ''Laboratoire de lexicologie et lexicographie québécoises'', June 6, 2007
* Verreault, Claude, Louis Mercier and Thomas Lavoie, ed. (2006). ''1902-2002, la Société du parler français au Canada cent ans après sa fondation : mise en valeur d'un patrimoine culturel'', Sainte-Foy: Presses de l'Université Laval, 242 p.
preview
* Mercier, Louis (2002). ''La Société du parler français au Canada et la mise en valeur du patrimoine linguistique québécois (1902-1962) : histoire de son enquête et genèse de son glossaire'', Québec : Presses de l'Université Laval, 507 p.
preview
* Baudrillart, Alfred (1927). ''Vingt-cinquième anniversaire de la Société du Parler français au Canada : Discours prononcé à Québec, le 28 avril 1927'', Paris: Firmin-Didot
* SPFC. ''Glossaire du parler français au Canada'', Québec: l'Action sociale, 1930, 709 p. (online
PDF
* Maheux, Arthur. "L'oeuvre de la société du parler français au Canada de 1902 à 1927", in ''Le Canada-français'', Québec, vol. 14, no. 9 (May 1927), p. 608-621
* Rivard, Adjutor (1914). ''Études sur les parlers de France au Canada'', Québec: J.-P. Garneau, 280 p.
online
* SPFC. ''Bulletin du parler français au Canada'' (1902–1918) (online
vol. 2 to 16
* SPFC (1906). ''Société du parler français au Canada, fondée le 18 février 1902 : statuts (adoptés le 22 mars 1906)'', Québec: Société du parler français au Canada, 15 p.
* SPFC (1902). ''Société du parler français au Canada : plan d'études, méthode de travail, méthode d'observation'', Québec: Société du parler français au Canada], 24 p.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Societe Du Parler Francais Au Canada
Quebec French
Learned societies of Canada
Organizations based in Quebec