Chiac (or ''Chiak'', ''Chi’aq''), is a Creole variety of Acadian French spoken mostly in southeastern

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. Chiac is often characterized and distinguished from other forms of Acadian French by its borrowings from

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

, it also has root words from the

Eastern Algonquian languages The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and ad ...

. The word "Chiac" can also sometimes be used to describe an ethnic

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 desc ...

of rural southeastern New Brunswick.

History

Chiac originated in the community of specific ethnic Acadians, known as "Chiacs or Chiaks", living on the rural southeast coast of New Brunswick. Chiac (or Chiak) is one of the varieties of the Acadian-French language, which includes some root words from the Miꞌkmaq/Micmac language (

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...

), and also includes some words borrowed from the surrounding English. There is a discourse in linguistics over whether Chiac is a language or dialect. As media platforms allow more people to publish content, Chiac is used more and becoming more recognized. Many words in Chiac that do not occur in Acadian French, are English words modified to coincide with French phoneme and prosidy. There are also many words from Acadian French that have retained (or changed) their archaic denotations. While some believe that Chiac dates back as far as the 17th or 18th century, others believe it developed in the 20th century, in reaction to the dominance of English-language media in Canada, the lack of French-language primary and secondary education, the increased urbanization of Moncton, and contact with the dominant Anglophone community in the area. The origin of the word "Chiac" is not known; some speculate that it is an alteration of " Shediac" or "Es-ed-ei-ik".

In the arts

Acadian writers, poets and musicians such as

Lisa LeBlanc Lisa LeBlanc (born August 13, 1990), is a Canadian singer-songwriter and banjoist, known for her enthusiastic "trash folk" performances. Early life LeBlanc was born in Rosaireville, New Brunswick. She is of Acadian heritage, and comes from a f ...

Radio Radio "Radio Radio" is a song written by Elvis Costello and performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The song originated as a Bruce Springsteen-inspired song called "Radio Soul" that Costello had written in 1974. In 1977, Costello reworked ...

, France Daigle, Fayo, Cayouche, Les Hay Babies, 1755 and many others have produced works in Chiac. Chiac is also featured in

Acadieman Acadieman is the first Acadian superhero, created by cartoonist and musician Daniel "Dano" Leblanc. His animated series ''Acadieman'', aired from 2005 to 2009 as a community channel production on Rogers TV, and was then acquired by TV5 Québec Ca ...

, a comedy about "The world's first Acadian Superhero" by Dano Leblanc. Music:

Bernard Adamus Bernard Adamus (born December 16, 1977) is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Quebec, whose music draws on folk, blues, country and hip-hop influences.Acadian people 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 des ...

* Acadian French *

Algic languages The Algic languages (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian subfamily, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to ...

* Greater Shediac * Louisiana Creole *

Michif Michif (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, French Cree) is one of the languages of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations (mainly Cree, Nakota, and Ojibwe) and fur trade work ...

Chiac (Wiktionary)

References

External links

*
The Chiac verb particle construction
– A linguistics paper (beginning on page 56 of the pdf document) examining certain features of Chiac grammar. {{Acadia Canadian French Languages of Canada Acadian culture Acadia

History

In the arts

References

Further reading

External links