Assimilation of Gallicisms in the Canadian English-language media as a reflection of the sociolinguistic situation in the country

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Introduction

Before proceeding to the study itself, it is worth clarifying what is meant by borrowing and defining other terms important to this paper. Borrowing is “the incorporation of features of one language into another” [Treffers-Daller 2010]. A language can borrow, either entirely or partially, all kinds of elements and features of another language: from phonological to syntactic. However, lexical borrowing is the most frequent type [Loubier 2011, p. 10].

Lexical borrowing is “the process by which lexical items from one language are replicated in another language” [Durkin 2020, p. 169]. According to P. Durkin, who largely quotes the classical classification first proposed by E. Haugen, the most “salient type” of lexical borrowing is a loanword, i.e. a foreign lexeme duplicated in the receiving language. He adds that a separate notion of loan blends is often set apart for the cases where adaptation takes place during the process of borrowing [Durkin 2020, p. 169]. However, following P. Durkin, this paper will still prefer the term “loanword” in this regard.

The term “Gallicism” will be used in this work to refer to “a word or idiom borrowed from the French language at some stage in its history” [Renouf 2020]. As pointed out by A. Renouf, this term applies to all French loans in contemporary English, regardless of the period and nature of the borrowing [Renouf 2020].

The distinction between borrowing and code-switching remains an important issue, especially when it comes to the isolated use of a single foreign lexeme by bilinguals. There are different views on the matter. Some linguists regard the use of a word by monolinguals, its adaptation to a certain degree or a high frequency of use as the criterion of demarcation [Durkin 2020, pp. 174–175]. However, P. Durkin argues that each of the possible criteria has exceptions and questions the real need for such a distinction [Durkin 2020, pp. 174–175]. In the present study, all items used separately will be considered as borrowed, especially since they are attested in the dictionaries of the English language (including its Canadian variety), which also indicates their well-established status.

Borrowing is essential to the vocabulary of any language. In English, out of the 92500 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, 29 300 (about 32 %) are borrowed [Durkin 2014]. However, each language and language variety has its own patterns and tendencies, considering both the reasons for introducing loanwords and their further use. The historical, cultural, geographical and sociolinguistic characteristics of the respective area play an important role in this regard. The degree of bilingualism also influences the frequency and characteristics of the use of loanwords, since bilingualism not only contributes to their diffusion but is in many ways a prerequisite for this process: for the borrowing to take place at least some speakers must understand the other language [Durkin 2020, p. 174].

Although there are many studies on the role of borrowing in different languages and language varieties, not excluding Canadian English, the impact of external factors on assimilation has received limited attention. All of this makes it particularly relevant to consider this topic of research.

The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the characteristics and patterns of different types of assimilation of Gallicisms in the Canadian English-language media, and to determine the role of the Canadian sociolinguistic situation in this regard.

Therefore, the following objectives were set: to define the terms “borrowing”, “loanword” and “Gallicism” in the context of this work; to examine the issues related to the assimilation of Gallicisms in Canadian English; to determine the criteria for selecting examples; to analyze the main patterns and frequencies of their assimilation; to evaluate the role of sociolinguistic factors in this respect.

The scientific novelty of the study lies in the description and analysis of the most recent developments in the assimilation of Gallicisms in the Canadian English-language media (i.e. only articles published after 2012 were taken into account), which are often overlooked in scientific research. Furthermore, the article provides a more objective assessment of these aspects and the role of the sociolinguistic situation in Canada from the neutral perspective of a third-party researcher.

 

Methodology

Borrowing in general, its types and causes have been widely studied, notably by L. Deroy (1956), M. Haspelmath (2009), C. Loubier (2011), P. Durkin (2020).

The issues related to different types of loanword adaptation have been analyzed, among others, by E. Kozhevnikova (2010), D. Winford (2010), J. Rouaud (2019), A. Renouf (2020), A. Niklas-Salminen (2023).

The study is based on the materials from the Canadian English-language media such as CBC/Radio-Canada, The Montreal Gazette, The Suburban, The Toronto Star, as well as the materials from the American press (The New York Times, The New York Post, USA Today, The Washington Post).

Among the methods used in the research are: synthesis through systematization of findings from various existing studies, semantic analysis, comparison of authentic contextual examples from the Canadian media, frequency assessment of various assimilated and non-assimilated forms of Gallicisms in the Canadian media.

A quantitative comparison of the frequency of assimilated and non-assimilated forms of Gallicisms is an important part of this study. In all the cases, only the use of single words (larger segments more likely representing code-switching) in the main body of the articles was taken into account, excluding the comments section and links to other materials. The results were collected using the Google search engine on the media sites.

In order to measure the frequency of graphic assimilation by omission of diacritics, a number of Gallicisms characteristic of Canadian English were selected from the DCHP-2, which showed an average frequency of occurrence in the media, allowing for the measurement itself, but also for an additional manual check of the obtained figures to exclude repetitions, French usage and other errors of the automatic search.

For the examples of morphological assimilation of Gallicisms ending with -eau by forming their plural form with -s, besides the criteria mentioned above, a limited number of such examples showing the variability of usage (there are numerous examples with a stable plural form – bureaus, cadeaux, chateaux, etc.) remains an important factor. In this case, the frequency figures were also verified manually in order to exclude possible inaccuracies.

Therefore, the present selection of examples, while by no means exhaustive, provides valuable insights into the observed patterns of assimilation of Gallicisms in Canadian English and, in particular, in the Canadian English-language media. However, before examining the examples of their graphic and morphological assimilation, it is worth considering the history and current state of the sociolinguistic situation in Canada.

 

The evolution of the sociolinguistic situation in Canada

According to the Dictionary of sociolinguistic terms issued by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the sociolinguistic situation is one of the aspects of the language situation, including “socio-demographic parameters of the social base of languages; language competence of ethnic, demographic and social population groups; social standing of languages, their functions and functional distribution; types of language contacts; principles of language policy and planning; language conflicts and legislation” (Kozhemyakina 2006). In Canada, the evolution of the sociolinguistic situation is directly related to the historical aspects of the coexistence and mutual influence of English and French [Grishaeva, Dobriaeva 2016].

The development of the present-day territory of Canada historically took place in the context of continuous rivalry between Britain and France. The first permanent settlement in Canada was established by the French in 1605. It was located in what is now the province of Nova Scotia, then known under its French name Acadia. However, even then there was constant contact between the French-speaking and English-speaking first settlers. For decades, this land remained sparsely populated and under French control [Riendeau 2007]. This period of the development of the English language in Canada marks the introduction of French loanwords relating to activities such as fishing or logging. It was also at this time that Canadian English acquired a number of Gallicisms, which in turn are themselves borrowed from indigenous languages [McConnell 1978]. In 1763, following the Seven Years’ War, Canada was ceded to Britain. English became the language of the ruling class and business. The resettlement of American Loyalists to Canada after the American War of Independence, as well as immigration from Britain and Ireland, led to the emergence of an English-speaking majority in Canada [McConnell 1978]. For the French Canadians, this period was the beginning of two centuries of attempts to assimilate them. However, these attempts, along with a growing national consciousness, led to the distinctive purism of French Canadians as a way to protect their language and identity despite the dominance of Anglophone culture around them [Loubier 2011].

This situation began to change in the 1970s. The rise of French-Canadian nationalism and social modernization led to an increase in the prestige of the French language and the establishment of a policy of official bilingualism in Canada. In Quebec, Canada’s only province with a French majority, French has been the only official language since 1974, and a variety of measures have been adopted to maintain its position. English has thus been relegated to the position of a minority language in Quebec. This contributes to the openness of Quebec English to the introduction of Gallicisms, as the language tends to borrow from the prestigious and dominant language more actively. The absence of a history of linguistic discrimination against the English-speaking community similar to that suffered by French Canadians, the fact of constant access to the English-speaking environment of North America, and the absence of a sense of threat to one’s identity are also very important for the entry of French loanwords into Canadian English [Grant 2010, pp. 177–179]. Finally, the number of bilinguals in Canada is growing. In 2021, it reached 18 % of the population. At the same time, the proportion of bilinguals in Quebec reaches 46.4 % of the population. Importantly, bilingualism is even more prevalent among young people, thanks to school policies that favor it (Statistics Canada 2023). The very history of Canada as an inherently bilingual society, with a constant and complex interaction between French and English, contributes to the spread of borrowing.

1. Grevisse identifies two primary ways by which a language borrows: oral and written [Grevisse, Goosse 2007, p. 157]. In the case of Canada’s sociolinguistic situation, early loanwords are more likely to have been borrowed orally, while the written one, including by mass media, is more likely to be prevalent for recent ones. This difference naturally affects the frequency of assimilation.

 

Loanword adaptation

As a rule, loanwords do not remain in the receiving language as they were, but are subject to various and more or less profound forms of adaptation (or assimilation). They have to be adapted to the phonological and grammatical norms of the receiving language, as the grammar and phonology of the latter may differ substantially. For example, the receiving language may lack certain phonemes of the source language, or have different gender and number rules [Niklas-Salminen 2023, pp. 146–147].

In theory, assimilated loanword eventually becomes indistinguishable from the native lexicon of the language. In practice, however, the outcome of assimilation varies. Sometimes, even early assimilated loanwords retain foreign features. Loanword adaptation often involves various changes involving semantic changes or blending of foreign and native elements [Winford 2010, pp. 173–174]. Thus, according to the aspect involved, adaptation can be grammatical (or morphological), phonetic, semantic and graphic [Niklas-Salminen 2023, pp. 146–147]. This paper will focus on graphic and morphological assimilation.

1) Graphic assimilation.

In the case of graphic assimilation, the borrowed word differs orthographically in the receiving language and in the source language. However, the degree of this assimilation varies and depends on many factors: when the borrowing took place, the knowledge and attitude of the speakers of the receiving language towards the source language, etc. Graphic assimilation is unavoidable when the two languages have different writing systems, as in the case of Arabic loans in English. However, graphic assimilation is not necessarily required if the speakers are familiar with the script of the source language. For example, English loanwords in Russian or Japanese are not necessarily subject to graphic assimilation because the reader is expected to be familiar with the Latin alphabet [Haspelmath 2009]. If both languages have the same script, as in the case of English and French, significant graphic adaptation occurs only for loanwords that enter the language orally because people tend to spell them according to the norms of their own language, leading to possible distortions [Deroy 1956].

At the same time, a distinction must be made between cases of graphic assimilation of long-established loanwords, the preservation in the receiving language of the historical orthography of the corresponding period and the coexistence of lexical variants with different spellings due to repeated borrowing of the same word (as in the case of sobriquet and soubriquet in English) [Solano 2015].

а) Change of spelling due to phonological adaptation to the receiving language.

As noted above, this category consists mainly of French loanwords that have entered Canadian English through the spoken language.

• shanty (from French chantier or chanter).

The word has two common meanings. The first of them is rooted in the history of logging in Canada – chantier. Workers engaged in such labor lived in huts which received a similar name (Dollinger, Fee 2017). Obviously, English-speaking workers perceived this word by hearing, which, together with a rather early origin, explains the fact of its graphic assimilation. Gradually, the word began to be used in connection with any dwelling of questionable quality.

“Avoid the drifts, and be careful to follow me,” Gagner said cryptically, driving straight out into the bay toward a small, sad-looking green wooden shanty (The Montreal Gazette. 14.11.2023).

The word shanty may also be derived from the French chanter. Often used in the form of sea shanty, this word means the sailor’s song, which explains its origin.

Several listens to the soundtrack had suggested that, though there are rousing swells, witty tropes and occasional hooks, there seemed to be an absence of show-stopping tunes (excepting familiar standards such as the sea shanty Heave Away, a famous hymn and even a couple of snatches of Céline’s Titanic song) (The Montreal Gazette. 14.11.2023).

• rappie pie (from Acadian French tarte rappée).

It is a traditional Acadian dish of grated potatoes, also sometimes called rappée pie, rapee or râpure. The Acadian French rappée is a distortion of the French râpée, which means “grated”.

Its specialties are updated regional classics, including hodge-podge, a mélange of haddock, scallops and vegetables; Nova Scotia lamb; Yarmouth lobster pot pie; and roast chicken and rappie pie (chicken, onions and potatoes) (The Montreal Gazette. 16.11.2023).

A number of long-established and graphically assimilated Gallicisms, gradually becoming obsolete, are now used only in geographical names:

• snye или sny (backwater or canal connecting two rivers, from Can. French chenail).

With the Athabasca and Snye rivers as a back drop, the metal sculpture designed by artist David Robinson, features a paddler in a canoe skimming atop a water surface (CBC Edmonton. 18.11.2023).

• salmonier (salmon fisherman, from French. saumonier).

A lynx that had been on the lam from Salmonier Nature Park was safely found Thursday morning, and everyone — including his enclosure mate – is happy for his return after more than a week in the wilderness (CBC. 18.11.2023).

The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles contains a large number of early loanwords that have undergone significant graphic assimilation, with many marked as obsolete (Dollinger, Fee 2017). While some are still rarely used, for others there are no relevant (for the period of 01.01.2012 – 31.12.2022) examples in the Canadian media. These include: verrangue or verrandis (from Fr. varangue, an element of a canoe), barouge (from Fr. bois rouge, a shrub), placotte (from Fr. plats des côtes, cutlets), neaps (from Fr. nippes, pieces of fur put round the feet as protection against the cold) and many others.

The loanword batto / batteau / bateau (from French bateau) deserves special mention. Historically, this is how small riverboats of various types, both cargo and passenger, were referred to in Canada. Although the DCHP notes the spelling variants with graphic assimilation – batto and batteau, only the one with the standard French spelling – bateau – is found today.

“If I said bateau, I said bateau. Does it mean it’s a bateau? I could have said anything”. That sentence – referencing a luxury boat owned by construction entrepreneur Antonio (Tony) Accurso – is just one example of the puzzling and often disjointed answers provided by Giuseppe (Joe) Borsellino during his fourth day of testimony before the Charbonneau Commission (The Montreal Gazette. 26.11.2023).

It can therefore be concluded that a significant degree of graphic assimilation of loanwords due to phonological differences between the source language and the receiving language is most evident in the early loanwords that entered English through spoken language and were later written down by native speakers of English in accordance with its phonology. The number of frequently used early loanwords with such a degree of graphic assimilation decreases naturally as they become obsolete. Some of the early loanwords even show a tendency to replace the assimilated spelling with the normative French spelling. This is the case of the word batto / batteau / bateau mentioned above.

1. b) Retention or omission of diacritical marks.

This paper will also examine the case of retaining or dropping diacritics for Gallicisms in Canadian English. The reason for this is that the omission of diacritics is one of the most common forms of graphic assimilation for recent French loanwords. They are almost never used in English, so Gallicisms often tend to lose them [Fee, McAlpine 2011]. M. Fee gives the example of the word élite, which she says is usually used in Canadian English without an acute accent. She adds that there is also a technical aspect to the tendency to lose diacritics, as the English keyboard layout prevents them from being used with sufficient ease [Fee, McAlpine 2011]. Some statistics on this subject are summarized in Table 1, with examples such as casse-croûte / casse-croute (a diner, fast food restaurant); dépanneur / depanneur (a small department store); calèche / caleche (a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, now mostly used as a tourist attraction) and others.

In the Canadian English-language media, Gallicisms are used more frequently used with the diacritics retained (59.1 % on average – the majority for all French loanwords except métro / metro), i. e. without their graphic assimilation. Moreover, the frequency ratio of these Gallicisms with and without diacritics in the Canadian English-language media does not confirm the tendency to lose diacritics when borrowing from French, as described by M. Fee. The following chart provides a more illustrative representation of this information (see Figure).

Thus, in terms of graphic assimilation in the media, Canadian English shows a gradual shift away from the use of French loanwords with significant assimilation based on the difference in phonology between the two languages, as such loanwords entered the language through the oral route at early stages of Canadian history and have consequently often become obsolete. In addition, in some cases there is evidence of a change from the assimilated spelling to the original French norm. A more modern form of graphic assimilation is the omission of French diacritics. Nevertheless, the data collected show a significant predominance of their retention, which can be attributed to the growing number of bilinguals in Canada, which favors the knowledge of French norms among all groups of the Canadian population.

2) Morphological assimilation.

The grammar is different in different languages. According to E. Kozhevnikova, loanwords are subject to grammatical (or morphological) assimilation in the target language and are “subordinated to its grammatical norms” [Kozhevnikova 2010]. She also points out that the common origin of French and English words, as well as the similarity between certain French and English morphemes facilitate the assimilation of such loanwords and contribute to their more complete integration [Kozhevnikova 2010]. P. Yanina notes that over time, Gallicisms “acquire the ability to form new words according to the word-formation models found in the target language and to follow the most productive word-formation patterns of the English language”. The prerequisite for this is the widespread use of the loanword (Yanina 2011). One type of morphological assimilation concerns the grammatical category of number, due to certain differences in the formation of the plural form in English and French.

Although, as a rule, both English and French form plurals by adding -s, there are some exceptions. For example, in French, nouns ending with -eau / -eu form the plural with -eaux / -eux. While from a prescriptive point of view, it is more normative to form the plural in the same way as in French, this is not always the case. Some examples can be found in the Table 2 below.

Despite the exception of plateaus / plateaux, which is characterized by an overwhelming prevalence of the -s ending plural form, there is an obvious tendency to preserve the French norm for the plurals in the Canadian English-language media (55.4 % of cases on average).

As noted by R. McConnell, Canadian English shares the same base and origin with American English and, together with the latter, is part of the broader concept of North American English [McConnell 1978, p. 10]. C. Boberg argues that modern Canadian English, as a type of North American English, is generally closest to “that of the western United States and to General American English” [Boberg 2019]. For this reason, and given the fact that the border between the two countries has largely disappeared, especially in terms of information, it is worth comparing these statistics on the use of assimilated and unassimilated Gallicisms in the Canadian media with the frequency of both variants (with the exception of the word aboiteau, which is used exclusively in Canada) in the United States (The New York Times, New York Post, USA Today, The Washington Post), presented below.

There is a notable disparity in the prevalence of assimilated and normative French forms between Canadian and American English. Given the geographic and cultural proximity, which has only increased in recent decades, and the shared media space of the two countries, it can be concluded that the higher frequency of the French plural form in Canada is due to the familiarity of a significant proportion of the population with the norms of the French language, as in the case of graphic assimilation.

3) Semantic assimilation.

Although, as was mentioned above, semantic assimilation is not the main focus of this paper, the semantic development of borrowed words is also an undeniable feature of their integration into the system of the receiving language. The receiving language usually borrows only one of their meanings, often losing connotations and leading to further departures from the original meaning in the source language in favor of newly acquired ones [Niklas-Salminen 2023]. In the examples discussed above, semantic assimilation is also present.

The word shanty, as mentioned above, is borrowed from Can. French chantier (lumber camp). Workers at logging camps lived in barracks. In Canadian English, however, all kinds of shabby huts became known as shanties through a metonymic transfer from logging to workers’ huts, and then metaphorically to all huts. The original meaning was lost (Dollinger, Fee 2017).

The loanword métis (or metis) is said to have originally meant “a half-breed of Indian and French origin”, but is now “most often applied to a specific community living mainly in Manitoba and composed of descendants of Indian-French half-breeds” [Rouaud 2019].

The word milieu is perceived as much more formal in English than in French, where it is neutral and carries no stylistic connotations (Cambridge Dictionary 2024).

There are other examples of semantic evolution of borrowed words. Rampart is an assimilated form of the French rempart, a defensive structure, either literally or figuratively. In English, rampart has the same meaning. In western Canada, however, the word has acquired an additional meaning through metaphorical shift, referring to “a steep rocky bank of a river gorge; the gorge itself” (Oxford English Dictionary 2024).

“The ice that was holding in the back, at the bottom of the rampart, broke and then about an hour later the actual rampart broke,” he said (CBC North. 27.03.2024)

The word allophone, marked as borrowed from French in the Oxford English Dictionary, is originally a scientific term referring to someone who, in a given territory, does not speak any of the official languages as their mother tongue. In Canada, however, the term has become part of everyday vocabulary and refers to someone whose first language is neither English nor French (Oxford English Dictionary 2024). As these are mainly immigrants, and their numbers have been increasing recently (more than 430,000 immigrants arrived in 2022, the highest number in Canadian history (Government of Canada 2023)), allophone is often used as a synonym (and to some extent a euphemism) for immigrants.

Enticing allophones — those whose mother tongue is neither French nor English – to switch to the official language of their adopted land was a key thrust of Bill 101 (The Montreal Gazette. 26.03.2024).

However, many researchers, including J. Rouaud, note that drawing a distinction between the semantic assimilation of borrowed words and their semantic evolution in the receiving language can be difficult. Even more complicated is the case of English and French in Canada, where the word can follow the same path of semantic evolution in both the source and the receiving language [Rouaud 2019]. Although such alterations of semantics occur for a number of extralinguistic and intralinguistic reasons [Koshkina 2014], in Canadian English, sociolinguistic factors have an important role in semantic change in the borrowed French lexicon.

 

Conclusion

The history of Canada as a bilingual society has a significant impact on the use of French loanwords in Canadian English, especially given the complex and diverse nature of linguistic contacts in the country, as well as its sociolinguistic situation.

As for the assimilation of Gallicisms, today there is a clear tendency to preserve the French norm. This is characteristic of both the graphic and morphological types of assimilation considered in this paper. This can be attributed to a higher level of French proficiency or, at least, knowledge of French language norms due to the growing proportion of bilingual population in the country and the introduction of bilingualism-promoting policies, including in schools.

In the context of graphic assimilation, there is a shift away from significant degrees of assimilation as early loanwords, of which it is the most characteristic, become obsolete. There is also a tendency in the Canadian English-language media to retain French diacritics (59.1 % on average).

A similar tendency occurs with regard to morphological assimilation in the form of the predominant retention (55.4 % for the Canadian English-language media, in contrast to 31.4 % for the American media) of the French plurals when they are formed differently from English.

French loanwords in Canadian English are also subject to semantic assimilation, and although its reasons are varied, the role of sociolinguistic factors, such as changing demographics and relations between different groups of the Canadian population, remains of great importance.

The unique bilingual nature of Canada, where English and French have coexisted over the centuries, not only predetermines the important role of borrowing, but also influences various aspects of the use of borrowed words, including the problem of their assimilation. For this reason, as well as for the ongoing sociolinguistic changes, this topic of research will remain intriguing, relevant and promising in the coming years.

About the authors

V. Kh. Urikhanian

Institute of Foreign Languages, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia

Author for correspondence.
Email: urvaler@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0009-0007-2315-3252

postgraduate student of the Department of Theory and Practice of Foreign Languages

Russian Federation, 6, Mikluho-Maklaya Street, Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

References

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