Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

What I mean is what we call a quebec accent (in french) the french think of as a (north) american accent (in french).

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

shocking, it's like the Brits bastardization of North American English.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

The French spoken in Quebec has a different accent and has evolved away from the French spoken in France, in the same way that the English spoken in Canada has evolved away from the English spoken in England. The language is the same, but the accents are different, the slang is different, and different words are sometimes used to describe the same thing.

It's like North Americans having difficulty understanding the Glaswegian accent. It's still English, but... some people may have difficulty, depending on the slang being used, and so on. ;)

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Yes I understand now just like the United kingdon from Ireland to wales and inbetween all english but spoken with different accents got yah:thumbsup: but are the french speaking canadians really very unfriendly as I have been told? Because that part of Canada to me is beautiful with the french influence in the restaurants ect: (was in Montreal once for a weekend years ago and thought it was lovely) but have heard so many bad reports about it this time it has put me going.::(

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

In a nutshell no. In my mind, it is a myth that has been spread by uni-lingual anglos in the rest of Canada. I can speak some passable french (order in a restaurant, give and receive simple instructions, etc and have never had a problem. If you make the effort to try and speak with people in french, they will switch to english quickly if they realize their english is better than your french.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Thank you, that sounds good, I really want to go back to Montreal, and would love to see quebec, so might give it a go in the summer and see how we get on, I have no French at all, outside of oui, non, merci, tres bien. but will give it a go:ohmy:

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

In a way that's correct. Quebecois and some aspects of North American english are closer to the dialects spoken in the 1600/1700's than modern French and UK English.

C'est marron, non?

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

I speak fluent french (Parisien) but I sometimes have a hard time understanding the Québecois, especially in Québec city. In Montréal, Gatineau or Ottawa I find their accent isn't as strong.
Their slang is really funny though

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Due to the fact that most of the french speaking people in Quebec came from France prior to about 1870, and were in relative isolation from the rest of the french speaking world since then, the language has remained somewhat frozen in that era. Most immigrants to Quebec from France were peasants or poorly educated so the french they spoke was not the parisian variety.

Which aspects of North Americans speak english like 1600/1700's english...Newfoundland? Appalachians?

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

It's by no means my field, but here is a source for what I was referring to...

"Varieties of English

From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies).

From http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm