Re: French -ois (jara: YAC: Widse -- a conlang based on Ygyde)

Christophe a écrit:

>You are rigth indeed. There is evidence that /wE/ was still the normal
>pronunciation of |oi| during the revolution. And of course in Quebec the /wE/
>pronunciation is normal (in France too in countryside dialects, which is quite
>funny since at the time /wE/ was normal, the pronunciation /wa/
>already existed
>but was considered low-level countryside dialect ;))) ).
My exposure to Québecois is limited (my parents' cable service
carries the Québec channel, damn them, but then, living further
south, I get oodles of Portuguese channels, so I guess it evens out),
but I don't recall hearing petits pois /pwE/, roi /rwE/, or québecois
/kebEkwE/ (and I live in Woonsocket, Rhode Island -- an enclave for
Quebeckers now in the blue rinse set). I *do* notice that "point" is
pronounced more like /pwe~/ rather than /pwE~/. That, beyond certain
word choices (i.e. fin de semaine vs. week-end; maïs éclaté vs.
popcorn; chien-chaud vs. hot dog), says "Québec" to me.

Kou

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