THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. lOI 



ANGLICISMS IN LOWER CANADIAN FRENCH. 



Read before the Philological Section, April 2^rd, i8gi. 

 BY H. P. BONNY. 



The subject of which this paper treats should be one of consid- 

 erable interest to us as Canadians ; and, from a philological point of 

 view, it must always prove a matter worthy of attention to notice the 

 effects produced upon language from the intimate association of two 

 races speaking different tongues, yet united under the same central 

 government. This paper is little more than a collection of specimens 

 of the Anglicisms in common use in Quebec, hastily gathered from 

 such sources as I had access to. Still, if I can but induce others to 

 take up the subject, my labor will not have been altogether in vain. 

 The majority of my illustrations are to be found in M. xAlphonse 

 Lusignan's *' Fautes a corriger " and in the corrections published by 

 him in the columns of La Fatrie, under the heading of " Corrigeons- 

 nous." I am under a lasting obligation to M. Lusignan, not only 

 for his kindness in authorizing me to use any matter bearing on my 

 subject written by him, but also for the trouble he has taken in 

 answering certain questions I propounded. He, moreover, wrote in 

 my behalf to M. Napoleon Legendre, of Quebec, who has kindly 

 presented me with his most valuable little work entitled " La Langue 

 Frangaise au Canada," which has been of great use to me in prepar- 

 ing this paper, Mr. Robert Sellar, of Huntingdon, was kind enough 

 to write a letter full of information bearing on the subject, from 

 which I will quote later on. 



I will divide the Anglicisms into five classes : 



( 1 ) Colloquial ; 



(2) Journahstic; 



(3) Legal; 



(4) Commercial ; 



(5) Parliamentary. 



In most, if not all languages, we find certain words performing 

 yeoman service — for instance, the wexhfaire in French and the sub- 

 stantives Schlag and Zug in German. Mark Twain remarks of the 



