Читать книгу Language planning and policy in Quebec - Jakob Leimgruber - Страница 10

Before embarking on the present study, it is useful to provide some background information on the varieties of French and English spoken in the province of Quebec. Both colonial languages have been continually present in the area of present-day Quebec since the sixteenth century. The distance between the settlements in the new world and the metropolitan centres in Europe being such that contact was limited by the long transatlantic voyage, independent linguistic developments took place in North America that did not happen in Europe; likewise, some changes in European French and ‘European’ (British) English did not cross the ocean. In what follows, a brief description of the varieties of French and English in the province is given.