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From: "Gerry Bourguignon" <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Question: French Canadian or Quebecois?
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 12:41:16 -0500
References: <066201c294a2$60b06160$618b7ed8@kfrog>


I don't have an authoritative answer to your question. I suspect that the
answer, if there is one, may be more "political" than anything else. In any
case, my first impression is that "French Canadian" and "Québecois" are one
and the same.

On the back cover of the novel "Le Québecois: The Virgin Forest" by Doris
Provencher-Faucher (by the way, thanks to our ListUncle for passing along
the info on this book -- I'm enjoying it very much and will soon order "The
Rapids") there is a 'review' by Normand R. Beaupré, Ph.D., author of Le
Petit Mangeur de Fleurs, in which he writes:

"...a work of social history that profiles the people who came from another
continent [i.e., Europe, and specifically France] to settle New France,
adapted to its environment, (and) eventually became the French-Canadians now
called Québécois...".

So, take from that what you will. I would say that the present-day
Québecois are the French-Canadians living in Québec, but perhaps that's a
bit restrictive.

And that's my deux cents (canadien)...

Gerry

----- Original Message -----
From: "kfrog" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 11:47 AM
Subject: [Q-R] Question: French Canadian or Quebecois?


> Please could someone explain to me the difference between French Canadian
and Quebecois? I am not sure I am using the terms correctly.
>
> Merriam Webster says:
>
> ***French Canadian: one of the descendants of French settlers in Lower
Canada
>
> ***Quebecois: a native or inhabitant of Quebec; specifically : a
French-speaking native or inhabitant of Quebec
>
> My dad was Norwegian (Olsen) and Irish (McGreevy) and he grew up speaking
both French and English. He was raised in St. Anne's Ward in Montreal. He
had no French blood at all in his background.
>
> My husband is English/Welsh (and maybe a bit of French because Pearsall
*may* have come from Percivale) and English (Camden). He, too, grew up
speaking both French and English. He was raised in Ste. Hyacinthe. He had a
gggrandmother who was a Huron Indian.
>
> Both men were actually "French-speaking natives or inhabitants of Quebec".
>
> So what are they? I am confused!
>
> Thank you for any help you may have for me!
>
> Kay

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