Chiac

Chiac is a variety of Acadian French heavily mixed and structured with English. It also has various Aboriginal languages influence as well, mostly being Mi'kmaq (such as the word for porcupine, Matues). It is spoken as the native and dominant language of most Acadians in southeast New Brunswick, especially among youth, near Moncton, Dieppe, Memramcook and Shediac. It is a more recent development of the French language, spurred by exposure to dominant English-language media (radio, television, internet) and increased urbanization to Moncton and contact with the dominant Anglophone community in the area since the 1960s especially. The word 'Chiac' is thought to derive from "Shediac".

The roots and base of Chiac are Acadian French, a spoken French often tinged with nautical terms (e.g. haler, embarquer), reflecting the historic importance of the sea to the local economy, as well as older French words (e.g., bailler, quérir, hucher, gosier), many deemed archaic by the Académie Française, testimony to three centuries of relative isolation of Acadian communities from French influence. The collected works of Goncourt Prize-winner Antonine Maillet, and her play La Sagouine in particular, illustrate very well this variation of French. What sets Chiac apart from Acadian French is that it is a vernacular French mixed with English. It uses primarily French syntax with French-English vocabulary and phrase forms (see below). It is often deprecated by both French and English speakers as an ill-conceived hybrid — either "bad" French or "bad" English. See franglais for a wider discussion of this phenomenon.