DCHP-3

French French

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)

Spelling variants:
French-French, "French" French

1†adj.

of or relating to the people of France.

The term French French, or "the French French", is used to describe people who live in France (see the 2006 quotation) or who were born in France (see the 1943 quotation). It is most commonly used to distinguish between Canadians of French ancestry and French people in France (see the 2001 and 1980 quotations).
See also COD-2, s.v. "French French", which is marked "Cdn".

Quotations

1943
The three Free French airmen chatted excitedly with Bariton Conrad Thibault and, while it may have been French to the four concerned, it was Greek to the eaves droppers. [...] Mr. Thibault had wanted to meet the three French French. He was here to sing at the Prom concert tonight but appeared at Manning Depot last night and insisted on chatting with them. Although he had not been born in France, he was an American of French parentage and had written a Fighting French marching song called "A Soldier of Fighting France" [...]
1960
Part, but by no means all, of the explanation is that the majority of French teachers working for the Protestant School Board are not French teachers - that is, they are not people whose mother tongue is French or who have spoken the language from an early age. They are, by and large, English-language Protestants who learned their French in an English-language school system either here or in other parts of Canada. Some are imports from Great Britain or other parts of Europe - and these are among the best and most successful teachers of French - but only a handful are French-Canadian or French-French.
1980
You see, at that time English Montrealers were still in their Pepsi-epithet stage, and this man on television was no Pepsi. Crazy as it may now seem, not looking like a Pepsi once carried a lot of weight in our bourgeois drawing room. You could look French-French, you could be intellectually nationalistic, but the English could always get to you by bringing up the Pepsi-Mae West nemesis. The English in this case were my three stepbrothers and stepfather.
2001
The first thing you have to remember is that this criticism comes from the French French, not the Quebec French, so we don't have to be all nicey-nicey and send them a fat defence contract to show them we're not so bad to kick around after all.
2006
It was all English and Gaelic, so it's not surprising that we thought of ourselves as French, but it wasn't that simple either. We weren't French-French, the people who lived in France.
2n. — French relations

the French language of France; a variety of French that is not Canadian.

Type: 1. Origin — The term French French refers to the variety of French spoken in France (see the 1978 quotation), sometimes specifically in Paris (see the 1965 quotation). It is usually presented as a form of French that is not spoken in Canada. In the Canadian context the term is used most frequently in contrast with Quebec French, the variety of French that has increasingly been used to mark Quebec's cultural distinctiveness since the 1960s. Since French French is the prestige variety, other varieties such as Quebec French often need to overcome stigmatization. Therefore the term appears to have two purposes - the first, to clarify which variety of French is being discussed and the second, to assess Canadian French in terms of its perceived value.
See also COD-2, s.v. "French French", which is marked "Cdn".

Quotations

1959
Of course, a parallel exists in the other Provinces,. We are all tarred with the same brush; nevertheless, I believe that if English-speaking Canadians spend their high school years learning French as it is spoken in Quebec, there would be more of a point to this talk of bilingualism. Why should our children spend years in learning "French" French only to find when they go to Quebec, that "pere" has become "py-er" and "frere" - "fry-er", "huit has become "witt" and "dix", "dis"? And what can they do about "bine" for "bain"; "baw" for "bas", to say nothing of "patates" for "pommes de terres" and the obsolete "assoyez"? Why pretend? The French-Canadians do not do so. They will tell you frankly that the Parisians speak better French than they do. And yet our magazines shout loudly that the French spoken in Quebec is "good" French. Well, perhaps there are some people who speak it understandably, but I did not hear them.
1965
The problem of language is paramount now among the young writers. The current vogue is to write in a kind of bastard French called joual. The news will hardly cause panic in Toronto and points west; after all most of us, lamentably, can't read what French-Canadian authors write in pure French. But the development is as fascinating as significant. What it amounts to is this: while political and academic leaders are flogging a campaign to purify the language of Quebec, to make it French French, the young radical writers are deliberately and provocatively doing just the opposite, by using the crudest jargon of the street - a language that would often be almost as incomprehensible in Paris as it would be in Toronto.
1978
Goodwill-Vezina French Services Ltd. and LeMenache Communications Ltd. (Toronto and Montreal), translating services, have pointed out the frequent absurdities (and obscenities) translation is heir to, given the differences between Quebec French and French French:
1980
Thousands of Canadians who have taken first-year French at university probably studied from a textbook based on the language and civilization of France (and produced in the United States of America). The implicit message coveyed to students by this choice of textbook is: ''French French" is the ''real French" (with the possible corollary that there simply isn't anything to learn about Quebec).
1990
Here is the surest way to irritate a Quebecker: tell him that you would like to learn French - but "real French. Parisian French." The idea that only Parisians speak proper French is as ridiculous as saying that real English is the language spoken in Brooklyn (where the stereotypical New York accent comes from) or that real Londoners speak Cockney. [...] In language, as in other matter, everything is a question of power. On the whole, the differences between Quebec French and French French are comparable to the differences between American English and British English.
2002
Richler: In the last 20 years, there has been a recognition in English lexicography of the importance of what I call the "other Englishes" such as Indian, Caribbean and Canadian English. I still feel that Robert-Collins caters too much to British and American English and to "French French." Is this a fair assessment? Back: That's totally fair. I have to be honest about this. Le Robert & Collins are European publishers. We put emphasis on American English, British English and European French because that's what we're good at. I would never pretend to be able to handle Quebec French perfectly from Paris. I would have to put together a team in Quebec and use the knowledge from Quebec universities.
2013
His scenes occasion their own share of visual marvels, re-creating some famous photographs in theatrical terms, but they aren't as satisfying a fit, partly because Labreche's French-Canadian imitation of a French-French accent lacks the casual grace, not to mention the comprehensibility, of the rest of his performance.

References

  • COD-2