Magoua Dialect

Magoua Dialect

Magoua, which may derive from a word in an Algonquian language (Cree: Makwa; Algonquin: Magwish; Mi'kmaq: Gwimu; French: huard) which means loon, is a particular dialect of basilectal Quebec French spoken in the Trois-Rivières area, between Trois-Rivières and Maskinongé. Long before a military fort was constructed there, Trois-Rivières became in 1615 the first stronghold of the coureur des bois outside the city of Québec. Magoua is the ethnonym applied to their descendants in the area, many of whom originated in Mi'kma'ki (also known as Acadia). Magoua is the most conservative of all Quebec French varieties, including Joual. It preserves the sontaient "étaient" characteristic of Métis French and Cajun French, has a creole-like past tense particle tà and has old present-tense contraction of a former verb "to be" that behave in the same manner as subject clitics.