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« What is a flyer called in French? (#1116)
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Do the Québécois rrrroll their RRRRs? (#1117)

4 May 2016 by OffQc

Michael asks who in Québec rolls their Rs.

Up until the first half of the 1900s, the rolled R was the norm in Québec, especially in Montréal. (Montréal was the region most associated with the rolled R.) Québec City, though, used a non-rolled R.

The rolled R began to disappear from the Montréal area in the second half of the 1900s. It was replaced by the non-rolled R of Québec City. The non-rolled R is now the norm throughout Québec. (source)

You might still sometimes hear an older speaker in Montréal roll his Rs today.

The same source linked above suggests where the two different Rs came from: the rolled R of Montréal probably came from the regional varieties of French spoken in France, whereas the non-rolled R of Québec City probably came from the Paris region.

If you listen to some videos in the archives of Radio-Canada from the 1960s, you’ll hear the rolled R:

Jean Drapeau (Wikipédia)
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Posted in Entries #1101-1150 | Tagged français québécois, Jean Drapeau, Montréal, Québécois French, Québec City, rolled R | 5 Comments

5 Responses

  1. on 4 May 2016 at 14:50 Marie-Blanche

    I’m a Franco-ontarienne from Timmins, and we roll our Rs, as well as my family in Sudbury and Wawa and Hearst. It’s very regional for us in Ontario.


    • on 4 May 2016 at 15:19 OffQc

      Yes, west of Québec into Ontario, rolled Rs are still the norm in places like Sudbury.

      In fact, I think we can generalise and say that for many non-Québécois francophones (Ontario, Acadie…), rolled Rs are still the norm (or at least still common).

      Edit: I should also add that the closer you are to the Québec border, the closer the Franco-Ontarian accent comes to the Québécois accent. This is why rolled Rs are probably more typical of Sudbury than Ottawa.


  2. on 4 May 2016 at 20:53 Marie-Aline

    I understand that there are two French “R”s: the “trilled” R (tongue taps near front of mouth) as heard in the video; and the “uvular” R (gutteral, more in the throat). When Anglophones think of a rolled French R, they may not realize the two ways French speakers may “roll” their Rs. Here in Ottawa, I mostly hear “uvular” Rs, as shown in this clip below:

    http://tvrogers.com/show?lid=12&rid=5&sid=4754&gid=249956

    I mostly hear uvular Rs when I listen to French-Canadian speakers. It seems to me that whether or not to use a uvular R or a trilled R depends also on the age of the speaker, and also what part of the word the R appears in.

    I listened to myself while I pronounced a few words:
    Trilled R: Français, branche, environ, tourner, vendredi, trois, trop, raison
    Uvular R: Montréal, mardi, mercredi, service, quatre, avoir, par (but I trill the R in ‘par exemple’ because of the liaison)

    I would be curious to know how various French Canadians pronounce your Rs in different words.


    • on 4 May 2016 at 21:47 OffQc

      The accent of Ottawa is influenced by proximity to Gatineau (Québec). The farther west into Ontario you go (Hearst, Kapuskasing, Sudbury, etc.), the more the accent presents differences compared to the one heard along the Ontario-Québec border (Ottawa, Hawkesbury, etc.).

      Not all Rs are rolled (trilled) by those who use the rolled R. If someone’s going to roll an R, it’s probably because it comes at the beginning of a syllable (répéter, roue…) or is part of a consonant cluster (français, trouver, célébrer…), but an R at the end of a syllable wouldn’t be trilled (mardi, faire…), although a following word beginning with a vowel might affect it.


  3. on 6 May 2016 at 17:24 CB

    Don’t forget the francophones farther west! Les francoalbertains roll their (our) Rs too.



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