Mélissa Chiasson was born in 1984 into a French-speaking family in Saint-Simon, New Brunswick, Canada, an area on the Atlantic seaboard where a variety of French called Acadian French (français acadien) is spoken by 99% of the New Brunswick population (however, as one travels inland, the percentage of francophones decreases to about 30%). Acadian French is spoken by approximately 275,000 people, in the Canadian Maritime provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), the Saint John River Valley in Northern Maine, the Magdalen Islands, and Havre Saint Pierre. This variety of French originates from the Middle French spoken at the beginning of the 12th century in the French provinces of Poitou, Anjou, Normandie, and Bretagne, among others. While doing her M.A. in French Linguistics at the University of Toronto, Mélissa grew interested in studying the topic of Acadian French in depth. She currently lives in Ottawa, where, as a Ph.D. candidate in Sociolinguistics at the University of Ottawa, she is pursuing research in Chiac, a distinct variety of Acadian French spoken mostly in the Moncton, New Brunswick area, as well as around Saint Mary’s Bay, Nova Scotia. Chiac is a lively language reflecting a blend of Acadian French and English vocabulary and syntax.
| 
