The research focuses on the principles of language variability in the context of sociohistorical living conditions of native speakers and the sociolinguistic situation in the region. The article describes the problem of self-identification of French in New Brunswick, Canada (especially in the south-east of the province). Acadian variant of French is analysed, the characteristics of this variant are described. Inductive-deductive and descriptive methods are used Вестник Московского государственного областного университета. Серия: Лингвистика 2018 / № 3 in the analysis. The former identifies theoretical and practical basis for the linguistic research. The latter reveals specific character and language transformation peculiarities in the given area.

The article examines one of the examples of how the English language influences French in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, where due to intensive language contacts with the local French language there has appeared a special code named chiac. This linguistic structure becomes a distinctive marker of francophones at the south-east of the province, a kind of symbol of their resistance to both the English language and standard French. By the example of chiac the author examines the convergence of Canada’s two major languages through the lenses of the south-eastern residence area of New Brunswick francophones. The analysis of linguistic material has allowed the author to conclude about the considerable level of Anglicisation of the French language, in particular, at the lexical level, and to identify three ways to assimilate borrowings by the recipient language: adaptation, non-assimilation and semantic assimilation.