(Pronounciation: shE-'ak)
A dialect commonly spoken in the Canadian province of New Brunswick by bilingual Acadians. The origin of the word is unkown.
The language itself is a mixture of French and English, most commonly spoken by younger members of the population, and is to be considered a sub-classification of franglais.
An example of a Chiac phrase would be:
"J'ai jumpé dans le puddle et j'était tout soaking wet."
Although peoples of other regions may speak French-English hybrids, it is only refered to as Chiac when referring to the dialect spoken by residents of the provinces of New Brunswick and, to a lesser extent, Nova Scotia.
(
Excalibre informs me that, in
linguistic terms, this is considered less of a dialect and more of an example of
code switching.)