This article addresses the links between the linguistic usages and representations that emerged in Quebec and Acadia in the 19th century, in a social and political context in which communities in French Canada were undergoing radical change. Through an analysis of a corpus of family correspondence and metalinguistic commentaries, we show that during the 19th century, Acadia and the St Lawrence valley French varieties shared many features broadly characteristic of those prevailing before the French Revolution; however, sociolinguistic commentary tends to downplay the commonalities between Acadian and Laurentian usages, and emphasizes the French origins in France.