At first glance, Le Progrès would not appear to be a promising source for information on local French dialect. Obviously, with their classical training, the Pacaud brothers had an excellent command of the French language and were careful to maintain high literary standards for their publication. In fact, the paper saw itself in the role of local language monitor and sought to elevate the French spoken by the local population. As a result, most of what we can read in Le Progrès is in a very literate style that was far removed from the everyday language of ordinary people. Nevertheless, Detroit River French, then as now, was a vital and interesting variety of speech, having survived, cut off from the rest of the French-speaking world, for nearly two centuries before the arrival of Le Progrès. Because of its long isolation, the language had evolved in a unique fashion, preserving many elements of the 18th century French spoken by the first settlers and adapting itself to the continuous contact with English, the language of commerce and politics.

It is these two features of the paper that allow us to glimpse some of the colour of the local language : commerce and politics. In the first place, advertisements for local businesses often used words that were not part of general French speech. Some of these ads were obviously written or translated by local people, no doubt employees of the businesses in question. For example, Peck’s clothing store regularly used terms that local French speakers still recognize to this day, such as piastres (dollars) and hardes (clothing), as well as the word aucun (any) used in the positive sense (in modern French, aucun only has a negative meaning, but in 17th century French, it was used just as any in English, in both a positive and a negative way) . Clothing items such as capots (coats), corps (shirts or blouses), and claques (rubbers) were mentionned in ads for other stores , , . Lists of market prices are another good source for regional words. For example, a market report published in Le Courrier gives prices for raves (radishes), rabioles (turnips) and salade (lettuce) ; produce was sold by the minot (bushel) or the quart (keg) . Another ad features the opening of a new grosserie (grocery store), which is perhaps an anglicism, although the word had existed in 17th and 18th French in the sense of a wholesale merchant . English influence was unmistakable, however, when merchants tried to translate certain advertising slogans. One interesting sidelight is the origin of one of the area’s most famous anglicisms : Boblo Island . Le Progrès also takes to task certain Francophones who have anglicised their names .

Le Progrès sometimes commented directly on the quality of local French, usually in mocking or sarcastic tones. For example, in what was perhaps meant to be a regular feature, Le Progrès presented a sort of anti-dictionary recommending local usage of certain words rather than the accepted usage (the feature was never repeated). The local columnist Adrienne occasionally made fun of her neighbours in Rivière-aux-Canards . Although it probably was far from her intent, her columns give us valuable clues on the local pronunciation and syntax. But by far the best source of local speech patterns are editorials which the Pacaud brothers wrote to make fun of their political opponents. These satirical pieces are usually in dialogue form, and the hapless Conservatives invariably come across as country bumpkins speaking in the local dialect as they try to extricate themselves from the ridiculous situations they find themselves in. These set pieces - exaggerated as they may be - are quite faithful to local speech patterns. Political considerations aside, they are quite useful in tracing back to the late 19th century certain linguistic elements still heard today in the Detroit River French communities , , , .