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Canadian French is an umbrella term
Umbrella term

An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or wikt:grouping of related concepts, also called a hypernym.For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields....
 for the varieties of the French language
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 used in Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
. French is the mother tongue of about seven million Canadians (22% of the national population) and is one of the country's two official languages, along with English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
.



The term Canadian French was formerly used to refer specifically to Quebec French and the closely related varieties of Ontario and Western Canada descended from it.






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Canadian French is an umbrella term
Umbrella term

An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or wikt:grouping of related concepts, also called a hypernym.For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields....
 for the varieties of the French language
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 used in Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
. French is the mother tongue of about seven million Canadians (22% of the national population) and is one of the country's two official languages, along with English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
.

Major varieties

  • Quebec French
    Quebec French

    Quebec French , or less often Qu?b?cois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its Register #Register as formality scale registers....
     is spoken in Quebec
    Quebec

    Quebec , in French language, Qu?bec , is a Provinces and territories of Canada in the Central Canada and Eastern Canada regions of Canada....
    . Closely related varieties are spoken by francophone communities in Ontario
    Ontario

    Ontario is a Provinces and territories of Canada located in the Central Canada part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area....
    , Western Canada
    Western Canada

    File:Western Canada2.svgWestern Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a list of regions of Canada generally including all parts of Canada west of the provinces and territories of Canada of Ontario....
    , Labrador
    Labrador

    Labrador is a region of Atlantic Canada. Together with the island of Newfoundland from which it is separated by the Strait of Belle Isle, it constitutes the province of Newfoundland and Labrador....
     and in the New England
    New England

    New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
     region of the United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
    , and differ primarily by their greater conservatism. The term Laurentian French has limited application as a collective label for these varieties, and Quebec French, somewhat confusingly, is also used. The overwhelming majority of francophone
    Francophone

    The adjective francophone means French language-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
     Canadians speak this dialect, as most of them live in Quebec.
  • Acadian French
    Acadian French

    Acadian French is a Variety or dialect of French language spoken by francophone Acadians in the Canada Maritimes, the Saint John River Valley in northern Maine, the Magdalen Islands and Havre-Saint-Pierre, along the St....
     is spoken by some 300,000 Acadian
    Acadian

    The Acadians are the descendants of the seventeenth-century France French colonial empires who settled in Acadia . Although today most of the Acadians and Qu?b?cois are francophone Canadians, Acadia was founded in a geographically separate region from Quebec leading to their two distinct cultures....
    s in parts of the Canadian Maritimes and New England
    New England

    New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
    . It is closely related to Cajun French
    Cajun French

    Cajun French is one of three Variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana, specifically in the southern parishes....
    , spoken in parts of the Southern United States.


Other varieties

  • Métis French
    Métis French

    M?tis French or M?tis, along with Michif, is one of the traditional languages of the M?tis people. According to Bakker , M?tis French is the French dialect source of Michif....
     is occasionally spoken in Manitoba
    Manitoba

    Manitoba is a prairie provinces in Canada, which has an area of 647,797 square kilometres and a population of 1,207,959 , with more than half located within the Winnipeg Capital Region ....
    , North Dakota
    North Dakota

    North Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States and Western United States regions of the United States of America. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the US; it is the 48th most populous, with just over 640,000 residents as of 2006....
     and adjacent areas, alongside with a related, but distinct, mixed language
    Mixed language

    A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source....
     of Michif
    Michif language

    Michif is the language of the M?tis people people of Canada and the northern United States, who are the descendants of First Nations women and fur trade workers of European ancestry ....
    .
  • Brayon French, spoken by Brayon
    Brayon

    Brayons are a francophone people inhabiting the area in and around Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. In French, they are called or feminine , and both terms are also used as adjectives, as in Brayon culture, or .) Given their location in New Brunswick, a Canadian Maritime province, they are considered by many to be Acadians....
    s in the Bonaventure and Beauce-Appalaches regions of Quebec and the Madawaska region of New Brunswick and Maine, seems phonologically close to Acadian French but is morphosyntactically identical with Quebec and Métis French.
  • Newfoundland French
    Newfoundland French

    Newfoundland French is a regional dialect of French language that was once spoken by French colonists on the island of Newfoundland . It is distinct from other Canadian French, such as the Qu?bec French and Acadian French varieties....
     is spoken by a limited population in Newfoundland
    Newfoundland and Labrador

    Newfoundland and Labrador is a Provinces and territories of Canada of Canada, on the country's Atlantic Ocean coast in northeastern North America....
    . It is an endangered language — both Quebec French and Acadian French are now more widely spoken among francophones in Newfoundland and Labrador than the distinctively Newfoundland language is.


The term Canadian French was formerly used to refer specifically to Quebec French and the closely related varieties of Ontario and Western Canada descended from it. This is presumably because Canada and Acadia were distinct parts of New France, and also of British North America, until 1867. However, today the term Canadian French is not usually deemed to exclude Acadian French.

Phylogenetically
Phylogenetics

In biology, phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms , which is discovered through molecular sequencing data and morphological data matrices....
, Quebec French, Métis French and Brayon French are representatives of koiné
Koine language

In linguistics, a koin? language is a standard language or dialect, that has arisen as a result of contact between two mutually intelligible varieties of the same language....
 French in the Americas whereas Acadian French, Cajun French, and Newfoundland French are derivatives of non-koinesized local languages in France.

See also

  • French language in Canada
  • Bilingualism in Canada
    Bilingualism in Canada

    Official bilingualism is the term used in Canada to collectively describe the policies, constitutional provisions, and laws which give English language and French language a special legal status over other languages in Canada?s courts, Parliament of Canada and administration....
  • Spoken languages of Canada


  • French in Canada
    French in Canada

    French language is the mother language of about 6.7 million Canada . While most native French speakers in Canada live in Quebec, where it is the majority and sole official language, about one million native francophones live in other provinces, forming sizeable minorities in Manitoba, New Brunswick which is officially a bilingual...
  • French Canadian
    French Canadian

    French Canadian refers to a nation or ethnic group of French people Kinship and Descent that originated in Canada, New France during the period of French colonization of the Americas beginning in the 17th century....