Language demographics of Quebec
Encyclopedia
This article presents the current language demographics of the Canadian province of Quebec
.
, has required the use of multiple terms in order to describe who speaks which languages.
Francophone
: French
-speaking.
Anglophone
: English
-speaking.
Allophone
: having a mother tongue other than English or French.
Mother tongue : The first language learned by a person, which may or may not still be used by that individual in adulthood, is a basic measure of a population's language. However, with the high number of mixed francophone-anglophone marriages and the reality of multilingualism in Montreal, this description does not give a true linguistic portrait of Quebec. It is, however, still essential, for example in order to calculate the assimilation rate
. Statistics Canada
defines mother tongue as the first language learned in childhood and still spoken; it does not presuppose literacy in that or any language.
Home language : This is the language most often spoken at home and is currently preferred to identify francophones, anglophones, and allophones. This descriptor has the advantage of pointing out the current usage of languages. However, it fails to describe the language that is most used at work, which may be different.
Knowledge of official languages : This measure describes which of the two official languages of Canada a person can speak informally. This relies on the person's own evaluation of his/her linguistic competence and can prove misleading.
First official language learned: Measures whether English or French is first language learned; it places allophones into English or French linguistic communities.
Official language minority: Based on first official language learned, but placing half of the people equally proficient since childhood in both English and French into each linguistic community; it is used by the Canadian government to determine the demand for minority language services in a region
Among the ten provinces of Canada
, Quebec
is the only one whose majority is francophone. Quebec's population accounts for 23.9% of the Canadian population, and Quebec's francophones account for at least 90% of all of Canada's French
-speaking population.
English-speaking Quebecers reside mostly in the Greater Montreal Area, where they have built a well-established network of educational, social, economic, and cultural institutions. There are also historical English-speaking communities in the Eastern Townships
, the Ottawa Valley
, and the Gaspé Peninsula
. By contrast, the province's second-largest city Quebec City
is almost exclusively francophone. The absolute number and the share of native English speakers has dropped significantly during the past forty years (from 13.8% in 1951 to just 8% in 2001) due to a net emigration to other Canadian provinces . This decline will likely continue in the near future.
The remaining 10% of the population, known as allophone
s, comprises more than 30 different linguistic/ethnic groupings. With the exception of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec
(the Inuit
, Huron
, etc.), the majority are products of 20th-century immigration and eventually adopt either English or French as home languages.
Of the population of 7,546,131 counted by the 2006 census, 7,435,905 people completed the section about language. Of these, 7,339,495 gave singular responses to the question regarding their first language
. The languages most commonly reported were the following:
Numerous other languages were also counted, but only languages with more than 3,000 native speakers are shown.
(Figures shown are for the number of single language responses and the percentage of total single-language responses)
: the metropolitan region, Montreal Island, and Montreal
, the city. (The island and the city were coterminous for a time between the municipal merger of 2002
and the "demerger" which occurred in January 2006.)
Quebec allophones account for 9% of the population of Quebec, however 88% of this population reside in Greater Montreal. Anglophones are also concentrated in the region of Montreal (80% of their numbers).
Francophones account for 65% of the total population of Greater Montreal, anglophones 12.6% and allophones 20.4%. On the island of Montreal, the francophone majority dropped to 49.8% by 2006, a net decline since the 1970s owing to francophone outmigration to more affluent suburbs in Laval and the South Shore (fr. Rive-Sud). The anglophones account for 17.6% of the population and the allophones 32.6%.
and 1996
, the proportion of native francophones who claimed to know English, too, rose from 26% to 34%. The proportion of native anglophones claiming to know French, too, rose from 37% to 63% percent over the same period. Among allophones claiming a third mother tongue in 1996, 23% also knew French, 19% also knew English, and 48% also knew both. On the whole, the 1971 to 1996 period showed a progression towards better knowledge of French. By 1996, 2.6% of the population (182,480 persons, predominately Hispanic
) were trilingual in French, English and Spanish.
, Congo-Brazzaville
, Lebanon
, Morocco
, Rwanda
, Syria
, Algeria
, France
and Belgium
. Under the Canada-Quebec Accord
, Quebec has sole responsibility for selecting most immigrants destined to the province (see related article, Immigration to Canada
).
Interprovincial migration, especially to Ontario, results in a net loss of population in Quebec. The numbers of French-speaking Quebecers leaving the province tend to be similar to the number entering, while immigrants to Quebec tend to leave. Outmigration threatens mostly the English-speaking minority in Quebec, accounting almost entirely for its population being almost cut in half in the last thirty years.
There are two sets of language laws in Quebec, which overlap and in various areas conflict or compete with each other: the laws passed by the Parliament of Canada
and the laws passed by the National Assembly of Quebec
.
Since 1982, both parliaments have had to comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which constitutionalized a number of fundamental human rights and educational rights of minorities in all provinces (education is a provincial jurisdiction in Canada). Prior to this, Quebec was effectively the sole province required constitutionally to finance the educational needs of its linguistic minority. Ontario and Quebec are both required to finance schools for their principal religious minorities (Roman Catholic in Ontario, Protestant in Quebec), but only in Quebec is the minority almost completely composed of speakers of the minority language. (Quebec also provided English schools for anglophone Roman Catholics.) In 1997, an amendment to the constitution allowed for Quebec to replace its system of denominational school boards with a system of linguistic school boards.
The federal language law and regulations seek to make it possible for all Canadian anglophone and francophone citizens to obtain services in the language of their choice from the federal government. Ottawa promotes the adoption of bilingualism by the population and especially among the employees in the public service.
In contrast, the Quebec language law and regulations try to promote French as the common public language of all Quebecers. Although Quebec currently respects most of the constitutional rights of its anglophone minority, it took a series of court challenges. The government of Quebec promotes the adoption and the use of French to counteract the trend towards the anglicization of the population of Quebec.
The second column starting on the left shows the number of native speakers of each language, the third shows the number of speakers using it at home.
The fourth column shows the difference between the number of speakers according to home language and those who speak it as mother tongue.
The fifth column shows the quotient of the division between the number of home language speakers and the native speakers.
Until the 1960s, the francophone majority of Quebec had only very weak assimilation power and, indeed, did not seek to assimilate non-francophones. Although the quantity of non-francophones adopted French throughout history, the pressure and, indeed, consensus from French-language and English-language institutions was historically towards the anglicization, not francization, of allophones in Quebec. Only a high fertility rate allowed the francophone population to keep increasing in absolute numbers in spite of assimilation and emigration
. When, in the early 1960s, the fertility rate of Quebecers began declining in a manner consistent with most Western societies, Quebec's anglophone population – like elsewhere in Canada – maintained its relative proportion within the total population and kept on growing in absolute numbers, while Quebec's francophone majority (and the francophone minorities in the rest of Canada) experienced the beginning of a demographic collapse
: unlike the anglophone sphere, the francophone sphere was not assimilating allophones, and lower fertility rates were therefore much more determinative.
Quebec's language legislation has tried to address this since the 1960s when, as part of the Quiet Revolution
, French-Canadians chose to move away from Church domination and towards a stronger identification with state institutions as development instruments for their community. Instead of repelling non-Catholic immigrants from the French-language public school system and towards the Protestant-run English system, for instance, immigrants would now be encouraged to attend French-language schools. The ultimate quantifiable goal of Quebec's language policy is to establish French as Quebec's common public language.
Recent census data show that goal has not been reached as successfully as hoped. After almost 30 years of enforcement of the Charter of the French Language, approximately 49% of allophone immigrants – including those who arrived before the Charter's adoption in 1977 – had assimilated to English, down from 71% in 1971, but still more than double anglophones' 21% share of the province's population. This leads some Quebecers, particularly those who support the continued role of French as the province's common public language, to question whether the policy is being implemented successfully. The phenomenon is linked to the linguistic environments which cohabit Montreal
– Quebec's largest city, Canada's second-largest metropolitan area, and home to a number of communities, neighbourhoods, and even municipalities in which English is the de facto common language. The anglophone minority's capacity to assimilate allophones and even francophones has therefore compensated to a large extent for the outmigration of anglophones to other provinces and even to the U.S.
A number of socio-economic factors are thought to be responsible for this reality. They include: the historic role of the English language in Canada and the U.S.; its growing influence in the business and scientific world; the perceived advantages of learning English that result from this prominence and which are particularly appealing to allophones who have yet to make a linguistic commitment; the historic association of English with immigrant Quebecers and French with ethnic French-Canadian Québécois
, which plays into linguistic and identity politics; and the post-industrial clustering of anglophones into Montreal and away from regional communities. These factors go not only to allophone immigrants' direct linguistic assimilation, but also their indirect assimilation through contact with the private sector. Although the Charter of the French language makes French the official language of the workplace, the socio-economic factors cited here also often make English a requirement for employment, especially in Montreal, and to a lesser extent outside of it, notably in the National Capital Region, bordering Ontario, and in the Eastern Townships, particularly Sherbrooke.
The result is a largely bilingual workforce. Francophones are compelled to learn English to find employment, anglophones are pressured to do the same with French, and allophones are asked to learn both. In reality, allophones start with one of the two, mostly English but more and more French. Census data adjusted for education and professional experience show that bilingual francophones had a greater income than bilingual anglophones by the year 2000. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=ff07b398-0832-4331-b12b-d32aa078edf7&k=87430
In 2001, 29% of Quebec workers declared using English, either solely (193,320), mostly (293,320), equally with French (212,545) or regularly (857,420). The proportion rose to 37% in the Montreal metropolitan area. Indeed, the majority of Montrealers are bilingual and move easily between French and English-speaking social milieux. Outside Montreal, on the other hand, the proportion of anglophones has shrunk to 3% of the population and, except on the Ontario and U.S. borders, struggles to maintain a critical mass to support educational and health institutions – a reality that only immigrants and francophones usually experience in the other provinces. Unilingual anglophones are however still on the decline because of the higher English-French bilingualism of the community's younger generations.
Not all analysts are entirely comfortable with this picture of the status of the English language in Quebec. For example, a more refined analysis of the Census data shows that a great deal of anglicization continues to occur in the communities traditionally associated with the English language group, e.g., the Chinese, Italian, Greek and Indo-Pakistani groups. A majority of new immigrants in every census since 1971 have chosen French more often than English as their adopted language. Further, Calvin Veltman
has shown that minority language children have often made French their personal language of use although this fact cannot be picked up by Statistics Canada because their parents continue to report them as usually speaking the ancestral language at home. And a recent study by M. McAndrew and C. Veltman (1999) show that minority language children in French schools are much more francized than are their parents. In addition, the rates of intermarriage between English and French-speaking people continue to rise, together with the proportion of children who have French for their first language instead of English, further undermining the capacity of the English language group to sustain itself in the medium to long run. All these factors have already combined to produce an increase in the relative size of the French-speaking population and may be expected to more fully assert themselves in the Census of 2006 and subsequent years. The corollary would be a continued decline in the relative size of the other language groups.
are a heterogeneous group of about 71,000 individuals, who account for 9% of the total population of Aboriginal peoples in Canada
. Approximately 60% of those are officially recognized as "Indians" under the federal Indian Act. Nearly half (47%) of this population in Quebec reported an Aboriginal language as mother tongue, the highest proportion of any province. The following table shows the demographic situations of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec:
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.
Demographic terms
The complex nature of Quebec's linguistic situation, with individuals who are often bilingual or multilingualMultilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
, has required the use of multiple terms in order to describe who speaks which languages.
Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-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....
: French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
-speaking.
Anglophone
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speaking.
Allophone
Allophone (Quebec)
In Quebec, an allophone is a resident, usually an immigrant, whose mother tongue or home language is neither English nor French. The term is also sometimes used in other parts of Canada. The term parallels Anglophone and Francophone, which designate people whose mother tongues are English and...
: having a mother tongue other than English or French.
Mother tongue : The first language learned by a person, which may or may not still be used by that individual in adulthood, is a basic measure of a population's language. However, with the high number of mixed francophone-anglophone marriages and the reality of multilingualism in Montreal, this description does not give a true linguistic portrait of Quebec. It is, however, still essential, for example in order to calculate the assimilation rate
Language shift
Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...
. Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada is the Canadian federal government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. Its headquarters is in Ottawa....
defines mother tongue as the first language learned in childhood and still spoken; it does not presuppose literacy in that or any language.
Home language : This is the language most often spoken at home and is currently preferred to identify francophones, anglophones, and allophones. This descriptor has the advantage of pointing out the current usage of languages. However, it fails to describe the language that is most used at work, which may be different.
Knowledge of official languages : This measure describes which of the two official languages of Canada a person can speak informally. This relies on the person's own evaluation of his/her linguistic competence and can prove misleading.
First official language learned: Measures whether English or French is first language learned; it places allophones into English or French linguistic communities.
Official language minority: Based on first official language learned, but placing half of the people equally proficient since childhood in both English and French into each linguistic community; it is used by the Canadian government to determine the demand for minority language services in a region
Current demographics
- Population: 7,651,000 (2006 est.)
- Official language: FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
- Majority group: FrancophoneFrancophoneThe adjective francophone means French-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....
(82.0% native language, 84.5% speak French as a dominant language) - Percentage of population that is fluent in French (95.0%)
- Minority groups: AnglophoneEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
(7.9%), allophoneAllophone (Quebec)In Quebec, an allophone is a resident, usually an immigrant, whose mother tongue or home language is neither English nor French. The term is also sometimes used in other parts of Canada. The term parallels Anglophone and Francophone, which designate people whose mother tongues are English and...
(9%), AboriginalsAboriginal peoples in CanadaAboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
(1%), bilingual
Among the ten provinces of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
is the only one whose majority is francophone. Quebec's population accounts for 23.9% of the Canadian population, and Quebec's francophones account for at least 90% of all of Canada's French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
-speaking population.
English-speaking Quebecers reside mostly in the Greater Montreal Area, where they have built a well-established network of educational, social, economic, and cultural institutions. There are also historical English-speaking communities in the Eastern Townships
Eastern Townships
The Eastern Townships is a tourist region and a former administrative region in south-eastern Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. Its northern boundary roughly followed Logan's Line, the geologic boundary between the flat,...
, the Ottawa Valley
Ottawa Valley
The Ottawa Valley is the valley along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec along the Ottawa River. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield...
, and the Gaspé Peninsula
Gaspé Peninsula
The Gaspésie , or Gaspé Peninsula or the Gaspé, is a peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, extending into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
. By contrast, the province's second-largest city Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
is almost exclusively francophone. The absolute number and the share of native English speakers has dropped significantly during the past forty years (from 13.8% in 1951 to just 8% in 2001) due to a net emigration to other Canadian provinces . This decline will likely continue in the near future.
The remaining 10% of the population, known as allophone
Allophone (Quebec)
In Quebec, an allophone is a resident, usually an immigrant, whose mother tongue or home language is neither English nor French. The term is also sometimes used in other parts of Canada. The term parallels Anglophone and Francophone, which designate people whose mother tongues are English and...
s, comprises more than 30 different linguistic/ethnic groupings. With the exception of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec
Aboriginal peoples in Quebec
Aboriginal peoples in Quebec total 11 distinct nations. The 10 Amerindian nations and the Inuit nations number 71,415 people and account for approximately 1% of the total population of Quebec, Canada.-Inuit:...
(the Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
, Huron
Huron-Wendat Nation
The Huron-Wendat Nation is a Huron-Wendat First Nation whose community and reserve is at Wendake, Quebec, a municipality now enclosed within Quebec City in Canada. In the French language, used by most members of the First Nation, they are known as the Nation Huronne-Wendat.In 2006, historical...
, etc.), the majority are products of 20th-century immigration and eventually adopt either English or French as home languages.
Of the population of 7,546,131 counted by the 2006 census, 7,435,905 people completed the section about language. Of these, 7,339,495 gave singular responses to the question regarding their first language
First language
A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...
. The languages most commonly reported were the following:
| Language | Number of native speakers |
Percentage of singular responses |
|---|---|---|
| French Quebec French Quebec French , or Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government.... |
5,877,660 | 80.1% |
| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
575,555 | 7.8% |
| Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia... |
124,820 | 1.7% |
| Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... |
108,790 | 1.5% |
| Arabic Arabic language Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book... |
108,105 | 1.5% |
| Chinese Chinese language The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages... |
63,415 | 0.9% |
| Berber | 41,845 | 0.6% |
| Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... |
34,710 | 0.5% |
| Romanian Romanian language Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova... |
27,180 | 0.4% |
| Vietnamese Vietnamese language Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam... |
25,370 | 0.3% |
| Russian Russian language Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics... |
19,275 | 0.3% |
| German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... |
17,855 | 0.2% |
| Polish Polish language Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries... |
17,305 | 0.2% |
| Armenian Armenian language The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora... |
15,520 | 0.2% |
| Persian Persian language Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence... |
14,655 | 0.2% |
| Creole French-based creole languages A French Creole, or French-based Creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koiné French extant in Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies... |
14,060 | 0.2% |
| Cree Cree language Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana... |
13,340 | 0.2% |
| Punjabi Punjabi language Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language... |
11,905 | 0.2% |
| Tagalog Tagalog language Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila... (Filipino) |
11,785 | 0.2% |
| Tamil Tamil language Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore... |
11,570 | 0.1% |
| Hindi Hindi Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi... |
9,685 | 0.1% |
| Bengali Bengali language Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script... |
9,660 | 0.1% |
| Inuktitut Inuktitut Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada... |
9,615 | 0.1% |
| Montagnais-Naskapi Naskapi The Naskapi are the indigenous Innu inhabitants of an area they refer to as Nitassinan, which comprises most of what other Canadians refer to as eastern Quebec and Labrador, Canada.... |
9,335 | 0.1% |
| Khmer Khmer people Khmer people are the predominant ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14.8 million people in the country. They speak the Khmer language, which is part of the larger Mon–Khmer language family found throughout Southeast Asia... (Cambodian) |
8,250 | 0.1% |
| Yiddish | 8,225 | 0.1% |
| Hungarian Hungarian language Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe.... (Magyar) |
7,750 | 0.1% |
| Marathi Marathi language Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most... |
6,050 | 0.1% |
| Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,... |
5,865 | 0.1% |
| Ukrainian Ukrainian language Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet.... |
5,395 | 0.1% |
| Atikamekw Atikamekw language The Atikamekw language , a dialect of Cree, is the language of the Atikamekw people of southwestern Quebec. It is spoken by nearly all the Atikamekw, and therefore it is among the indigenous languages least threatened with extinction according to some studies... |
5,245 | 0.1% |
| Bulgarian Bulgarian language Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the... |
5,215 | 0.1% |
| Lao Lao language Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for... |
4,785 | 0.1% |
| Hebrew | 4,110 | 0.1% |
| Korean Korean language Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing... |
3,970 | 0.1% |
| Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second... |
3,620 | 0.05% |
Numerous other languages were also counted, but only languages with more than 3,000 native speakers are shown.
(Figures shown are for the number of single language responses and the percentage of total single-language responses)
Cities
| City / Language | French | English | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montreal Montreal Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America... (island Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal , in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, is located at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. It is separated from Île Jésus by the Rivière des Prairies.... ) |
48.8% | 16.8% | 33.6% |
| Montreal Montreal Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America... (metropolitan area Greater Montreal Area Greater Montreal is one of the two metropolitan communities of Quebec.Greater Montreal is the most populous metropolitan area in Québec. As of 2009, Statistics Canada identifies Montréal's Census Metropolitan Area as Canada's second most populous with a population of 3,859,318... ) |
64.9% | 11.9% | 22.5% |
| Quebec City Quebec City Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest... |
95.3% | 1.5% | 2.9% |
| Gatineau Gatineau Gatineau is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is the fourth largest city in the province. It is located on the northern banks of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario, and together they form Canada's National Capital Region. Ottawa and Gatineau comprise a single Census... |
79.8% | 10.6% | 8.5% |
| Sherbrooke | 89.9% | 4.8% | 4.8% |
| Saguenay Saguenay, Quebec Saguenay is a city in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City.... |
97.9% | 0.7% | 1.2% |
| Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières means three rivers in French and may refer to:in Canada*Trois-Rivières, the largest city in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada*Circuit Trois-Rivières, a racetrack in Trois-Rivières, Quebec... |
96.9% | 0.9% | 1.9% |
Montreal
There are today three distinct territories in the Greater Montreal AreaGreater Montreal Area
Greater Montreal is one of the two metropolitan communities of Quebec.Greater Montreal is the most populous metropolitan area in Québec. As of 2009, Statistics Canada identifies Montréal's Census Metropolitan Area as Canada's second most populous with a population of 3,859,318...
: the metropolitan region, Montreal Island, and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, the city. (The island and the city were coterminous for a time between the municipal merger of 2002
2002 in Canada
Events from the year 2002 in Canada.-Incumbents:Estimated Canadian population: 31,413,990-January to March:*January 11 - Ford Motor Co...
and the "demerger" which occurred in January 2006.)
Quebec allophones account for 9% of the population of Quebec, however 88% of this population reside in Greater Montreal. Anglophones are also concentrated in the region of Montreal (80% of their numbers).
Francophones account for 65% of the total population of Greater Montreal, anglophones 12.6% and allophones 20.4%. On the island of Montreal, the francophone majority dropped to 49.8% by 2006, a net decline since the 1970s owing to francophone outmigration to more affluent suburbs in Laval and the South Shore (fr. Rive-Sud). The anglophones account for 17.6% of the population and the allophones 32.6%.
Multilingualism
Between 19711971 in Canada
- Incumbents :*Monarch: Elizabeth II*Governor General: Roland Michener*Prime Minister: Pierre Trudeau*Premier of Alberta: Harry Strom then Peter Lougheed*Premier of British Columbia: W.A.C...
and 1996
1996 in Canada
Events from the year 1996 in Canada.-Incumbents:*Monarch: Elizabeth II*Governor General: Roméo LeBlanc*Prime Minister: Jean Chrétien*Premier of Alberta: Ralph Klein*Premier of British Columbia: Mike Harcourt then Glen Clark...
, the proportion of native francophones who claimed to know English, too, rose from 26% to 34%. The proportion of native anglophones claiming to know French, too, rose from 37% to 63% percent over the same period. Among allophones claiming a third mother tongue in 1996, 23% also knew French, 19% also knew English, and 48% also knew both. On the whole, the 1971 to 1996 period showed a progression towards better knowledge of French. By 1996, 2.6% of the population (182,480 persons, predominately Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
) were trilingual in French, English and Spanish.
Birth rate
At 1.74 children per woman, Quebec's 2008 fertility rate is above the Canada-wide rate of 1.59, and has increased for five consecutive years. However, it is still below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1. This contrasts with its fertility rates before 1960, which were among the highest of any industrialized society. Although Quebec is home to only 23.9% of the population of Canada, the number of international adoptions in Quebec is the highest of all provinces of Canada. In 2001, 42% of international adoptions in Canada were carried out in Quebec.Immigration
In 2003, Quebec accepted some 37,619 immigrants. A large proportion of these immigrants originated from francophone countries and countries that are former French colonies. Countries from which significant numbers of people immigrate include HaitiHaiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, Congo-Brazzaville
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. Under the Canada-Quebec Accord
Canada-Quebec Accord
The Canada-Quebec Accord is a legal agreement concerning immigration issues between the federal government of Canada and the Province of Quebec. The broad accord signed in 1991 preceded similar agreements with other provinces including British Columbia and Manitoba...
, Quebec has sole responsibility for selecting most immigrants destined to the province (see related article, Immigration to Canada
Immigration to Canada
Immigration to Canada is the process by which people migrate to Canada to reside permanently in the country. The majority of these individuals become Canadian citizens. After 1947, domestic immigration law and policy went through major changes, most notably with the Immigration Act, 1976, and the...
).
Interprovincial Migration
| Mother Tongue / Year | 1971–1976 | 1976–1981 | 1981–1986 | 1986–1991 | 1991–1996 | 1996–2001 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| French | -4,100 | -18,000 | -12,900 | 5,200 | 1,200 | -8,900 | -37,500 |
| English | -52,200 | -106,300 | -41,600 | -22,200 | -24,500 | -29,200 | -276,000 |
| Other | -5,700 | -17,400 | -8,700 | -8,600 | -14,100 | -19,100 | -73,600 |
Interprovincial migration, especially to Ontario, results in a net loss of population in Quebec. The numbers of French-speaking Quebecers leaving the province tend to be similar to the number entering, while immigrants to Quebec tend to leave. Outmigration threatens mostly the English-speaking minority in Quebec, accounting almost entirely for its population being almost cut in half in the last thirty years.
Legislation
- 1988 – Official Languages ActOfficial Languages Act (Canada)The Official Languages Act is a Canadian law that came into force on September 9, 1969, which gives English and French equal status in the government of Canada. This makes them "official" languages, having preferred status in law over all other languages...
(Federal) - 1982 – Articles 14, 16-23, 55 and 57 of the Constitution Act, 1982 (Federal)
- 1977 – Charter of the French LanguageCharter of the French LanguageThe Charter of the French Language , also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Quebec, and framing fundamental language rights for everyone in the province...
(Provincial) - 1974 – Official Language Act (Provincial)
- 1969 – An Act to promote the French language in QuebecAn Act to promote the French language in QuebecAn Act to promote the French language in Quebec of 1969 , also known as Bill 63, was a language law passed in the Canadian province of Quebec...
(Provincial) - 1969 – Official Languages ActOfficial Languages Act (Canada)The Official Languages Act is a Canadian law that came into force on September 9, 1969, which gives English and French equal status in the government of Canada. This makes them "official" languages, having preferred status in law over all other languages...
(Federal)
There are two sets of language laws in Quebec, which overlap and in various areas conflict or compete with each other: the laws passed by the Parliament of Canada
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
and the laws passed by the National Assembly of Quebec
National Assembly of Quebec
The National Assembly of Quebec is the legislative body of the Province of Quebec. The Lieutenant Governor and the National Assembly compose the Parliament of Quebec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other British-style parliamentary systems.The National Assembly was formerly the...
.
Since 1982, both parliaments have had to comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which constitutionalized a number of fundamental human rights and educational rights of minorities in all provinces (education is a provincial jurisdiction in Canada). Prior to this, Quebec was effectively the sole province required constitutionally to finance the educational needs of its linguistic minority. Ontario and Quebec are both required to finance schools for their principal religious minorities (Roman Catholic in Ontario, Protestant in Quebec), but only in Quebec is the minority almost completely composed of speakers of the minority language. (Quebec also provided English schools for anglophone Roman Catholics.) In 1997, an amendment to the constitution allowed for Quebec to replace its system of denominational school boards with a system of linguistic school boards.
The federal language law and regulations seek to make it possible for all Canadian anglophone and francophone citizens to obtain services in the language of their choice from the federal government. Ottawa promotes the adoption of bilingualism by the population and especially among the employees in the public service.
In contrast, the Quebec language law and regulations try to promote French as the common public language of all Quebecers. Although Quebec currently respects most of the constitutional rights of its anglophone minority, it took a series of court challenges. The government of Quebec promotes the adoption and the use of French to counteract the trend towards the anglicization of the population of Quebec.
Anglicization and francization
The following table shows summary data on the language shifts which have occurred in Quebec between 1971, year of the first Canadian census asking questions about home language, and 2001 :| 1971–2001 Period | ||||
| (A) Language | (B) Speakers according to mother language | (C) Speakers according to home language | (D) Linguistic persistence and attraction | (E) Linguistic vitality indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) French | 5,787,012 | 5,897,610 | 110,598 | 1,019 |
| (2) English | 582,564 | 733,643 | 151,079 | 1,259 |
| (3) Others | 681,224 | 419,548 | -261,676 | 0,616 |
The second column starting on the left shows the number of native speakers of each language, the third shows the number of speakers using it at home.
The fourth column shows the difference between the number of speakers according to home language and those who speak it as mother tongue.
The fifth column shows the quotient of the division between the number of home language speakers and the native speakers.
Until the 1960s, the francophone majority of Quebec had only very weak assimilation power and, indeed, did not seek to assimilate non-francophones. Although the quantity of non-francophones adopted French throughout history, the pressure and, indeed, consensus from French-language and English-language institutions was historically towards the anglicization, not francization, of allophones in Quebec. Only a high fertility rate allowed the francophone population to keep increasing in absolute numbers in spite of assimilation and emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
. When, in the early 1960s, the fertility rate of Quebecers began declining in a manner consistent with most Western societies, Quebec's anglophone population – like elsewhere in Canada – maintained its relative proportion within the total population and kept on growing in absolute numbers, while Quebec's francophone majority (and the francophone minorities in the rest of Canada) experienced the beginning of a demographic collapse
Population decline
Population decline can refer to the decline in population of any organism, but this article refers to population decline in humans. It is a term usually used to describe any great reduction in a human population...
: unlike the anglophone sphere, the francophone sphere was not assimilating allophones, and lower fertility rates were therefore much more determinative.
Quebec's language legislation has tried to address this since the 1960s when, as part of the Quiet Revolution
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...
, French-Canadians chose to move away from Church domination and towards a stronger identification with state institutions as development instruments for their community. Instead of repelling non-Catholic immigrants from the French-language public school system and towards the Protestant-run English system, for instance, immigrants would now be encouraged to attend French-language schools. The ultimate quantifiable goal of Quebec's language policy is to establish French as Quebec's common public language.
Recent census data show that goal has not been reached as successfully as hoped. After almost 30 years of enforcement of the Charter of the French Language, approximately 49% of allophone immigrants – including those who arrived before the Charter's adoption in 1977 – had assimilated to English, down from 71% in 1971, but still more than double anglophones' 21% share of the province's population. This leads some Quebecers, particularly those who support the continued role of French as the province's common public language, to question whether the policy is being implemented successfully. The phenomenon is linked to the linguistic environments which cohabit Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
– Quebec's largest city, Canada's second-largest metropolitan area, and home to a number of communities, neighbourhoods, and even municipalities in which English is the de facto common language. The anglophone minority's capacity to assimilate allophones and even francophones has therefore compensated to a large extent for the outmigration of anglophones to other provinces and even to the U.S.
A number of socio-economic factors are thought to be responsible for this reality. They include: the historic role of the English language in Canada and the U.S.; its growing influence in the business and scientific world; the perceived advantages of learning English that result from this prominence and which are particularly appealing to allophones who have yet to make a linguistic commitment; the historic association of English with immigrant Quebecers and French with ethnic French-Canadian Québécois
French-speaking Quebecer
French-speaking Quebecers are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Quebec....
, which plays into linguistic and identity politics; and the post-industrial clustering of anglophones into Montreal and away from regional communities. These factors go not only to allophone immigrants' direct linguistic assimilation, but also their indirect assimilation through contact with the private sector. Although the Charter of the French language makes French the official language of the workplace, the socio-economic factors cited here also often make English a requirement for employment, especially in Montreal, and to a lesser extent outside of it, notably in the National Capital Region, bordering Ontario, and in the Eastern Townships, particularly Sherbrooke.
The result is a largely bilingual workforce. Francophones are compelled to learn English to find employment, anglophones are pressured to do the same with French, and allophones are asked to learn both. In reality, allophones start with one of the two, mostly English but more and more French. Census data adjusted for education and professional experience show that bilingual francophones had a greater income than bilingual anglophones by the year 2000. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=ff07b398-0832-4331-b12b-d32aa078edf7&k=87430
In 2001, 29% of Quebec workers declared using English, either solely (193,320), mostly (293,320), equally with French (212,545) or regularly (857,420). The proportion rose to 37% in the Montreal metropolitan area. Indeed, the majority of Montrealers are bilingual and move easily between French and English-speaking social milieux. Outside Montreal, on the other hand, the proportion of anglophones has shrunk to 3% of the population and, except on the Ontario and U.S. borders, struggles to maintain a critical mass to support educational and health institutions – a reality that only immigrants and francophones usually experience in the other provinces. Unilingual anglophones are however still on the decline because of the higher English-French bilingualism of the community's younger generations.
Not all analysts are entirely comfortable with this picture of the status of the English language in Quebec. For example, a more refined analysis of the Census data shows that a great deal of anglicization continues to occur in the communities traditionally associated with the English language group, e.g., the Chinese, Italian, Greek and Indo-Pakistani groups. A majority of new immigrants in every census since 1971 have chosen French more often than English as their adopted language. Further, Calvin Veltman
Calvin Veltman
Calvin Veltman is an American sociologist, demographer and sociolinguist at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He previously worked at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh...
has shown that minority language children have often made French their personal language of use although this fact cannot be picked up by Statistics Canada because their parents continue to report them as usually speaking the ancestral language at home. And a recent study by M. McAndrew and C. Veltman (1999) show that minority language children in French schools are much more francized than are their parents. In addition, the rates of intermarriage between English and French-speaking people continue to rise, together with the proportion of children who have French for their first language instead of English, further undermining the capacity of the English language group to sustain itself in the medium to long run. All these factors have already combined to produce an increase in the relative size of the French-speaking population and may be expected to more fully assert themselves in the Census of 2006 and subsequent years. The corollary would be a continued decline in the relative size of the other language groups.
Aboriginal peoples
Aboriginal peoples in QuebecAboriginal peoples in Quebec
Aboriginal peoples in Quebec total 11 distinct nations. The 10 Amerindian nations and the Inuit nations number 71,415 people and account for approximately 1% of the total population of Quebec, Canada.-Inuit:...
are a heterogeneous group of about 71,000 individuals, who account for 9% of the total population of Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
. Approximately 60% of those are officially recognized as "Indians" under the federal Indian Act. Nearly half (47%) of this population in Quebec reported an Aboriginal language as mother tongue, the highest proportion of any province. The following table shows the demographic situations of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec:
| People | Number | Language family | Region of Quebec | Language of use | Second language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abenakis Abenaki language The Abenaki language is a dialect continuum within the Eastern Algonquian languages, originally spoken in what is now Vermont, New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and Maine... |
2,000 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
Mauricie Mauricie Mauricie is a traditional and current administrative region of Quebec. La Mauricie National Park is contained within the region, making it a prime tourist location. The region has a land area of 35,855.22 km² and a 2006 census population of 258,928 residents... |
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
Abenaki Abenaki language The Abenaki language is a dialect continuum within the Eastern Algonquian languages, originally spoken in what is now Vermont, New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and Maine... |
| Algonquins | 9,000 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
North East | Algonquin Algonquin language Algonquin is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by the Algonquin First Nations of Quebec and Ontario... |
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... or English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
| Atikameks | 6,000 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
North | Cree Cree language Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana... (Atikamek Atikamekw language The Atikamekw language , a dialect of Cree, is the language of the Atikamekw people of southwestern Quebec. It is spoken by nearly all the Atikamekw, and therefore it is among the indigenous languages least threatened with extinction according to some studies... ) |
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
| Cree Cree The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although... s |
14,800 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
North | Cree Cree language Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana... (East Cree East Cree language East Cree, also known as Eastern James Bay Cree, and East Main Cree, refers to a group of Cree dialects spoken in Quebec, Canada on the east coast of lower Hudson Bay and James Bay, and inland southeastward from James Bay... ) |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
| Malecites | 764 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
St. Lawrence South shore | French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
| Micmacs | 4,900 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
Gaspésie | Micmac | French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... or English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
| Montagnais Innu The Innu are the indigenous inhabitants of an area they refer to as Nitassinan , which comprises most of the northeastern portions of the provinces of Quebec and some western portions of Labrador... |
15,600 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
North Coast | Cree Cree language Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana... (Innu-Aimun) |
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
| Naskapis Innu The Innu are the indigenous inhabitants of an area they refer to as Nitassinan , which comprises most of the northeastern portions of the provinces of Quebec and some western portions of Labrador... |
600 | Algonquian Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... |
North East | Cree Cree language Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana... (iiyuw-iyimuuun Naskapi language Naskapi is an Algonquian language spoken by the Naskapi in Quebec and Labrador, Canada. It is written in Eastern Cree syllabics.... ) |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
| Hurons | 3,000 | Iroquoian | near Quebec City Quebec City Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest... |
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
| Mohawks Mohawk nation Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint... |
11,400 | Iroquoian | near Montreal Montreal Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America... |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
Mohawk Mohawk language Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining... |
| Inuit Inuit The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language... |
10,000 | Eskimo–Aleut | Arctic | Inuktitut Inuktitut Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada... |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
See also
- Aboriginal peoples in QuebecAboriginal peoples in QuebecAboriginal peoples in Quebec total 11 distinct nations. The 10 Amerindian nations and the Inuit nations number 71,415 people and account for approximately 1% of the total population of Quebec, Canada.-Inuit:...
- Bilingualism in CanadaBilingualism in CanadaThe official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to Canada's constitution...
- Charter of the French LanguageCharter of the French LanguageThe Charter of the French Language , also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Quebec, and framing fundamental language rights for everyone in the province...
- Children of Bill 101Children of Bill 101The children of Bill 101 is the name given to the generation of children whose parents immigrated to Quebec, Canada after the adoption of the 1977 Charter of the French Language ....
- Constitution of CanadaConstitution of CanadaThe Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada; the country's constitution is an amalgamation of codified acts and uncodified traditions and conventions. It outlines Canada's system of government, as well as the civil rights of all Canadian citizens and those in Canada...
- Demographics of QuebecDemographics of QuebecThe demographics of Quebec constitutes a complex and sensitive issue, especially as it relates to the National Question of Canada.Quebec is the only province in Canada to feature a francophone majority, and where anglophones constitute an officially recognized minority group.However, while...
- English-Speaking Quebecers
- French-speaking QuébécoisFrench-speaking QuebecerFrench-speaking Quebecers are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Quebec....
- Language in CanadaLanguage in CanadaA multitude of languages are used in Canada. According to the 2006 census, English and French are the mother tongues of 58.8% and 23.2% of Canadians respectively. New Brunswick is the only Canadian province that has both English and French as its official languages. Quebec's official language is...
- Cahiers québécois de démographieCahiers québécois de démographieThe Cahiers québécois de démographie is a peer-reviewed academic journal publishing original research in areas of demography, demographic analysis, and the demographics of Quebec and other populations....
academic journal
General Studies
- Marmen, Louise and Corbeil, Jean-Pierre (2004). Languages in Canada 2001 Census, New Canadian Perspectives Series, Canadian Heritage, ISBN 0-662-68526-1
Language shifts
- Lisée, Jean-François (2004). Conference: The French fact in Québec and Canada: The Hidden Storm, American University Summer Institute, Washington D.C.
- O'Keefe, Michael (2001). Francophone Minorities: Assimilation and Community Vitality, 2nd Edition, New Canadian Perspectives Series, Canadian Heritage, ISBN 0-662-64786-6
- O'Keefe, Michael (1999). Francophone Minorities: Assimilation and Community Vitality, 1st Edition, New Canadian Perspectives Series, Canadian Heritage
- Castonguay, Charles (1999). "French is on the ropes. Why won't Ottawa admit it ?", in Policy Options / Options politiques, 20, 8 : 39-50
- Castonguay, Charles (1999). "Getting the facts straight on French : Reflections following the 1996 Census", in Inroads Journal, volume 8, pages 57 to 77
- Castonguay, Charles. (1998). Transcript of a Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages hearing, recorded on April 28
General Studies
- Bouchard, Pierre, Castonguay, Charles, Langlois, Simon, Pagé, Michel and Vincent, Nadine (2005). Les caractéristiques linguistiques de la population du Québec ; profil et tendances 1991–2001 (Fascicule 1), Office québécois de la langue française ISBN 2-550-44200-8
Language at work
- Moffet, Virginie (2006). Langue du travail : indicateurs relatifs à l’évolution de la population active et à l’utilisation des langues au travail en 2001, Office québécois de la langue française ISBN 2-550-46345-5
- Chénard, Claire and Van Shendel, Nicolas (2002). Travailler en français au Québec : les perceptions de travailleurs et de gestionnaires, Office québécois de la langue française
Language shifts
- Castonguay, Charles. "La force réelle du français au Québec", Le DevoirLe DevoirLe Devoir is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and the rest of Canada. It was founded by journalist, politician, and nationalist Henri Bourassa in 1910....
, 20 December 2005 - Castonguay, Charles (2005). Les indicateurs généraux de vitalité des langues au Québec : comparabilité et tendances 1971–2001 (Étude 1), Office québécois de la langue française 48 pages
- Castonguay, Charles. "Quelle est la force d'attraction réelle du français au Québec? Analyse critique de l'amélioration de la situation du français observée en 2001", Le DevoirLe DevoirLe Devoir is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and the rest of Canada. It was founded by journalist, politician, and nationalist Henri Bourassa in 1910....
, 10 December 2003 - Castonguay, Charles. Assimilation linguistique et remplacement des générations francophones et anglophones au Québec et au Canada dans Recherches sociographiques, 2002
- Castonguay, Charles (1999). Population history des minorités de langue officielle, Le Programme de contestation judiciaire du Canada, Conférence linguistique
- Castonguay, Charles (Fall 1992). "L'orientation linguistique des allophones à Montréal", in Cahiers québécois de démographie, volume 21, issue 2
Demolinguistic forecast
- Termote, Marc (2003). "La dynamique démolinguistique du Québec et de ses régions", in Piché, Victor and Le Bourdais, Céline (eds.), La démographie québécoise. Enjeux du XXIe siècle. Montréal, Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, collection "Paramètres", pages 264–299
- Termote, Marc (2002). "L'évolution démolinguistique du Québec et du Canada", in La mise à jour des études originalement préparées pour la Commission sur l'avenir politique et constitutionnel du Québec. Rapport soumis au ministre délégué aux affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes. Volume 2, livre 2. Québec, Conseil exécutif, Bureau de coordination des études, pages 161–244
- Termote, Marc (1999). Perspectives démolinguistiques du Québec et de la région de Montréal à l'aube du XXIe siècle : implications pour le français langue d'usage public, Conseil de la langue française, Montréal, 15 September 1999
Aboriginal languages
- Maurais, Jacques, (ed.) (1992). Les langues autochtones du Québec, Collection : Dossiers, 35, Pages : xviii, 455. Conseil de la langue française
External links
- The English Fact in Quebec – Google Books