Canadian French

French is one of Canada's two official languages; the other is English and is the language of the majority (see Canadian English). According to the Canada 2001 Census, Canada has seen a rise in number of francophones outside Quebec (but a decrease as percentage of the total population) — about 4.4 percent of Canadians outside Quebec are francophones.[1] About 17.7 percent of Canadians are English-French bilingual.[2]

1 Quebec
2 Atlantic Canada
3 Ontario
4 Prairies
5 Northern territories
6 See also
7 External links

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Quebec

Quebec is the only province whose sole official language is French. Quebec French is substantially different in pronunciation and vocabulary, though easily mutually comprehensible, with the French of the Académie française. This is due to the long history of French in Canada and the fact that French immigrants to Canada kept speaking the French of the Ancien régime while in France the French revolution led to the standardization of bourgeois Parisian French. Today, 81.4 percent of Quebecers are francophone.[3]

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Atlantic Canada

French is one of the two official languages of the province of New Brunswick. Acadian French is spoken in the Canadian Maritimes (Acadia), and is an ancestor of Cajun French. New Brunswick has the largest Acadian population, and is the only province that is officially bilingual. About one-third of New Brunswickers are francophone.[4]

Newfoundland French is endangered.

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Ontario

French is the native language of just over half a million French-Canadians in Ontario. Franco-Ontarians are mainly found in the regions of Northeastern Ontario and Eastern Ontario, although they are present in smaller numbers throughout the province as well. However, a third of them no longer speak the language at home.

The province has no official language, although it is a largely English-speaking province. Ontario law requires that the provincial Legislative Assembly operate in both English and French (individuals can speak in the Assembly in the official language of their choice), and requires that all provincial statutes and bills be made available in English and French. Further, an individual is entitled to communicate with the head or central office of any provincial government department or agency in French, and an individual is entitled to receive all government services in French in 23 designated areas in the province.

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Prairies

Michif, a unique language mixing French and Cree is spoken by a small number of Métis living mostly in the province of Manitoba. Manitoba also has a significant Franco-Manitoban community, centred especially in the St. Boniface area of Winnipeg, but also in many surrounding villages. Saskatchewan also has a Fransaskois community, as does Alberta with its Franco-Albertans. British-Columbia, on the other hand, hosts only a small francophone population, the Franco-Columbians.

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