French as a Minority Language in Bilingual Canada

by Karen Bond

Canada is officially a bilingual country but, with nearly 60% of the population speaking English as their mother-tongue, and only 24% speaking French as their first language, some people are questioning whether Canada is truly a bilingual nation or rather, a bilingual nation on paper only.  French is not the only linguistic minority in Canada, and some of the languages spoken, in order of popularity, are Chinese, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Ukrainian, Arabic, Dutch, Tagalog, Greek, Vietnamese, Cree and Inuktitut (Statistics Canada, 1996).  This paper shall focus on French, however, as not only is this official language a linguistic minority in this supposedly bilingual country, but also has, for quite some time, been at the centre of political conflict.

There are two varieties of French in Canada: Acadian and French-Canadian (or Québécois French), and they differ in terms of accent and local lexis.  Acadians are descendents of 17^th century settlers in the province of Nova Scotia, and French-Canadians are generally known as descendents of French settlers in the province of Québec in the same century.  

The French language spoken in Canada (both Québécois and Acadian varieties) is substantially different from Standard French from France.  This is because of a long history of French in Canada, with the original settlers coming from parts of France other than Paris, who continued to use the French from the Ancien Régime, while the Standard French in France used today evolved instead from 18th century bourgeois Parisian French.   The pronunciation and vocabulary of French in Canada is quite different from International French, and a French person or a Belgian might find it difficult to understand a Québecer, like a Texan might find it hard to understand a Welsh-speaker, for example.  

Canadian French also contains a large number of Anglicisms, which is to be expected, since Canada is a bilingual country, and Québec borders the United States (although while French people say 'weekend' and 'parking', French-Canadians say 'fin de semaine' and 'stationnement').  Some popular anglicisms in Québec are: anyway (anyway); chum (male friend, boyfriend); checker (to check); cute (cute); fucké (fuck); whatever (whatever).

Some aspects of Canadian French are sociolinguistically stigmatized, and this variety is sometimes considered second-rate compared with International French (Grenier, 2001), with even the Québécois sometimes becoming self-conscious of their supposed lack of education (Couture, 2000).  However, it is still French, and it is not creole, dialect or patois, and it is not a regional French.  It is a unique language, and is a result of the rich history and soul of French-Canada's people.    

Québecers whose mother-tongue is French comprise 82% of the local population, thus being a linguistic majority in the province.  But outside Québec, it is indeed a minority language, with 33.9% of the population speaking an Acadian variety of French, 4.4% in Manitoba, 4.1% in Ontario, and less than 2% in other provinces (Chevrier, 1997).

In spite of being officially a bilingual country since 1982, these figures show that this is not a reality, and perhaps it would be more accurate to describe Canada as an English-speaking country, with French as its second language. Although in any government-run organisation you may find both English and French speaking clerks, this does not mean that French is widely used by its supposedly bilingual population.  Only 9% of Anglophones outside Québec can communicate in French.  In contrast, one-third of Québec francophones can communicate in English.

A full 95% of French speakers in Canada live in Québec, and just 5% in other parts of the country, and one concern is that this figure will decrease as these Francophones become assimilated into English Canada.  This may be due to the fact that some English-speaking provinces are reluctant to spend tax dollars on language policy.  The federal government has tried to counteract this tendency by implementing an official bilingual policy, which attempts to encourage the use of both languages by giving francophones the same language rights to a number of services, particularly those run by the government, like libraries, employment and immigration offices.  Outside Québec though, you would be hard pressed to find French signs and businesses with French speakers, and it seems that this language policy has not achieved its goal of bilingualism, but has simply slowed down the trend towards what Grenier (2001) refers to as `the overriding use of English`.

In this country of bilingualism, it can be seen that, with English being the lingua franca, it has come to dominate the economy, as having a dual-language communication system would simply not be an efficient one (Grenier, 2001).  Even in Québec, until recent years, English was the language of prestige and choice for business, and French-speakers were often discriminated against when applying for work, and received incomes 35% lower than that of the Anglo-Québecer. 

That changed in 1974, when French was made the official language of this province, after a growing concern that the francophone minorities in Canada were gradually being assimilated.  This does not mean that English was disposed of, especially as the English minority until today has had a great influence in developing policies to ensure that it can go about its every day life without needing to speak a word of French (although this is becoming less common as time goes on).  And it does not mean that, for this reason, the status of French and French speakers improved (this occurred more likely because of the introduction of Bill 101, which the Parti Québecois brought into law in 1977 to restrict access to an education in English in the province).  However, French is now in the majority in both social and economic life, with 68.3% of companies with 100 or more employees being francophone, and 84% of those with 50 to 99 employees (Grenier, 2001).  

This is enforced in the business sector by the so-called `language police`- a term coined by the right-wing English language press - who are responsible for dealing with complaints about violations of the language laws.  These civil servants are also allowed to make investigations themselves, hence the media's use of 'language police'.   For example, they ensure that business signs are written boldly in French and, if an English sign is required too, that it is one third of the size of the French sign.  In fact, there are French-language extremist groups like the 'Front de Liberation du Québec' that have bombed or threatened to bomb businesses with English signs, like `Second Cup` (a coffee house chain) and Schwartz’s (a popular Jewish delicatessen in Montréal).  Another example is when a store does not serve its customers in French.  It could be because the owner is stubborn, or more likely that immigrants have been hired who do not yet speak French.  A situation like this is often resolved by the owner hiring a clerk who is able to communicate with customers in French.

Québec’s birth rate is one of the lowest in the world, with 1.6 births per woman (Chevrier, 1997) and this, coupled with an increase in immigration, has heightened the realisation that French as the language of communication might once again be at risk. Québec's immigration Minister, Sylvian Simard, recently stated that only 45% of last year’s immigrants were either francophone or bilingual. This has led to a new policy of seeking French-speaking immigrants from North Africa (Canadian Press, 2001).

Some believe that the only way to protect the French-speaking societies’ language and culture is for Québec to separate from the rest of Canada.  The central motivation to becoming a separate nation is the issue of language, although many French-Canadians feel that Québec would also benefit economically if it were to separate from Canada. What many Québecers fear is that, without the Canadian government recognising Québec as a distinct society, with its own unique language, culture and economy, it will be lost in this increasingly globalised world.  The `Bloc Québécois` is the political party that represents this desire for sovereignty but, at the last election, lost many seats to the Liberals, and has become less and less popular with the Québec population, as has the issue of separation.

References 

Canadian Press (2001), Francophone Immigration – Québec looks to North African Countries (online) Available: http://www2.mybc.com/news/fs.cfm?id=687437. 

Chevrier, M. (1997), `The Rationale for Québec’s Language Policy` Espoir September 1997 (online).   Available:http://www.mri.gouv.qc.ca/la_bibliotheque/langue/loi-langue_syn_an.html.

Couture, P. (2000), Le Français Québécois (online). Available: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/7318/FRANC2.HTM.

Grenier, G. (2001), Social and Economic Policy: A Distinction Without a Difference?  Reflections on the Relationship Between Languages and the Economy as Applied to Canada (online) Available: http://www.pch.gc.ca/offlangoff/perspectives/english/econo/part5a.htm.

Statistics Canada (1996), Population by Mother Tongue, 1996 Census (online).  Available: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/People/Population/demo18a.htm.