{"id":34113,"date":"2021-08-27T18:05:49","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T16:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=34113"},"modified":"2021-08-27T16:52:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T14:52:37","slug":"la-francophonie-du-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/la-francophonie-du-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"La francophonie du Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0La francophonie du Canada<\/em> – French\u2011Speaking Canada<\/h3>\n

Canada is officially a bilingual country (un pays bilangue<\/em>), with English and French as the two official languages. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom (la Charte des droits et libert\u00e9s<\/em>), which was part of the Constitution Act (la loi constitutionnelle<\/em>) of 1982, strengthened the status of both languages by stating that “the public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French”. In 1988, the Official Languages Act (la loi sur les langues officielles<\/em>) clarified this requirement, giving French and English equal status and defining how services are provided for linguistic minorities (including French\u2011speakers in the anglophone parts of Canada and English\u2011speakers in francophone areas). (During the COVID pandemic, Canada PM Justin Trudeau came under fire for importing and selling unilingual labeled items<\/a>, thus not upholding the French language.)<\/p>\n

In reality, the majority of the population is monolingual; less than 20% of Canadians speak both English and French. Anglophones (les anglophones<\/em>) constitute the linguistic majority, while French\u2011speakers constitute the most significant linguistic minority. Francophones1<\/a><\/sup>French speakers<\/span> (les francophones<\/em>) are mainly concentrated in three provinces (les provinces<\/em>) : Quebec (le Qu\u00e9bec<\/em>), New Brunswick (le Nouveau\u2011Brunswick<\/em>), and Ontario (l\u2019Ontario<\/em>). More than 95% of the francophone population, as well as the majority of bilingual Canadians, are found in these three provinces. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada. In Quebec, French is the only official language (la langue officielle<\/em>).<\/p>\n

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Montreal. Photo from Pixabay, CCO.<\/p><\/div>\n

Since 1974, French has been the only official language of Quebec. It is the only province with a francophone majority (la majorit\u00e9<\/em>), and eighty\u2011five percent of Canadians who speak French as their first language live there. Montreal is the largest francophone city in North America (l\u2019Am\u00e9rique du nord<\/em>). In fact, Montreal is considered the second largest francophone city in the world after Paris. As the only Canadian province where the francophone population is not declining, Quebec attracts a large number of immigrants from French\u2011speaking areas of the world.<\/p>\n

In 1977, Quebec enacted the Charter of the French Language\u00a0(la Charte de la langue fran\u00e7aise<\/em>)\u00a0in order to protect and promote French as the language of all Quebecers\u00a0(les qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em>)\u00a0while respecting the constitutional rights of English\u2011speaking residents. As a result, the language of instruction\u00a0(la langue d\u2019enseignement<\/em>)\u00a0is French, with English taught as a second language starting in elementary school\u00a0(l\u2019\u00e9cole primaire<\/em>).\u00a0At the request of parents, instruction can be provided in English. French is accepted as the primary operating language of the province, just as English is accepted in the rest of Canada. Interestingly, Quebec is the province with the largest bilingual population: most of the workforce is bilingual, since workers are often required to speak English in the private sector\u00a0(le secteur priv\u00e9<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Here are some vocabulary differences between Canadian French<\/strong> and European French:<\/p>\n

un chum <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0– un <\/em>copain<\/em>2<\/a><\/sup>boyfriend<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

une blonde<\/em> – une <\/em>copine<\/em>3<\/a><\/sup>girlfriend<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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les sous<\/em> – les centimes4<\/a><\/sup>cents<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

le char<\/em> – une voiture5<\/a><\/sup>a car<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

le stationnement<\/em> – le parking6<\/a><\/sup>parking lot<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

la facture<\/em> – l’addition7<\/a><\/sup>the bill<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

le d\u00e9jeuner –<\/em><\/strong> le petit-d\u00e9jeuner8<\/a><\/sup>breakfast<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

le d\u00eener – <\/em><\/strong>le <\/em>d\u00e9jeuner9<\/a><\/sup>lunch<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

le souper<\/em><\/strong> – le d\u00eener d10<\/a><\/sup>dinner<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

le courriel – <\/em><\/strong>le<\/em>\u00a0mail <\/em>11<\/a><\/sup>email<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

la fin de semaine –<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0le week-end12<\/a><\/sup>weekend<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

le breuvage –<\/em> le boissond13<\/a><\/sup>drink<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

La gomme \u00e0 m\u00e2cher<\/strong> – le chewing-gum <\/em>14<\/a><\/sup>c<\/em>hewing gum<\/span><\/p>\n

Faire du magasinage<\/strong> – faire du shopping<\/em>15<\/a><\/sup> to go shopping<\/span><\/p>\n

La pinotte<\/strong> – la cacahu\u00e8te <\/em>16<\/a><\/sup>peanut<\/span><\/p>\n

Watcher<\/strong> – regarder <\/em>17<\/a><\/sup>to watch<\/span><\/p>\n

Truster<\/strong> – faire confiance <\/em>18<\/a><\/sup>to trust<\/span><\/p>\n

La job<\/strong> – le boulot <\/em>19<\/a><\/sup>job<\/span><\/p>\n

Un cellulaire<\/strong> – un portable <\/em>20<\/a><\/sup>cellphone<\/span><\/p>\n

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