Spanish 209,955 (0.7%) 6. The Act recognizes that many languages are spoken and used by people of the NWT and is committed the preservation, development, and enhancement of the Aboriginal languages. How many languages does the average Canadian speak? Approximately 200 different languages are spoken here, and 45% of the residents speak a mother tongue other than French or English, according to the 2011 census. As of 1996, only three out of fifty native Aboriginal languages—Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway—had large enough populations to be considered truly secure from the threat of extinction in the long term. Indigenous communities and various educational institutions have taken measures to prevent more language loss and to preserve Indigenous languages. ), is considerably more homogeneous than European French, which displays variation from region to region over a smaller territory. The Cree language is spoken by approximately 75,000 people across Canada, making it the most spoken of Canada’s Aboriginal languages. In 2016, Statistics Canadareported that for about 40 Indigenous languages in Canada, there are only about 500 speakers or less. 228,770 Canadians speak Indigenous languages at home, more than the number who say an Indigenous language … Indigenous languages from coast to coast to coast. While the languages and cultures outlined on this list comprise the most visibly and widely spoken, it is important to note that over 150 languages and cultures are active across the city, accentuating the notion that Toronto is truly a city of cultural diversity! 98-404-X2016001, Ottawa, updated November 29, 2017. The following are some examples: About a fifth of Canadians, or nearly 6.8 million people, reported having a mother tongue other than English or French, Canada's two official languages. Mother Tongue is defined as the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood at the time of the census. English: 20,193,335 native speakers (58.1% of Canada’s total population) If you travel to Canada with … Our other official language, French, is the second-most commonly spoken language in Canada. French. In Toronto, the top 10 non-official Mother Tongues are as follows. There are 12 Indigenous language families covering 65 languages and dialects. Home language This is the language most often spoken at home and is currently preferred to identify francophones, anglophones, and allophones. Canada is a modern linguistic treasure chest, offering the avid language enthusiast plenty of opportunities to immerse oneself in a linguistic wonderland. They speak many languages, have distinct histories, and practice a variety of religions. From an official standpoint, Canada is a bilingual country, with both French and English recognized as the nation’s national languages, but there are also a multitude of non-official languages spoken in the country, ranging from German and Spanish to Punjabi and Chinese. This is because all the major changes that were to affect the grammatical structure of English took place in Britain well before most of the people immigrated to Canada. There are 196 languages reported as being used in Canada. There are also many Indigenous languages spoken in Canada. With that being said, there are many different languages that are spoken throughout the entirety of Canada, aside from the two official languages. 2. There are around 70 distinct Indigenous languages in Canada. Outside New Brunswick and Ontario, on the other hand, the survival of such French-speaking communities is far less certain, Recent census data reveals that, in at least three provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland), the French speaking population is declining sharply, due to assimilation into the English-speaking majority. Canada has two official languages, English and French. The X axis shows mother-tongue retention in percentage. We have made a brief breakdown of the most commonly spoken languages. Some of these families are considered large and strong, while others are small and vulnerable. Canada is home to a rich variety of indigenous languages that are spoken nowhere else. More than 25 per cent of people speak a third language in Canada’s west-most province. Today, English is far and away the most prominent language spoken in Canada, the first language for nearly 60 percent of the population. Two-thirds of people who speak non-official languages live in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. In total, 196 specific languages were reported as being spoken in Canada — 66 Aboriginal and 128 "immigrant" ones. The next most spoken languages in B.C. (See also Indigenous Language R… According to experts, it is unlikely that the British immigrants to Canada were highly educated. The pluralistic society of Canada is filled with people of various origins and this is reflected in the linguistic makeup of the country as well. About 15% of Canadians speak a language at home other than English or French and 23% have a mother tongue other than an official language. Some of the non-official languages are spoken by large… However, between 1825 and 1846 more than half a million immigrants came to Canada directly from Britain, and by 1871 over 2 million people in Canada listed the British Isles as their land of origin. Thus, they did not bring with them the “proper” form of English that was spoken, for example, by graduates of Oxford and Cambridge University. -- Tagalog (525,000) During the past century or more, roughly 10 of Canada’s once-flourishing Aboriginal languages have become extinct, and at least a dozen are on the brink. Most native French speakers in Canada live in Quebec, a province in which French is the only official language. Roughly 150,000 have Algonquian as their first language, a language family that includes Cree and Ojibway. This is not shocking when you consider the current situation. In the present day, there are now roughly 300,000 people in these three provinces that claim French as their mother tongue, most of whom are direct descendants of the original Acadians. This was definitely the case for those British immigrants who came to Canada to establish a new life. The Northwest Territories (NWT) is the only jurisdiction in Canada that names nine (9) official Aboriginal languages alongside English and French through its Official Languages Act. English and French are the co-official languages of Canada, and both are used in the country’s federal government institutions. Punjabi 500,000 (1.0%) 5. German 128,350 (0.4%) 11. The number of people reporting speaking Tagalog at home grew by 35 per cent since the last census. The Y axis shows the following mother tongues: English, French and non-official language. The next largest language is Spanish, spoken by 3.5% of the population. The most frequently spoken languages (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/census-wednesday-language-1.4231213) at home other than French or English are: Additional Source: Statistics Canada, “Language spoken at home, Canada, 2011 and 2016,” Focus on Geography Series, 2016 Census, Canada, Provinces and Territories, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. More changes came in 1969, when the Canadian Parliament adopted the first Official Languages Act, which recognized French and English as official languages to be used in all federal institutions. With over 50 Aboriginal languages, and dozens of dialects currently spoken across the country, Canada has an incredible amount of linguistic diversity. The survey also says that the fastest growing language groups in the country are those that are regularly spoken in Asia and the Middle East. -- Canadian Gaelic spoken fluently by about 1,000 people in northwest Cape Breton, Nova Scotia that came from immigrants who spoke Scottish Gaelic. The many languages spoken in Canada are a reflection of the country’s long history and colonial roots. These new Canadians brought with them the kind of English that they had learned from their parents in their homeland, and it bore little similarity to what is now often called Standard British English, or simply Standard English. The remaining eight language families account for only 7 percent of persons with an Aboriginal first language, an indication of these languages’ small relative size. All but three Indigenous languages in Canada are no longer considered viable with a low number of native speakers. In Quebec, about 77% of people are native French speakers or francophones and 95% speak French as a first or second language. Some of these languages are sign languages. Acadian (Acadien), Franco-Ontarien, Québécois, Shippagan, Franco-Terreneuvien, Franco-Manitoban, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/census-wednesday-language-1.4231213. People speak Indigenous languages in almost every region of Canada, as illustrated in the infographic below from Statistics Canada. Along with these two languages, there are many more languages spoken in this beautiful country. Nevertheless, the type of English introduced to Canada in the early 19th century was by no means standard. In addition to English and French, there are many non-official languages in use as well as Indigenous languages. Regional distribution of language … The rate of English-French bilingualism in Canada has also reached an all-time high with almost 18% of Canadians able to speak English or French. Finally, in 1997, the memorandum of understanding between the Treasury Board Secretariat and Canadian Heritage made all departments accountable in view of official-language minorities. While most Canadians speak one of two official languages, English and French, there are nearly 200 languages spoken in the country including Aboriginal or Indigenous languages, official languages, and "immigrant" languages. This list shows countries/disputed countries organised by the languages which are spoken there Indo-European languages Albanian. First, it escapes the direct influences of changes in grammar and pronunciation that take place in the parent language; and second, it undergoes major changes in vocabulary and slang words in order to allow its users to accommodate their speech to their new circumstances. Some of these languages are spoken by less than 1,000 people. This includes the two official languages, English and French, as well as 128 "immigrant" or imported languages like German and Italy and about 66 Indigenous languages. Like the United States, Canada is becoming a melting pot of different ethnicities, cultures and languages. Approximately 56.9% of the population of Canada speaks English as a native language, while 21.3% speak French as a first language. Italian 170,330 (0.6%), Dutch 159,440 (0.6%), Arabic 144,745 (0.5%), Urdu 102,805 (0.3%), Polish 101,575 (0.3%), Persian 97,220 (0.3%), Russian 93,805 (0.3%), Tamil 92,680 (0.3%), Greek 55,100 (0.2%), Gujarati 52,715 (0.2%). 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