Language Planning, Language Policy and
Language Research in Canada
On this page:
Canadian French -
Canadian English -
Heritage Languages -
Native Languages -
Links
Language matters in Canada can be divided into several categories.
Firstly, the federal government has declared English and French to
be the official languages of Canada. Secondly, there is a multitude
of aboriginal languages spoken by the First Nations ("Indians")
and Inuit ("Eskimo").
Lastly, the immigrant languages other than English and French are
encouraged and supported by the federal government's multiculturalism
policy. These are usually termed "heritage languages"
defined in an official document as "a language, other than one of
the official languages of Canada, that contributes to the
linguistic heritage of Canada" (Canadian Heritage Languages Act).
Although Canada is often thought of as a bilingual country, in
truth less than 5% of the population speaks both languages
from childhood and less than half of the population is able to
speak more than one language of any kind.
General Book about Canadian Language Topics
- Language In Canada
Published in 1999, this book contains essays from experts
on a variety of Canadian language topics.
French is the majority language in most parts of the province of
Québec as well as adjoining areas of Ontario on
Québec's western border and a large area of the province
of New Brunwick to the southeast of Québec. Outside of
this region, there is no significant-sized area where
French-speaking people form a majority of the population.
Books about Canadian French
- Je parle plus mieux française que vous et j'te merde!: les joies de la francophonie
Buy it
- NTC's Dictionary of Canadian French
Buy it
- Québécois Dictionary
Buy it
- French Fun : The Real Spoken Language of Quebec
Buy it
- Dictionary of Canadian French = Dictionnaire du français canadien
Buy it
English dominates in most areas of the country outside those
just mentioned, including the entire western half of Montréal,
Québec, Canada's second-largest city. In most of these
areas, English is the mother tongue of more than 90% of speakers,
although small groups of French speakers are found throughout
the country.
Canadian English - Dictionaries
- A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles
Buy it
- Penguin Canadian Dictionary
Buy it
- Funk & Wagnall's Canadian College Dictionary
Buy it
- The Gage Canadian Dictionary
Buy it
- Gage Canadian Dictionary (bargain edition)
Buy it
- Gage Canadian Intermediate Dictionary
Buy it
- Gage Canadian Junior Dictionary
Buy it
- The ITP Nelson Canadian Dictionary of the English Language: An Encyclopedic Reference
Buy it
- Canadian Oxford Dictionary
Buy it
- The Houghton Mifflin Canadian Dictionary of the English Language
Buy it
- The Canadian Oxford Picture Dictionary
Buy it
- Canadian Dictionary for Children
Buy it
Canadian English - Thesauruses
- The Gage Canadian Thesaurus: Just the Right Word
Buy it
- The Gage Canadian School Thesaurus: Word Power for Young Writers
Buy it
Canadian English - General
- The Canadian Style
Buy it
- Our own voice: Canadian English and how it came to be
Buy it
- Casselman's Canadian Words: a comic browse by Bill Casselman through words
and folk sayings invented by Canadians from every province and territory (1995)
Buy it
- Casselmania: More Wacky Canadian Words & Sayings
Buy it
- Casselman's Canadian Words: A Comic Browse Through Words & Folk Sayings Invented by Canadians (3rd in the series)
Buy it
- Canadian Garden Words
Buy it
- Canadian Food Words
Buy it
- Speaking Canadian English: An Informal Account of the English Language in Canada
Buy it
- Canajan, Eh?
- Conserve Tuvs, Eh?
Buy it
Canadian English - Regional
- Western Canadian Dictionary & Phrasebook
Buy it
- Miramichi Dictionary
Buy it
- Dictionary of Prince Edward Island English
- Prince Edward Island Sayings
Buy it
- Dictionary of Newfoundland English, 2nd ed. 1990
- Dictionary of Newfoundland English, 1st ed.
- (hardcover)
Buy it
- (softcover out of print)
The only exceptions to English domination in these areas are
neighbourhoods of people whose first language is one of the
immigrant "heritage languages." For example, there
is a group of neighbourhoods in Toronto where less than half
of the people have English as their first language. In this
case the majority are native speakers of Chinese, Italian or
Portuguese, among others.
Check out the links section of this page
for more information on various Heritage Language teaching
programs throughout the country.
The native languages of the First Nations and Inuit people
have been neglected or even discouraged until recently, but
with increasing moves towards aboriginal self-government, among
other factors, great strides have been made in recent years
towards preserving what's left and even expanding the scope
of the remaining aboriginal languages.
Books on Canadian Aboriginal Languages
- A Concise Nuxalk-English Dictionary
(Canadian Ethnology Service Mercury Series Paper 115)
Buy it
- English-Micmac Dictionary: Dictionary of the Language of the Micmac Indians Who Reside in Nova Scotia New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton
Buy it
- Micmac Dictionary
Buy it
- You're So Fat!: Exploring Ojibwe Discourse
Buy it
- Making It Their Own: Severn Ojibwe Communicative Practices
Buy it
- Conversation Inuit/Inuktitut Uqariursautilt: Dialecte du Nunavik, Niveau 1
Buy it
Since education is the responsibility of the provincial
governments, important differences in language teaching and
language planning policies exist between the various provinces.
In the links that follow, many are broken down province by
province.
The following are some web documents pertaining to language
matters in Canada:
- Federal Government
- Geographical Names
- Research Projects
- Université de Laval
- Université d'Ottawa
- University of Toronto
- Organizations
- Nova Scotia
- New Brunswick
- Prince Edward Island
- Québec
- Ontario
- Manitoba
- Saskatchewan
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Integrated Resource Packages (provincial curriculum):
- Yukon
- Northwest Territories
Comments or questions?: Write to
Neil Wick at
neil@languagestore.com
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