Languages in Canada

by Ivana Recmanova

Canada is the largest country in North America by geographical area. It is home to not only maple syrup and ice hockey, but also to many languages.

Because of the country’s colonial legacy, there are currently two official languages: English and French. While French is the official language of the province of Quebec, English is spoken in the rest of the country. 20.6% of the Canadian population has a native tongue other than English or French though, according to the 2011 census.

The people who speak the other languages are either migrants from countries where neither English nor French is spoken (such as Italy, Germany, China, India, Portugal, Russia, Korea, Philipines, and so on) or the native people of Canada, officially called First Nations peoples, whose languages include Ojibwe, Blackfoot, Inuktitut and many others. In addition to the spoken languages of migrants, there are also deaf people who communicate through sign languages (of which there are a number of these as well in Canada: American Sign Language, Quebec Sign Language, Plains Sign Language, and so on).

Unfortunately, many native Canadian (sign) languages are dying out; English and French are so prevalent that native people are losing language ties to their nations and deaf children born to hearing parents receive cochlear implants so that they can hear. There are, however, strategies for language revitalisation. Thanks to the Internet, speeches in native languages are recorded and transcribed and uploaded online. One of such examples is the Nuxalk language — one of its special features is that it contains long clusters of consonants that contain no vowels:

clhp'xwlhtlhplhhskwts' or xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ - depending on which spelling system is used

This means “then he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant”.

But even with major languages, some other problems might still occur. As the average life expectancy increases, the risk of Alzheimer’s disease also increases. Symptoms include loss of cognitive skills and dependence on others. In the later stages of the disease, patients do not remember their loved ones anymore nor do they possess the skills they used to have. This means that French speakers who moved to the English-language regions of Canada and acquire Alzheimer’s disease have problems in local emergency rooms because their staff don’t speak French and the patients forget how to speak English anymore. Because of this, centres with French-speaking staff were founded so that patients and nurses can communicate together.

Canadian officials are aware of Canada’s linguistic diversity and the need to preserve this national and cultural treasure. For these reasons, International Mother Language Day which promotes multilingualism is celebrated on 21 February and is observed in the country. The initiative can be found online with various resources for those who wish to celebrate their native tongues.