French language in Canada

is the mother tongue of approximately 7.8 million Canadians according to the 2021 Canadian census. Under the 1969 Official Languages Act, French is recognized as an official language of Canada alongside English and both have equal status at the federal government level. Most native Francophones in Canada live in Quebec, the only province where French is the majority and the sole official language. In 2016, 29.8 percent of Canadians reported being able to conduct a conversation in French; this number drops to 10.3 percent of Canadians when excluding Quebec, since most of Canada outside this territory is Anglophone.
In Quebec, 85 percent of residents are native francophones and 95 percent speak French as their first or second language. About one million native francophones live in other provinces, most notably the neighbouring province of New Brunswick, where about a third of its residents are francophones; New Brunswick is Canada's only officially bilingual province. There is also a large community in Ontario, mainly concentrated in Quebec-bordering regions to the east of Ottawa and in Northeastern Ontario. Elsewhere in Canada, there are pockets of smaller francophone communities throughout including in Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
The language is mainly spoken by Canadians of French descent, a legacy of the French colonization of America, and these communities maintain a distinct society and culture from the mainly anglophone rest of Canada. Outside of Quebec, where otherwise English is the de facto working language, francophone minority communities retain the right to French-language primary and secondary education as guaranteed by Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They also, in most territories, retain official rights for provincial level French-language services and institutions through constitutional provisions or statutory provisions in the legal system. French speakers in Canada have been the subject of linguistic discrimination and have historically faced subjugation through laws such as Regulation 17. This has led to sometimes uneasy relations with the anglophone Canadian majority.

History and evolution

16th century

In 1524, the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, working for Italian bankers in France, explored the American coast from Florida to Cape Breton Island. In 1529, Verrazzano mapped a part of the coastal region of the North American continent under the name Nova Gallia. In 1534, King Francis I of France sent Jacques Cartier to explore previously unfamiliar lands. Cartier found the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, sealed an alliance with the local people and obtained passage to go farther. During his second expedition, Cartier came upon the Saint Lawrence River, a path into the heart of the continent. However, Cartier failed to establish a permanent colony in the area, and war in Europe kept France from further colonization through the end of the 16th century.

17th century

At the beginning of the 17th century, French settlements and private companies were established in the area that is now eastern Canada. In 1605, Pierre Dugua with Samuel de Champlain founded Port Royal, and in 1608, Champlain founded Quebec City. In 1642, the foundation of Ville Marie, the settlement that would eventually become Montreal, completed the occupation of the territory.
In 1634, Quebec contained 200 settlers who were principally involved in the fur trade. The trade was profit-making and the city was on the point of becoming more than a mere temporary trading post.
In 1635, Jesuits founded the secondary school of Quebec for the education of children. In 1645, the Compagnie des Habitants was created, uniting the political and economic leaders of the colony. French was the language of all the non-native people.
In 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, which had legalized freedom of religion of the Reformed Church, caused the emigration from France of 300,000 Huguenots to other countries of Europe and to North America.

18th century

With the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the British began their domination of eastern North America, some parts of which had been controlled by the French. The British took mainland Nova Scotia in 1713. Present-day Maine fell to the British during Father Rale's War, while present-day New Brunswick fell after Father Le Loutre's War. In 1755 the majority of the French-speaking inhabitants of Nova Scotia were deported to the Thirteen Colonies. After 1758, they were deported to England and France. The Treaty of Paris completed the British takeover, removing France from Canadian territory, except for Saint Pierre and Miquelon at the entrance of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
The French language was relegated to second rank as far as trade and state communications were concerned. Out of necessity, the educated class learned the English language and became progressively bilingual, but the great majority of the French-speaking inhabitants continued to speak only French, and their population increased. Anglicization of the French population failed, and it became obvious that coexistence was required. In 1774, Parliament passed the Quebec Act, restoring French civil laws and abrogating the Test Act, which had been used to suppress Catholicism.

Canada as a federal state

In 1791, Parliament repealed the Quebec Act and gave the king authority to divide the Canadian colony into two new provinces: Upper Canada, which later became Ontario, and Lower Canada, which became Quebec.
In 1867, three colonies of British North America agreed to form a federal state, which was named Canada. It was composed of four provinces:

Ontario, formerly Upper Canada
Quebec, formerly Lower Canada
Nova Scotia
New Brunswick, former Acadian territory

In Quebec, French became again the official language; until then it was the vernacular language but with no legal status.

Dialects and varieties

As a consequence of geographical seclusion and as a result of British conquest, the French language in Canada presents three different but related main dialects. They share certain features that distinguish them from European French.
All of these dialects mix, to varying degrees, elements from regional languages and folk dialects spoken in France at the time of colonization. For instance, the origins of Quebec French lie in 17th- and 18th-century Parisian French, influenced by folk dialects of the early modern period and other regional languages that French colonists had brought to New France. The three dialects can also be historically and geographically associated with three of the five former colonies of New France – Canada, Acadia and Terre-Neuve – which were settled by people from different regions of France.
In addition, there is a mixed language known as Michif, which is based on Cree and French. It is spoken by Métis communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as within adjacent areas of the United States.
Immigration after World War II has brought francophone immigrants from around the world, and with them other French dialects.

Francophones across Canada

Francophone Canadians or French-speaking Canadians are citizens of Canada who speak French, and sometimes refers only to those who speak it as their first language. In 2021, 10,669,575 people in Canada or 29.2% of the total population spoke French, including 7,651,360 people or 20.8% who declared French as their mother tongue.

Distribution

Six million French-speaking Canadians reside in Quebec, where they constitute the main linguistic group, and another one million reside in other Canadian regions. The largest portion of Francophones outside Quebec live in Ontario, followed by New Brunswick, but they can be found in all provinces and territories. The presence of French in Canada comes mainly from French colonization in America that occurred in the 16th to 18th centuries.
Francophones in Canada are not all of French Canadian or French descent, particularly in the English-speaking provinces of Ontario and Western Canada. A few Canadians of French Canadian or French origin are also not Francophone.
Unlike Francophones in Quebec, who generally identify simply as Québécois, Francophones outside Quebec generally identify as Francophone Canadians, the exception being Acadians, who constitute their own cultural group and live in Acadia, in the Maritime provinces. New Brunswick is Canada's only officially-bilingual province. All three territories include French among their official languages.

Province/territory	Group name	Principal regions	French as mother tongue	Percentage
Quebec	Québécois	Regions of Quebec	8,214,000	85%
Ontario	Franco-Ontarians	Sudbury / Northeastern Ontario, Ottawa / Eastern Ontario, and a number of Francophone communities throughout Ontario	561,160	4.4%
New Brunswick	Acadians & Brayons	Madawaska County, Restigouche County, Gloucester County, Kent County, Westmorland County	234,410	31.6%
Alberta	Franco-Albertans	Edmonton, Calgary, St. Paul, Bonnyville, Lac la Biche, Peace River, Falher	81,085	2.2%
British Columbia	Franco-Columbians	Greater Vancouver, Victoria	70,755	1.6%
Manitoba	Franco-Manitobans	Winnipeg, Eastman Region, Pembina Valley Region, Central Plains Region	47,680	3.8%
Nova Scotia	Acadians	Digby County, Richmond County, Inverness County, Yarmouth County	34,585	3.8%
Saskatchewan	Fransaskois	Regina, Saskatoon, Gravelbourg, Albertville, Zénon-Park, St. Isidore-de-Bellevue, Willow Bunch	18,935	1.9%
Prince Edward Island	Acadians	Prince County	5,685	4.1%
Newfoundland and Labrador	Franco-Newfoundlanders	Port au Port Peninsula	3,015	0.6%
Yukon	Franco-Yukonnais	Whitehorse, Dawson City	1,630	4.8%
Northwest Territories	Franco-Ténois	Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Smith	1,175	2.9%
Nunavut	Franco-Nunavois	Iqaluit	616	1.4%