Languages Of Canada
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Languages Of Canada
A multitude of languages have always been spoken in Canada. Prior to Confederation, the territories that would become Canada were home to over 70 distinct languages across 12 or so language families. Today, a majority of those indigenous languages are still spoken; however, most are endangered and only about 0.6% of the Canadian population report an Indigenous language as their mother tongue. Since the establishment of the Canadian state, English and French have been the co-official languages and are, by far, the most spoken languages in the country today. According to the 2016 census, English and French are the mother tongues of 56.0% and 21.4% of Canadians respectively. In total, 86.2% of Canadians have a working knowledge of English, while 29.8% have a working knowledge of French. Under the ''Official Languages Act'' of 1969, both English and French have official status throughout Canada in respect of federal government services and most courts. All federal legislation is ena ...
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Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French (20.8%) or other languages (21.1%). In Quebec, 7.5% of the population are anglophone, as most of Quebec's residents are native speakers of Quebec French. Phonologically, Canadian and American English are classified together as North American English, emphasizing the fact that most cannot distinguish the typical accents of the two countries by sound alone. While Canadian English tends to be closer to American English in most regards,Labov, p. 222. it does possess elements from British English and some uniquely Canadian characteristics.Dollinger, Stefan (2008). "New-Dialect Formation in Canada". Amsterdam: Benjamins, . p. 25. The precise influence of American English, British English and other sources on Canadian English varieties has been t ...
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Atikamekw Language
Atikamekw (endonym: ''Atikamekw Nehiromowin'', literally "Atikamekw native language") is a variety of the Algonquian language Cree and the language of the Atikamekw people of southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is spoken by nearly all the Atikamekw, and therefore it is among the indigenous languages least threatened with extinction, according to some studies. Atikamekw is a language belonging to the Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi linguistic continuum, which is part of the Central branch of the Algonquian languages of the Algic family of languages. It is sometimes classified as a dialect of Cree. The Atikamekw reflex of Proto-Algonquian liquid ("L" sound) *''l'' is (spelled 'r'). The corresponding sound in other Cree dialects is , , , or (it is consistently one of these depending on the dialect). So, alternatively, it is also referred to as the "r-Dialect of Cree". Another way in which Atikamekw is distinctive among dialects of Cree is in having many loanwords from the Anishinaabe ...
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Ojibwe Language
Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian language family.Goddard, Ives, 1979.Bloomfield, Leonard, 1958. The language is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects. Dialects of Ojibwemowin are spoken in Canada, from southwestern Quebec, through Ontario, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, with outlying communities in Alberta;Nichols, John, 1980, pp. 1–2. and in the United States, from Michigan to Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a number of communities in North Dakota and Montana, as well as groups that removed to Kansas and Oklahoma during the Indian Removal period. While there is some var ...
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Blackfoot Language
The Blackfoot language, also called Siksiká (its denomination in ISO 639-3, ; Siksiká ik͡siká syllabics ), often anglicised as ', is an Algonquian language spoken by the Blackfoot or ''Niitsitapi'' people, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North America. There are four dialects, three of which are spoken in Alberta, Canada, and one of which is spoken in the United States: ''Siksiká'' (Blackfoot), to the southeast of Calgary, Alberta; ''Kainai'' (Blood, Many Chiefs), spoken in Alberta between Cardston and Lethbridge; ''Aapátohsipikani'' (Northern Piegan), to the west of Fort MacLeod which is Brocket (Piikani) and ''Aamsskáápipikani'' (Southern Piegan), in northwestern Montana. The name Blackfoot probably comes from the blackened soles of the leather shoes that the people wore.Gibson 2003 There is a distinct difference between Old Blackfoot (also called High Blackfoot), the dialect spoken by many older speakers, and New Blackfoot (also called Modern Blac ...
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Woods Cree
Woods Cree is an indigenous language spoken in Northern Manitoba, Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Alberta, Canada. It is part of the Cree language, Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi dialect continuum. The dialect continuum has around 116,000 speakers; the exact population of Woods Cree speakers is unknown, estimated between 2,600 and 35,000. Classification The Woods Cree language belongs to the Algic languages, Algic family, within the Algonquian languages, Algonquian subfamily, and the central Cree language, Cree–Montagnais and Naskapi, Montagnais–Naskapi language, Naskapi language group. Western Cree is a term used to refer to the non-palatized Cree dialects, consisting of Northern Plains Cree, Southern Plains Cree, Woods Cree, Rock Cree, Western Swampy Cree, Eastern Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and Atikamekw. Western Woods Cree is the term used to refer to the Cree languages west of the Hudson Bay. This includes the languages Rock Cree, western Swampy Cree, and Strongwoods or Bois ...
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Plains Cree Language
Plains Cree (endonym: ) is a dialect of the Algonquian language, Cree, which is the most populous Canadian indigenous language. Plains Cree is considered a dialect of the Cree-Montagnais language or a dialect of the Cree language that is distinct from the Montagnais language. Plains Cree is one of five main dialects of Cree in this second sense, along with Woods Cree, Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and Atikamekw. Although no single dialect of Cree is favored over another, Plains Cree is the one that is the most widely used. Out of the 116,500 speakers of the Cree language, the Plains Cree dialect is spoken by about 34,000 people primarily in Saskatchewan and Alberta but also in Manitoba and Montana. The number of people who can speak an Aboriginal language, such as Plains Cree, has increased. For example, in the 2016 census, 263,840 people could speak an Aboriginal language well enough to conduct a conversation. From 1996 to 2016, the total number of people who were able to speak ...
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Naskapi Language
Naskapi (also known as ᐃᔪᐤ ᐃᔨᒧᐅᓐ/Iyuw Iyimuun in the Naskapi language) is an Algonquian language spoken by the Naskapi in Quebec and Labrador, Canada. It is written in Eastern Cree syllabics. The term Naskapi is chiefly used to describe the language of the people living in the interior of Quebec and Labrador in or around Kawawachikamach, Quebec. Naskapi is a " y-dialect" that has many linguistic features in common with the Northern dialect of East Cree, and also shares many lexical items with the Innu language. Although there is a much closer linguistic and cultural relationship between Naskapi and Innu than between Naskapi and other Cree language communities, Naskapi remains unique and distinct from all other language varieties in the Quebec-Labrador peninsula. Phonology Each stop has voiced allophones as .MacKenzie, Marguerite. 1994. * Long vowels: , , * Short vowels: , , Orthography There are two writing systems used for Naskapi language. One ...
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Western Ojibwa Language
Western Ojibwa (also known as Nakawēmowin (ᓇᐦᑲᐌᒧᐎᓐ), ''Saulteaux'', and ''Plains Ojibwa'') is a Ojibwe dialects, dialect of the Ojibwe language, a member of the Algonquian languages, Algonquian language family. It is spoken by the Saulteaux, a subnation of the Ojibwa, Ojibwe people, in southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan, Canada, west of Lake Winnipeg. ''Saulteaux'' is generally used by its speakers, and ''Nakawēmowin'' is the general term in the language itself. Classification Genetically, Ojibwa is part of the Algonquian language family. This language family includes languages like Mi'kmaq language, Mi'kmaq, Abenaki language, Abenaki, Malecite-Passamaquoddy language, Malecite, Potawatomi language, Potawatomi, Delaware languages, Delaware, Innu language, Montagnais-Naskapi, Cree language, Cree, and Blackfoot language, Blackfoot in Canada. In the U.S., are languages such as Menominee language, Menomini, Fox language, Fox, Shawnee language, Shawnee and Chey ...
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Michif Language
Michif (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, French Cree) is one of the languages of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations (mainly Cree, Nakota, and Ojibwe) and fur trade workers of white ancestry (mainly French and Scottish Canadians). Michif emerged in the early 19th century as a mixed language and adopted a consistent character between about 1820 and 1840. The word Michif is from a variant pronunciation of the French word "Métis". Some Métis people prefer this word (Michif) to describe their nationality when speaking English and use it for anything related to Métis people, including any languages they happen to speak. According to the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI), the word "Michif", when used for a language, is used to describe at least three distinct types of speech. "Northern Michif" (in Saskatchewan) is essentially a variety of Cree with a small number of French loanwords. "Michif French" is a vari ...
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Miꞌkmaq Language
The Miꞌkmaq language (), or , is an Eastern Algonquian language spoken by nearly 11,000 Miꞌkmaq in Canada and the United States; the total ethnic Miꞌkmaq population is roughly 20,000. The native name of the language is , or (in some dialects). The word is a plural word meaning 'my friends' (singular Micmac Teaching Grammar. Delisle / Metallic 1976.); the adjectival form is . Phonology The phonemic inventory of Miꞌkmaq is shown below. Vowels Consonants The consonants of Miꞌkmaq can be divided into two groups: the obstruents , and the sonorants . The vowels of Miꞌkmaq are also counted as sonorants. The obstruents have a wide variety of pronunciations. When they are located word-initially or next to another obstruent, they are voiceless. However, when they are located between sonorants, they are voiced, and appear as . When the stops and affricate are located word-finally, they may be aspirated, and appear as . An example of each kind of pronunciation is given ...
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East Cree
East Cree, also known as (Eastern) James Bay Cree, and East Main Cree, is a group of Cree dialects spoken in Quebec, Canada on the east coast of lower Hudson Bay and James Bay, and inland southeastward from James Bay. Cree is one of the most spoken non-official aboriginal languages of Canada. Four dialects have been tentatively identified including the Southern Inland dialect (Iyiniw-Ayamiwin) spoken in Mistissini, Oujé-Bougoumou, Waswanipi, and Nemaska; the Southern Coastal dialect (Iyiyiw-Ayamiwin) spoken in Nemaska, Waskaganish, and Eastmain; the Northern Coastal Dialects (Iyiyiw-Ayimiwin), one spoken in Wemindji and Chisasibi and the other spoken in Whapmagoostui. The dialects are mutually intelligible, though difficulty arises as the distance between communities increases. East Cree is not considered an endangered language due to many young speakers who are using the language (Mela S.; Mali A. 2009). According to the 2011 Canada Census, there are currently 83,475 speakers o ...
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Innu-aimun
Innu-aimun or Montagnais is an Algonquian language spoken by over 10,000 Innu in Labrador and Quebec in Eastern Canada. It is a member of the Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum and is spoken in various dialects depending on the community. Literature Since the 1980s, Innu-aimun has had considerable exposure in the popular culture of Canada and France due to the success of the rock music band Kashtin and the later solo careers of its founders Claude McKenzie and Florent Vollant. Widely heard hit songs with Innu-language lyrics have included "" ("Girl"), "" ("My Childhood"), "" ("Story") and in particular "" ("Take care of yourself"), which appeared on soundtrack compilations for the television series '' Due South'' and the documentary ''Music for The Native Americans''. The lyrics of Akua Tuta are featured on over 50 websites, making this one of the most broadly accessible pieces of text written in any native North American language. Florent Vollant has also rendere ...
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