Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, an allophone is a resident whose

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

is neither French nor English. The term parallels '' anglophone'' and '' francophone'', which designate people whose mother tongues are English and French, respectively. Some sources do not consider native speakers of

Indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigen ...

s to be allophones.

Origin of term

The word "allophone" (from Greek "speaking a foreign tongue") is formed from the Greek roots (), meaning "other", and (), meaning "sound" or "voice". The term became popularized in the 1960s, during the Quiet Revolution, as

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

society in Quebec sought to integrate immigrants, most of whom had traditionally integrated into the English-speaking community. As integrating immigrants was deemed essential to assure the survival of French-speaking Quebec in light of plummeting birth rates, demographers devised this category to monitor the integration of immigrants into French- and English-speaking communities. Because allophones often adopt English, French, or both languages at home or learn one language before another, they can be grouped into English or French communities based on home language or first official language learned.

Demographics

In 2006, 20% of the population of Canada was allophone.

Ontario

In 2021, 20.7% of the population of

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

was allophone.

Quebec

Allophones constitute an increasing share of the Quebec population and are the main source of population increase in the province, reflecting both increased levels of immigration, declining birthrates among established anglophone and francophone populations, and a shift in immigration from English-speaking countries to Asia and the Americas. In 1971, allophones were 6.6% of the population. By 2001, this had increased to 10.0%. Speakers of Arabic, Spanish, and Haitian Creole experienced the greatest growth from 1996 to 2001. Increasing numbers of allophones speak French at home: about 20.4% of allophones in the province reported that they spoke French most often at home in 2001, compared with 16.6% in 1996, and 15.4% in 1991. Most allophones live in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec's largest metropolitan area. They tend to migrate out of the province: between 1996 and 2001, over 19,170 migrated to other provinces, 18,810 of those to Ontario. Most allophone students in Quebec attend francophone schools.

References

{{reflist

External links