French language in Canada
The provincial governments of Ontario, New Brunswick, and Manitoba are required to provide services in French where provision is justified by the number of francophones.
Regardless of the local status of French or English, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires all provinces and territories to provide primary and secondary education to their official-language minorities.
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 (New France).
Cartier found the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, sealed an alliance with the local people and obtained passage to go farther.
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.
[6][7] At the beginning of the 17th century, French settlements and private companies were established in the area that is now eastern Canada.
In 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV (1654–1715), which had legalized freedom of religion of the Reformed Church, caused the emigration from France of 300,000 Huguenots (French Calvinists) to other countries of Europe and to North America.
[9] 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.
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.
In 1867, three colonies of British North America agreed to form a federal state, which was named Canada.
[11][12][13] 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.
[3] However, many of the services the provincial government provides are available in English for the sizeable anglophone population of the province (notably in Montreal).
The colonists living in what are now the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were principally constituted of Bretons, Normans, and Basques.
The Acadian community is concentrated in primarily rural areas along the border with Quebec and the eastern coast of the province.
In addition to New Brunswick, Acadian French has speakers in portions of mainland Quebec and in the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.
The dialect contains, among other features, the alveolar r and the pronunciation of the final syllable in the plural form of the verb in the third person.
Acadia is the only place outside Jersey (a Channel Island close to mainland Normandy) where Jèrriais speakers can be found.
[17] French is the native language of over 500,000 persons in Ontario, representing 4.7 percent of the province's population.
Francophone Ontarians form part of a larger cultural group known as Franco-Ontarians, of whom only 60 percent still speak the language at home.
Ontario law requires that the provincial Legislative Assembly operate in both English and French (individuals can speak in the Assembly in the official language of their choice), and requires that all provincial statutes and bills be made available in both English and French.
Residents of Ottawa, Toronto, Windsor, Sudbury and Timmins can receive services from their municipal government in the official language of their choice.
[6][21] Manitoba also has a significant Franco-Manitoban community, centred especially in the St. Boniface area of Winnipeg, but also in numerous surrounding towns.
