Canadian French

Since the enactment of the Official Languages ​​Act in 1969, is French in addition to English Canada equal official language at the federal level. The provinces can independently decide which languages ​​are used in the area of their competence. French is the only official language in Quebec, while New Brunswick is an officially bilingual province. In the other provinces, there are provisions that permit the francophone minorities such as the establishment of a Francophone school system, etc..

Due to the large distance to the rest of the Francophonie, the French in Canada differs significantly from the European French. But even within the French in Canada, there are several variants:

• Quebec French speaking francophone residents of Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada.
• The Acadians in the Maritimes ( maritime provinces ) New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Acadian speak French.
• In Newfoundland neufundländisches French is still spoken sporadically in addition to the Acadian French nowadays rather common.
• Michif, a mixture of French and Cree, is the language of the Métis.
• There are also many variants such as the Haitian or French from France, which are spoken by immigrants of recent times.

6.4 million Canadians (24% of total population) use French as their first language ( Francophone Canadians ). A total of 8.9 million Canadians (31%) speak fluent French ( 1996 census ).