Article published in:
40 Years of Bill 101 in Québec
Edited by François Vaillancourt
[Language Problems and Language Planning 43:2] 2019
► pp. 113–134

Quebec’s new language dynamic

French fading fast

| University of Ottawa

Census data are used to monitor the efficiency of Bill 101 in reorienting language shift more favourably for French. Immigration from former French colonies or Romance-language countries is shown to be the major factor driving the increase in the share of French in the assimilation of Allophones since 1991. The schooling provisions of Bill 101 are seen to play a significant supporting role in this respect, but not those promoting French as language of work. It is further shown that the corresponding trend towards a greater share for French in overall assimilation has become seriously compromised by a growing Anglicization of Francophones themselves, notably in the Montreal metropolitan area. The resulting consolidation of the superiority of English as language of assimilation in Quebec is seen to explain in large part the emergence of a new language dynamic since 2001, combining a record decline in relative weight of Quebec’s French-speaking majority with a mild but equally historic increase in weight of its English-speaking minority.

Keywords: language vitality, language shift, assimilation, language policy, Quebec, Bill 101
Article outline
  • Opening remarks
  • 1.The context before 1977
    • 1.1Mother tongue trends from 1951 to 1976
    • 1.2The vitality of French prior to Bill 101
  • 2.Trends shortly following Bill 101
    • 2.1Mother tongue trends from 1971 to 1986
    • 2.2Home language
    • 2.3Language shift
    • 2.4Knowledge of English and French
  • 3.Trends during 1991–2001
    • 3.1The 1991 and 2001 comparability breaks
    • 3.2Mother tongue trends from 1991 to 2001
    • 3.3Home language
    • 3.4Language shift
    • 3.5Knowledge of English and French
  • 4.From 2001 to 2016
    • 4.1Mother tongue
    • 4.2Home language
    • 4.3Language shift
    • 4.4Knowledge of English and French
    • 4.5Language of work
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.00038.cas
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