Language shift regarding Canada's French-speaking population: Data comparability and trends from 1971 to 2001

Abstract

The importance of establishing valid language shift trends regarding Canada's French-speaking populations and the historical comparability of Canadian census language data are considered. Based on an empirical theory, comparability breaks in language data since 1971 are identified and evaluated. The proportions of Canadian-born persons of French mother tongue, and of French home language, to the total population of relevant birth regions are then adjusted separately, to reduce the impact of comparability breaks. The resulting language shift trends regarding the French-speaking populations are portrayed using language vitality indices for reference cohorts. It is found that for the whole of Canada, and for the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, the vitality of French among the Canadian-born rebounded in 2001, after consistently decreasing from 1971 to 1991. It is also observed that for other regions, the vitality of French went down continuously, indicating a sustained and aggravated assimilation over the past 30 years.