This July 1st
2017, we will celebrate the 150 Anniversary of Canada. My gift to this great
country is this article where I highlight the relations that exist between
Canada and Languages, in 10 interesting points. Some points may be updated once
the data from Census 2016 regarding languages is released. Here are my points.
1.- Canada has 2
official languages: English and French. This means that both languages enjoy
equal status and at a federal level, services must be available in both
languages. In the parliament, in both, the House of Commons and in the Senate,
discussions can occur in English and/or French and the legislation must be
enacted in both languages. Federal Administration and Federal courts are also
bilingual. But bilingualism in Canada does not mean that provinces must be
Bilingual, in fact, only one in 10 provinces have official Bilingual status:
New Brunswick. The province of Quebec is the only one that has French as its
official language but offers some services in English. Most of the other
provinces, although are mainly Anglophones, offer also some services in French.
Bilingualism in Canada does not require individuals to be Bilingual, in Fact,
out of more than 33 million people who live in Canada according to the
2011 census, only 5.8 Million are bilingual in English and French. There are
more than 4 million people in Canada who speak French but do not know English.
Most of French only speakers and most of the people who speak English and
French live in Quebec.
2.- There are more
than 60 aboriginal languages in Canada. According to 2011 Census, there are
aprox. 213.000 Speakers of Aboriginal languages. The 3 most spoken languages
are Cree, with more than 83.000 speakers, Inuktitut with more than 34.000 and
Ojibway with more than 19.000. In the page of the University of Ottawa for
language management in Canada, https://slmc.uottawa.ca/
, it can be read that aboriginal languages in Canada are allocated in 8
linguistic groups, being the most common the Algonquian family, Na-Dene Family
and Eskimo-Aleut, This last is considering the number of speakers of those
languages. There are 9 aboriginal languages that enjoy official status in
Northwest Territories. Inuktitut, an Eskimo language, has official status in
N.T and in Nunavut. Most of aboriginal languages have recognition in the
Provinces.
3.- The official
motto of Canada is in Latin, “A mari usque ad mare”, which is
translated as “From Sea to Sea”. In the website of the Canadian
Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/
there is a page where this motto is explained. This Phrase was taken from the
Bible’s Psalm 72:8, that in that time it was mainly read in Latin. The whole
phrase is “Et dominabitur a mari usque ad mare, et a flumine usque ad
terminos terrae”. This was
chosen as the motto of the Dominion of Canada in the act that was drafted in
1867. But is not only the nation who has chosen a motto in Latin. From the 8
provinces who also have a motto, 6 of them chose one in Latin. As an example, I
mention my own province, Ontario, whose motto is “Ut Incepit Fidelis sic
Permanet” translated as “Loyal she began, Loyal she remains”.
4.- Canada’s National
anthem, O Canada! Was first played on June 24th 1880 and proclaimed
to be the national anthem on July 1st 1980. It has an official lyric
in English and another in French. Not many people know that both lyrics do not
have the same meaning. The original lyrics were written in French by Canadian
lawyer Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. We still have the same lyrics today. For
reasons we are not going to write about, the lyrics in English were changing
throughout the years. There is also an official Bilingual version that combines
phrases from both official lyrics in English and French. There are also non official
versions in other languages that have even been sung in public events. In the
website http://adamhill.ca/ocanada/
we can see translations of the lyrics of O Canada in many other languages,
starting from aboriginal languages like Inuktitut, Cree or Mi’kmaq, to other
languages spoken by immigrants like Italian, German, Ukrainian, Tagalog and a
more recent translation in Arabic. It is curious that most of the translations
of O Canada, are based in the English version. The Polish translation is almost
the same as in English, while the Ukrainian and Arabic versions are still based
in the English lyric but the final lyrics are different. There is also a Latin
Lyrics, based in the French version.
5.- Being bilingual is
not a requirement to be Prime Minister of Canada. However, after the government
of the Right Honourable Lester Pearson, the tendency has been that all Prime
Ministers were able to communicate in Both English and French. Canada had had Prime Ministers who were
either Native speakers of English or French, who were English only speakers or
who were fluent in both. Wilfred Laurier was the first French Native speaker
and the first Bilingual Prime Minister of the country. None French only speaker
has been in this position, and this is explained because the majority of MP in
the Canadian parliament are Anglophones and in this position the person needs
to lead a majority. All the Prime Ministers had had a diverse cabinet with
members of both communities. It is also interesting to note that the first 2
Prime Ministers of Canada, John MacDonald and Alexander Mackenzie, both were
born in Scotland, and their mother tongue was probably not English, by Gaelic.
6.- Some Aboriginal
languages in Canada use their own script system, that is not used in any other
country. This system is syllabic and was invented by English Missionary James
Evans. After he was ordained as Methodist Minister, he went to preach to
Aborigines who spoke Ojibway and Cree. In www.proel.org
can be read the history of this script. He tried to translate the Bible to
those languages using Latin script, but those who tried to read what he wrote
had a very hard time understanding it cause those languages has very different
systems of sounds that are hardly compatible with Latin, the use of long vowels
are common and some words are finally very long. Then he created a script base
on syllables based on Geometry, very easy to learn. The same symbol can be
rotated resulting in same consonant with a different vowel. As an example, ˂ =
“pa”, ˃ = “pu”, ˄ = “pi” and ˅ =
“pe”. Symbols oriented to the right are
accompanied by an “a” sound. If it is oriented Down then It has an “I” sound,
and so. This same system was later adapted to languages such as Inuktitut and
Chipewyan. Inuktitut is the language that uses it the most.
Some Examples:
English Cree Inuktitut
-Welcome ᑕᑕᐊᐧᐤ Tatawaw ᑐᓐᖓᓱᒋᓪ Tunngasugit
-How are you? ᑕᓂᓯ Tanisi ᖃᓄᐃᑉᐱᑦ Qanuippit
-Thank You ᑭᓇᓈᐢᑯᒥᑎᐣ Kinanaaskumitin ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ Qujannamiik
-Sea ᑭᐦᒋᑲᒥ Kichikami ᑕᕆᐅᖅ Tariuq
-Polar Bear ᐋᐸᐢᐠ Wapask ᓇᓄᖅ Nanuq
In http://www.translitteration.com/transliteration/en/inuktitut/canadian-aboriginal-syllabics/
there is a very easy to use keyboard to write in Inuktitut. The words used here
were searched in http://www.tusaalanga.ca/glossary.
In the page http://www.creedictionary.com/ you
can find meanings of words in Cree and a keyboard in Cree with different
options.
7.- Francophone
Canadians are famous for speaking a different kind of French, very often not
really intelligible with French Speakers more used to the way it is spoken in
France. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, there are many variants of
French language spoken in Canada, being the main ones the French spoken in
Quebec and the one spoken by Acadians. There are other variants like Metis and
Madawaskan. Although there are differences between Metropolitan French and
Canadian French, they can understand each other by written and when they speak
formally. It is when they speak informally when they may not understand each
other. Canadian French has adopted many English words from the British and the
USA. We can find words like “Chum” for friend, “Blonde”
for Girl friend, “Pentoute” like saying “Pas du tout”
also translated as “Not at all” In Quebec. The word “tu” instead
of “vous” is used much more than in France. There are much more
differences, some of them even go to the Grammar. Because I am not an expert in
this topic, I prefer to refer my readers to other pages where they can find
more info, one of them is https://www.talkinfrench.com/canadian-french-difference/
8.- Canadian English
exists as a separate variety of English, with its pronunciation and Vocabulary.
But its features still are similar to the English spoken in the USA and in the
UK. About the spelling…..“Let’s summarize: Wearing my pyjamas, I
am sitting in my cozy grey sofa reading the Canadian Encyclopedia.
In the centre of the organization, the panellists criticize
the colours used for the presentation.
9.- According to the
page http://www12.statcan.gc.ca from
Statistics Canada, there are more than 200 languages spoken in Canada, and the
source of this information is the Census 2011. But this page also shows a very
interesting table where the languages of the immigrants are classified by
family of languages. In 2011, there were 3 families that already had more than
a million speakers in Canada. They were: Romance languages, with almost 1.2
million speakers of languages that include Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and
other languages not mention like Romanian and Catalan; Indo-Iranian languages
with almost 1.18 million speakers of languages that include Persian, Urdu,
Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati and many other languages not mention like Pashtu for
example; Chinese languages, the biggest non Indo-European family of languages
spoken in Canada, with more than 1.112 million speakers.
10.- Do you need a
certified translation to or from a language like Assyrian, Gagauz, Twi, Quechua,
Tahitian, Tibetan, Ewe and many other? You
do not need to go that far. Come to Toronto! One of the most multilingual
cities in the world and where there are interpretation and translation services
in many languages you would not expect. Toronto, a city where anything related
with languages is possible.
Oh Canada! Our Home
and Native Land! The true North strong and free!
My Best wishes for a
very special Anniversary! Success and Happiness for those who live in this
country! Many Dreams Become True! Happy
Canada Day!
O Canada! Ton histoire est une épopée, Des plus brillants exploits!
Que ce jour t’apporte
toutes les choses et les souvenirs qui te font sourire ! Bonne fête du
Canada !
ᐆ ᑲᓇᑕ! ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊ
ᓇᓪᓕᐅᓂᖅᓯᐅᑦᓯᐊᕆᑦ!
ᐆ ᑲᓇᑕ! ᒥᔪ ᓂᐦᑕᐃᐧᑭᐃᐧᐣ ᑭᓯᑲᐤ
¡Canadá! ¡Tierra de
Libertad! ¡Tierra que Amamos!
Mis Mejores deseos para ti por este Aniversario tan especial y
el Futuro será aún mejor!
O Canada! Patria d’amor, glorioso
il tuo cantar!
Tanti Auguri! Buon Anniversario!
کانادا! کشور بزرگ!
کشور عشق! زادروزت خجسته باد! شاد وپیروز
باشید!
صد هزارا ن هزار آفرین باد
加拿大！ 祝你的生日充满欢乐!
О Канада!
Кохана вітчизно! Щиро вас вітаємо з день ювілей! многая літа!
O Kanado! Mi kore Salutas vin por
vian 150-an jariĝon. Miaj bondezirojn! Sanon kaj sukcesojn por ĉiuj ke loĝas en
la lando.
