Читать книгу Language planning and policy in Quebec - Jakob Leimgruber - Страница 14

The co-existence, in what is now Canada, of the two languages French and English, goes back to the earliest times of European contact. The competing colonial interests in North America of the two European powers eventually resulted in a significant number of settlers from both language groups, supplemented, of course, with speakers of other languages. However, the long period of French rule, followed by a longer period of British rule, ensured that speakers of other languages converged to either one of these two main languages. The British North America Act 1867 made both languages official, thereby reinforcing this trend and preparing the road for future bilingual policies.

Nowadays, Canada has two official languages. This official bilingualism, however, is constrained by the country’s federal structure: individual provinces and territories may have their own language policies, whereas at the federal level, bilingualism may be implemented slightly differently across the country. The two levels of governance – federal and provincial – are crucial to the understanding of Canadian language policy, particularly so with respect to Quebec, the only province where French is the majority language.