Why is quebec french speaking

But according to Concordia University student-turned-committed Quebec resident Lucy, who moved from Ontario about ten years ago with decent but not perfect French, you may still end up feeling a bit cut off from local culture. I speak to my landlord in French, I do my business in French.

Chase, a McGill graduate student who moved from Alberta to Montreal for several years, would agree, although in part due to the McGill bubble, his French proficiency remained relatively low. While there are quite a few potential exceptions, the employer still has to prove that their staff really needs to speak English if anybody complains about it.

This means Quebec can be a tough place for a casual move like a working holiday or gap year, because many casual jobs like bartending, or working in a restaurant, are completely off the table. For example, the vowel sound in words like droit and froid is still pronounced in Quebec as it was in 16th and 17 century France. Canadian French may sound older in some ways, but it also uses more Anglicisms than standard French.

Anglicisms are words and phrases taken from English. These may be English words adopted without alteration, English words given a French spelling or French suffix, or English phrases and idioms directly translated into French. Another source of differences between Canadian French and European French is that Canadian French has much more vocabulary derived from First Nations languages. Canadian French and European French also have some variations in grammar, both spoken and written. Here are just a few examples:.

There are also differences in vocabulary and slang, some of which can prove embarrassing. For example, if you ask a French dad about his gosses you would be asking about his kids. As you might expect, Canadian French and European French also have some notable differences in pronunciation.

Quand est-ce que vous venez, vous autres? Some expressions mirror the concerns of colonists from Northwest France, such as the use of maritime vocabulary.

The local climate has also inspired some fitting figures of speech, such as Accroche ta tuque avec une broche! Fix your beanie with a buckle! This is a warning to be alert, buckle up or get ready to run. If Jacques Cartier was unsuccessful in establishing a permanent colony, Champlain was a great success. It is odd that the French and Indian War actually had to do much more about relations between the French and the British.

It was the Treaty of that ended the French and Indian War. They were afraid, due to the proximity and already well-formed alliance that the Americans would now help the inhabitants of New France rebel against British rule. The use of French was strengthened with the Official Languages Act which mandated all federally provided services must be available to citizens in both French and English. This law is the cornerstone of the " official bilingualism " in Canada and it gives French the same status as English throughout the country.

It enforced the use of French in every part of a resident's life, including signs, documents and marketing for businesses, labor laws, public service agencies, legislatures, the courts, and schools. While many of the issues related to the desire to separate are based on division of powers and varying views on the efficacy of federalism, the desire to preserve the French speaking majority and their language and culture is a key tenet of the movement.