The impact of multilingualism on spoken French in Canada

Canada is a multicultural country whose bilingual status recognizes two official language communities, one francophone and the other anglophone. Yet, the two pan-Canadian communities are both highly diverse, each containing hundreds of thousands of people whose mother tongue is neither French nor English.

Nicole Rosen, Canada Research Chair in Language Interactions in the Department of Linguistics studies Canada’s vast linguistic diversity and works with organizations such as the Conseil jeunesse provincial (provincial couth council) of Manitoba and the BC Métis Federation to address the language rights of groups such as recent immigrants and First Nations, Métis and Inuit children. She also focuses on Manitoba’s diverse population to spark innovation in the study of past and present interactions among official; heritage; and First Nations, Métis and Inuit languages.

“What interests me most is understanding the interactions between people and languages that are in close proximity to each other,” she says. “My research aims to discover what language tells us about the interactions between people, but also how language changes as a result of these interactions. This relationship goes both ways.” Rosen says this could include vocabulary, expressions, pronunciations and overall sounds producing distinctive accents that coexist harmoniously. 

Rosen highlights bird species that borrow sounds from surrounding birds, singing differently depending on their location, like a dialect. “We never say that birds sing badly or that they should express themselves differently. It should be the same for the diversity of accents. It is so lovely to hear these differences that reflect the mosaic of people,” she concludes.

To read the full research profile, please follow the link to the Government of Canada.

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