The protection of French will be one of the priorities of the Coalition avenir Québec’s second mandate. “It’s a matter of survival,” François Legault said Wednesday during his inaugural address, citing data on the use of French at home. A vision that contests the co-spokesperson of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “It’s not up to the Prime Minister [de] manage what language the world speaks by bordering [ses] children at night! However, all the indicators show a decline of French in Quebec, according to demographer Marc Termote: “We can no longer say that it is because of the indicator we have chosen, because the decline is general. So there is reason to be concerned. » Mother tongue, language of use and work: how to find your way around? Overview by Laurianne Croteau and Dave Noël.
Native language
Mother tongue has long been a barometer of the linguistic situation in Quebec. The indicator unequivocally reveals that French as a mother tongue is constantly decreasing in Quebec, which has gone from a rate of 82% in 1991 to 75% in 2021. In Montreal, this rate is decreasing to 59%, mainly because of the high proportion occupied by non-official mother tongues (25%, compared to 15% in Quebec as a whole) and Anglophones (11%, compared to 7% in Quebec).
However, this data would be less and less relevant because of the importance of immigration, specifies Jean-Pierre Corbeil, from the Department of Sociology at Laval University. “Those who have French as their mother tongue are mostly of French-Canadian ancestry and their fertility rate is very low, while 70% of newcomers have a language other than French or English,” explains the specialist.
Marc Termote shares his colleague’s opinion on the value of this indicator. “It refers to the language of early childhood and, for the most part, it does not reflect what is happening today. It is an indicator that can be used, but with caution, ”underlines the specialist. Especially since the legislator can only intervene in the public space.
Use of French at home
On the contrary, the language spoken at home is an essential clue, according to Marc Termote. “It is the one we are talking about today, at the time of the census. For a demographer, this is all the more important since this language almost always becomes the language [d’usage] children, he said. When we make forecasts for the future, it’s still fundamental! »
However, Statistics Canada data has revealed very few fluctuations in French at home since the end of the last century. Its use has gone from 82% of Quebecers in 1991 to 78% last year. However, this proportion increases to 85.5% when the question is extended to the use of French “at least regularly” at home.
We must also put the importance of this indicator into perspective, according to Jean-Pierre Corbeil, in a context where several languages coexist under the same roof. “There are plenty of people who come from Africa and who will speak Arabic most often at home, but French is in all spheres of their life outside,” explains the sociologist.
Main language used at work
This indicator is “relatively solid”, according to Jean-Pierre Corbeil. “We know that the majority of people who say they use the language regularly do so on a daily basis. If a person answers “only English” or “only French”, we know that this is the language that is spoken most often. On the other hand, if the person says that he uses French and English, the next question [posée lors du recensement] is “Which one do you use most often?”. »
In Montreal, 70% of workers talk mainly in French, compared to 21% for English, and the others (8.3%) make comparable use of the country’s two official languages. In 20 years, French has lost nearly 3 percentage points in metropolitan workplaces.
The most recent data would be rather encouraging, according to Mr. Corbeil: 85% of Quebecers say they use French most often around the coffee machine. “Obviously, the language of work does not affect the entire population, continues the specialist, it only concerns the working population, those who have a job. »
Language knowledge
Even if the other indicators point to a decline in French in Quebec, the one on knowledge of the language remains stable. Regardless of their mother tongue, 94% of Quebecers can speak and understand French, according to the most recent census… exactly the same proportion as at the beginning of the century.
“We must not reject this indicator out of hand, argues Jean-Pierre Corbeil. To be able to serve clients in local services, one must have knowledge of the language. However, there has been an increase of almost 60,000 unilingual English workers over the past five years in Montreal. Of course, not being able to carry on a conversation necessarily translates into an inability to speak the language at work. »
For Marc Termote, knowledge of French would be greatly overvalued. “It’s very subjective, either you can or you can’t, it’s all or nothing. Is it just to be able to say “Hello-Hi” at the convenience store? »