Allophone (Quebec)
Allophone (from ancient Greek ἄλλος állos , "different" and φωνή phōnē "voice", so "different sounding") is a sociolinguistic term used in the Canadian province of Québec (to a lesser extent in other provinces) . It describes an immigrant who speaks another language, i.e. a person who has neither of the two official Canadian languages, French and English, as their mother tongue . The term is in contrast to “anglophone” (English speaking) and “francophon” (French speaking). The native speakers of indigenous American languages (so-called autochthons) are not seen as allophones .
Concept history
| Allophone population of Québec by mother tongue (2001) |
||
|---|---|---|
| language | individually | multiple |
| Italian | 124,695 | 6,065 |
| Arabic | 76,285 | 10,245 |
| Spanish | 70,100 | 4,825 |
| Greek | 41,980 | 1,755 |
| Haitian | 34,885 | 5,710 |
| Chinese | 33,490 | 705 |
| Portuguese | 33,360 | 1,455 |
| Vietnamese | 21,635 | 1,125 |
| German | 17,690 | 995 |
| Polish | 17.160 | 685 |
| Armenian | 13,935 | 405 |
The word "allophone" became widespread during the Silent Revolution of the 1960s, when French-Canadian society sought to integrate the immigrants who traditionally joined Québec's Anglophone society. With the birth rate falling sharply, the integration of immigrants appeared to be critical to the survival of French-speaking Québec. Demographers introduced the category of allophones to capture the integration of immigrants into French or English-speaking society. “Allophone” is originally a typical Quebecism , but is also increasingly used in Belgium (especially in Brussels ) and other multilingual French-speaking countries.
Demographics
Allophones make up a growing proportion of Québec's population and are the main source of the province's population growth. This reflects increasing immigration, the declining birth rate of the long-established French and English-speaking population as well as a shift in immigration flows to Asian and American countries. In 1971 the proportion of allophones in Québec was 6.6%, by 2001 the proportion rose to 10.0%. Between 1991 and 1996, the number of allophones exceeded that of English speakers. The number of allophones starting to speak French at home is increasing: in 2001, 20.4% of allophones said they spoke French most often at home, compared with 16.6% in 1996 and 15.4% in 1991. The majority of allophones live in the Montreal metropolitan area .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Un Canadien sur cinq est allophone en 2006. In: Census 2006. Statistics Canada , April 3, 2009, accessed on September 4, 2011 (French).
- ^ Claude Bélanger: Allophone (s). In: Quebec History. Marianopolis College, 1999, accessed September 4, 2011 .
- ↑ Langue maternelle détaillée. In: Census 2001. Statistics Canada, March 9, 2010, accessed September 4, 2011 (French).
- ^ Allophones: the principal source de la croissance demographique dans les plus grandes provinces. In: Census 2001. Statistics Canada, accessed September 4, 2011 (French).
- ↑ L'usage du français à la maison progresse dans la communauté urbaine de Montréal. In: Census 2001. Statistics Canada, accessed September 4, 2011 (French).