Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press Published Thursday, August 11, 2022, 5:57 a.m. EDT Last updated Thursday, August 11, 2022, 5:57 a.m. EDT
A new study finds that more Canadians report a strong attachment to their primary language than to other markers of identity, including the country they call home.
The survey, conducted by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies, found that 88 percent of respondents reported a strong sense of attachment to their primary language, while 85 percent reported the same for Canada.
The greater importance of language was particularly noticeable among Francophones and indigenous peoples.
Reports of strong attachment to primary language exceed all other markers of identity, including geography, ethnic group, racial identity, and religious affiliation.
Of the identity markers examined in the study, Canadians were the least likely to report a strong sense of attachment to a religious group.
Canadian Studies Association president Jack Jedwab said the survey results underscore the important role language plays in people’s identity.
“I think a lot of Canadians might be surprised by that, who might not intuitively think that language is as important as other attention-grabbing expressions of identity,” he said.
Jedwab said people should be careful not to downplay the importance of language given how important language can be to a community. He said that language has the dual function of facilitating communication and being an expression of culture.
“There can be a tendency for people to downplay the importance of other languages,” he said.
“Historically we have not paid enough attention to indigenous languages, which we are now seeing our federal government invest significantly in trying to help maintain and revitalize indigenous languages,” he added.
The online survey was completed by 1,764 Canadians between July 8 and 10. No margin of error can be determined because online surveys are not considered truly random samples.
For Canadians whose primary language is French, 91 percent report a strong sense of attachment to their language, compared to 67 percent who report the same feeling for Canada.
In Quebec, more people report a strong sense of attachment to their primary language than to the province.
Only 37 percent of Canadians report a strong sense of attachment to a religious group.
The findings come ahead of the latest release of Statistics Canada’s census of the country’s languages, due Wednesday.
Jedwab said the census announcement will be particularly important for Quebec, where there is close monitoring of the state of the French language compared to other languages.
Leger’s survey also found that more than half of French-speaking Quebecers say they know English well enough to hold a conversation. This contrasts with less than one in 10 English respondents in all provinces except Quebec and New Brunswick who say they can hold a conversation in French.
According to the latest census, Anglo-French bilingualism rose from 17.5% in 2011 to 17.9% in 2016, reaching the highest rate of bilingualism in Canadian history. Over 60 percent of this growth in bilingualism is attributable to Quebec.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 11, 2022.
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