Canadian French

Canadian French (French: français canadien) is the various varieties of a French language spoken in Canada. In 2005, the total number of speakers of French in Canada (including two million non-fluent speakers) was 12,000,000. In 2011, French was reported as the mother tongue of more than seven million Canadians, or around 22% of the national population. At the federal level it has official status alongside English. At the provincial level of government, French is the sole official language of Quebec and is one of two official languages of New Brunswick, and is jointly official (derived from its federal legal status) in Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Government services are offered in French at the provincial level in Manitoba, in certain areas of Ontario (through the French Language Services Act), and to a variable extent elsewhere.

New England French, a variety spoken in parts of New England in the United States, is essentially a variety of Canadian French.

Quebec French is spoken in Quebec. Closely related varieties are spoken by francophone communities in Ontario, Western Canada, Labrador and in the New England region of the United States and differ from Quebec French primarily by their greater conservatism. The term Laurentian French has limited application as a collective label for all these varieties, and Quebec French has also been used for the entire dialect group. The overwhelming majority of francophone Canadians speak this dialect.