Tendances de l’assimilation linguistique dans l'ouest de l’île de Montréal et l’ouest de l’Outaouais de 1971 à 1991

The author believes that changes in the census questionnaire since 1971 and high differential out-migration according to language characteristics have undermined the comparability of successive census data on language shift between English and French in the greater part of Quebec. He maintains that in the two regions least sensitive to these factors, notwithstanding language policies in support of French, the dynamics of language shift between English and French in 1991 seem to work to the benefit of English at least as strongly as in 1971. He argues that this ascendancy of English endures despite a considerable increase in the relative importance of the French-speaking component of the population as well as a marked decrease in the gap between the knowledge of English and that of French in both regions.

Cahiers québécois de démographie

Vol. 26

no. 2

307-322

Automne 1997

fr