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 | Montreal Bilinguism Reviews | Tips 1 - 10 of 34 |  |
 | |  |  | Bilinguism: Anglophone & Francophone neighbourhoods | Tip Rating:    |  |  | |  |
Montreal, originally an Iroquois settlement called Hochelaga, was first visited by the French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1535. It wasn't until 1642 that the French began to settle the area. Montreal therefore developed naturally as a completely French-speaking city. Yet, over a 100 years later, in 1760, the English would acquire possession of the land and Montreal started to change. The biggest change was that English-speakers started to settle and change the fabric of the city. The once-French city was shifting into a bilingual city. Through the following decades many English speakers moved to Montreal and this influenced the neighbourhoods. Some neighbourhoods became predominantly English-speaking while others became predominantly French-speaking. Nowadays, Montreal is working hard to become a predominately French-speaking city again, but there are still neighbourhoods where native English-speakers (called Anglophones) are the majority. The general rule of thumb is that rue St-Laurent, the road which divides Montreal into east and west, is the general division of Montreal's French and English speaking communities. Neighbourhoods which exist on the east side of St-Laurent, such as Outremont and the Plateau, are French-speaking. West of St-Laurent, neighbourhoods such as Westmount and NDG (Notre-Dame de Grace) is where you'll find more English speakers. Of course, this is all general. There are indeed many francophones that live in the neighbourhoods west of St-Laurent, just as there are anglophones who live east of St-Laurent, however, anglophones that live east of St-Laurent are definitely becoming a shrinking minority. Random side note: Montreal is pronounced "MUN-tree-all" by Anglophones, but the Francophone pronounciation is "Moe-ray-AL" (AL as in Albert). Leave a Comment
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| | | | Bilinguism: Ask if the person speaks English | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Ok! The big question...Do people in Montréal speak English? The answer is, No, a beluga whale is translating all of this for me. Since she travels more often then I do, I thought she might pitch in a bit of her knowledge. Just kidding! Don't mind my strange sense of humor, it highjacks my brain once in a while. So I'll leave Hortense the whale go back to her plankton and finish this tip myself... Kidding aside, of course we speak English! Not all of us. But a good part. And just as politeness goes, ask the person in front of you if she or he speaks English, first. If not, they'll let you know. And you can move on to the next person, which probably will be able to speak to you. You can tell them Merci! and they will be happy to have helped. Montrealers and Quebecers in general are not shy to speak to strangers, in fact we love to do so. Montréal is a dynamic North American city. And If we didn't speak the Shakespearean language, we would be in deep trouble. And surprise of all surprises, you will even hear some Montrealers speak English between themselves. And Cantonese, Vietnamese, Portugese, Italian, Lebanese, French, strange French, funny French, elegant French, etc,etc. Just below, you will find a French/English - English/French internet dictionnary. Website: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ARTFL/forms_unrest/FR-ENG.html
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