Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- 1 Canada
- Introduction
- 1 The foundations
- 2 The fading Canadian duality
- 3 Official bilingualism: from the 1960s to the 1990s
- 4 Official multiculturalism
- 5 Language in education: bridging educational policy and social psychological research
- 6 Aboriginal languages: history
- 7 Aboriginal languages: current status
- 8 French: Canadian varieties
- 9 French in Quebec
- 10 French in New Brunswick
- 11 French outside New Brunswick and Quebec
- 12 English: Canadian varieties
- 13 English Quebec
- 14 The teaching of international languages
- 15 French immersion in Canada
- 16 Language in Newfoundland
- 17 Language in Prince Edward Island
- 18 Language in Nova Scotia
- 19 Language in New Brunswick
- 20 Language in Quebec: aboriginal and heritage varieties
- 21 Language in Ontario
- 22 Language in Manitoba
- 23 Language in Saskatchewan: Anglo-hegemony maintained
- 24 Language in Alberta: unilingualism in practice
- 25 Language in British Columbia
- 26 Language in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory
- Index of names
- Index of language families, languages, dialects
- Index of subjects
18 - Language in Nova Scotia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- 1 Canada
- Introduction
- 1 The foundations
- 2 The fading Canadian duality
- 3 Official bilingualism: from the 1960s to the 1990s
- 4 Official multiculturalism
- 5 Language in education: bridging educational policy and social psychological research
- 6 Aboriginal languages: history
- 7 Aboriginal languages: current status
- 8 French: Canadian varieties
- 9 French in Quebec
- 10 French in New Brunswick
- 11 French outside New Brunswick and Quebec
- 12 English: Canadian varieties
- 13 English Quebec
- 14 The teaching of international languages
- 15 French immersion in Canada
- 16 Language in Newfoundland
- 17 Language in Prince Edward Island
- 18 Language in Nova Scotia
- 19 Language in New Brunswick
- 20 Language in Quebec: aboriginal and heritage varieties
- 21 Language in Ontario
- 22 Language in Manitoba
- 23 Language in Saskatchewan: Anglo-hegemony maintained
- 24 Language in Alberta: unilingualism in practice
- 25 Language in British Columbia
- 26 Language in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory
- Index of names
- Index of language families, languages, dialects
- Index of subjects
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Nova Scotia is one of the predominantly English-speaking Maritime provinces that joined Canada at the time of Confederation. British culture and language have had a dominant presence since the eighteenth century. Initial British settlement in Halifax and the western parts of the province was augmented by an influx of ‘Loyalist’ settlers from the ‘New England states’ fleeing the republicanism of the American Revolution. Prior to English settlement in Nova Scotia, the province was known as Acadia, a possession of France that had had a history of 150 years of French rule and colonization. The French presence remained strong, especially in Cape Breton, where the Fortress of Louisbourg, a bastion of French power, was eventually conquered by the British in 1758. Despite its loss, and the dislocations of the Acadian expulsion in 1755, French remained a minority language.
Before the arrival of Europeans, Nova Scotia was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking people known as Micmacs. (The spelling currently favoured by some, Mi'kmaq or Mi'gmaw, reflects an effort to come closer to Micmac phonology, in which the apostrophe represents a long vowel. In most Algonquian languages, voicing is not a distinctive feature of stop consonants.) Despite some apparent population loss earlier, the aboriginal population of the province has rebounded, and the Micmac language continues to be used, particularly on reserves in eastern Nova Scotia.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language in Canada , pp. 354 - 371Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998