Agencies
TORONTO: Immigration is fast changing the linguistic landscape of Canada. And Punjabi tops the list of the 10 immigrant languages spoken most at home, according to the 2011 census of population.
Punjabi is followed by Chinese, Cantonese, Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Mandarin, Italian, Urdu and German, according to the census.
But if speakers of Cantonese, Mandarin & Chinese n.o.s (not otherwise specified) are taken together, they become a million-plus-strong group, pushing Punjabi to the second place among the immigrant languages most spoken at home.
In fact, 460,000 people reported speaking Punjabi at home, as per the 2011 the census.
In the Toronto area, 8 percent of immigrants spoke Punjabi, 8.8 percent Cantonese, 5.9 percent Urdu and 5.7 percent Tamil at home.
In all, 1,790,000 people in the Toronto area – Canada’s largest metropolitan area – reported speaking an immigrant language at home. Which means that 32.2 percent of the Toronto population speaks languages other than English and French at home.
In the Vancouver area, 712,000 people – 31 percent of the population – spoke an immigrant language at home. Punjabi was on the top, with 17.7 percent of these people saying that they spoke this language at home, 16 percent spoke Cantonese, 12.2 percent Chinese n.o.s, 11.8 percent Mandarin and 6.7 percent Tagalog (of the Philippines) at home.
Not surprisingly, the number of English speakers at home in both the metropolitan centres of Toronto and Vancouver is declining.
While the number of English speakers at home in Toronto fell from 59.1 percent from 2006 to 55 percent in 2011, these figures declined from 62 percent in 2006 to 58 percent in 2011.
Clearly, Canada is becoming less of an English-speaking nation.
Over 200 languages are spoken in Canadian homes, making it the foremost country on the planet in terms of languistic diversity.
As for the use of Canada’s two official languages at home, English is spoken by 58 percent – or 19,225,000 Canadians – and French by 18.2 percent – or 6,043,000 Canadians.
The use of both these languages at home has come down slightly since 2006.
One-fifth of Canadians – nearly 6,630,000 people- speak a language other than English or French at home in 2011, according to the census.
Surprisingly, Hindi and Bengali are among the immigrant languages which have seen a huge jump in the number of their users since 2006.
While the use of Hindi increased 44 percent, Bengali speakers registered 40 percent growth. These two Indian languages are among eight languages that have registered a growth of 30 percent since 2006.
The other languages to post such growth are Mandarin (50 percent), Arabic (47 percent), Creole (42 percent), Persian (33 percent) and Spanish (32 percent).
On the other hand, four languages – Chinese, Italian, Polish and Greek – reported a decline in the number of users since the last census.
Reacting to the news, Sadhu Binning, who is a known Punjabi writer in Canada and also taught Punjabi at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said in his facebook posting, “Punjabis living in Canada should be proud of themselves. In the last census (2011), they demonstrated that they are proud of their mother tongue. At least 460,000 people across Canada said that their mother tongue is Punjabi. We know that there are more Punjabis than this number… but this is a moment of joy. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL PUNJABIS IN CANADA.”
READ ALSO: In Vancouver, Punjabi language becomes a job getter
Nitin Kumar
punjabi rocksssssss
Like · Reply · 4y
Manpreet Singh
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL PUNJABIS IN CANADA
Like · Reply · 3 · 4y
Michi David Wylde
loser,mothrfkrs indians
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Jobanjeet Singh
David Wylde go fuck yourself………..cause more punjabis are comming to canada every year………..mla’s mp’s defence minister u name it
Like · Reply · 1 · 3y
Ashfaq Meher
punjabi language like as mother Fragrance
Like · Reply · 2 · 3y
Satyabrata Das
Very nice
Like · Reply · 3y
Michi David Wylde
hate this fukn punjabi,dirty brownies spoiling canada
Like · Reply · 3y
Michi David Wylde
go back to third world -india.i’ll cut thse brownies stinky balls n sent bck u to where u belong.mothrfkr indians
Like · Reply · 3y
Harry Sandhu
if u have guts, then come to india we show u who is motherfucker
Like · Reply · 1 · 3y
Bhopinder Pal Singh
Dear David, Any Harm done by punjabi,to you are to Canada
Punjabi is the most-spoken immigrant language in Canada, according to Census Canada 2011.
After English, Punjabi is the most-spoken language in British Columbia, Metro Vancouver, Surrey, Abbotsford, Brampton, and Metro Calgary. Punjab is also the 10th most-spoken language in the World. In Canadian provinces like BC, Alberta and Ontario, number of Punjabi speakers is much higher than French. It makes sense to become an English-Punjabi bilingual these days in Canada.
Rabba vasda rahe punjab ate punjabi maa boli teri kirpa naal
Punjabia di shaan wakhri
Newseastwest is very nice site from where I learn n do the CHERRYPIC!!!
Hey there! This post couldn’t be written any better!
Reading through this post reminds me of my
good old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward
this post to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read.
Thanks for sharing!
Dear All,
My ebook in urdu has already been published by the Canadian publisher. My second book which is in punjabi is ready to be
published. If any one of punjabi speaking wish to have more
information are advised to contact me directtly.
Regard
Abrar Ahmed
abrargoc@gmail.com
Dear Abrar,
Please confirm this book available in gurmukhi as my knowledge in shahmukhi is poor
Bhopinder Pal Singh Maidh
jadoon bacha maan de akhosh vich ja ke ik khas khashboo mohsos karda ei
eise tara jadon koi punjabi bolda ei te manu apni paan di khushboo andi ei
Jeevay maa boli Pynjabi.
PUNJABI IS PUNJABI , INDIAN OR PAKI
punjabis are great people
Vakhari shan Punjbian di. Does not matter Sikh ya Muslim per Punjabi is Punjabi.
Naee rysaan Punjbian Dian
but the actual credit goes to indian punjabi language gurmukhi which is followed not shahmukhi so it is india who have made proud
Every Punjabi is our brother. A temporary line cannot divide our beloved mother land for ever. Punjab was, is and always be one
No Sarkar ,
You are wrong , Pakistani Punjabi is better than Indian in depth. How ever India being bigger country thus more visible
Singh,Sikh and Khalsa Is best
Punjabi sadi maa aa .. te jehre tutch log punjabi bolan ch sharm mehsus krde aa ohna nu ni pta ki maa nu dukhi krdek kadi koi sukh ni pa skda
very nice
ek side Canada ch Punjabi de percentage tutan dae ya
dusre side apne India ch kuch aekhoje namune vi mil jaande yaa jinna nu apni Maa Boli Punjabi bolan ch Sharam aundi yaa
Thanks So Much for Sharing .
Punjabiyan di shaan wakhri. Proud to be a Sikh!!
i respect you but there is not just Sikh Punjabi. There is also Muslim Punjabi.
It is great news for the well wishers of Punjabi. Now is the time for the Punjabi community to encourage more signage and services in Punjabi across the land ,especially in places where there are substantial numbers of Punjabi speakers. Canada has now become not only a truly multicultural but also a multilingual country. It makes us all proud.
somewhere i read if all the south asian languages were lumped together (punjabi, hindi, tamil, singalese,urdu,bengali, marathi…) it outnumbers all the chinese languages spoken.