DCHP-2

allophone Allophone, < Greek allo- 'other' DCHP-2 (May 2016)

• 1 n.

  a resident of Canada whose first language ('mother tongue') is neither French nor English.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — The term allophone likely gained prominence during Quebec's Quiet Revolution, a period in the 1960s where immigrants to the province were encouraged to attend French-speaking schools to promote francophone population growth and consequent preservation of the language. In 1977, when Bill 101 passed into legislation, allophone children were all legally obligated to take classes in French (Garth 2004: 120). Allophone is modeled after the terms for French and English speakers, francophone and anglophone, respectively.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "allophone" (1), which is marked "Cdn", Gage-5, s.v. "allophone" (2), which is described as "especially in Québec", ITP Nelson, s.v. "allophone" (1), which is marked "Canadian", and OED-3, s.v. "allophone" (n²), which is marked as "Canad.", AHD-5, s.v. "Allophone", which is marked "Canadian".

  See also: anglophone  francophone  

  • 1980  "It became clear that they were much more unfavorable to anglophones and allophones than had been thought." (Allophones are those whose mother tongue is neither French nor English.) 
  • 1985  A former student activist who fought for greater use of French at McGill University, he's now a fund-raiser for a hospital, and in his work he deals with anglophones, allophones and francophones. 
  • 1990  The proposal has attracted widespread criticism from Quebec Education Minister Claude Ryan, among others. Still, the commission's proposal addresses a demographic challenge that increasingly worries the province's francophone majority: how to integrate a swelling immigrant population -- 68 per cent of which does not speak French -- into the province's shrinking linguistic mainstream. Compounding the challenge is francophone Quebec's tumbling birth rate. It is a problem that the Parti Quebecois sought to address in its 1977 French Language Charter known as Bill 101, which required all nonanglophone immigrants -- and even some anglophones -- to attend French-language schools. But that measure has had an unintended result: many French schools are now dominated by nonfrancophone students, dubbed allophones. 
  • 1996  In 1990-91, four school boards on the island reported that 35% of their student population was Allophone (speaking neither French or English), and almost half of the schools on the Island of Montreal reported an Allophone population of over 25%. It can now be said, and with a fair degree of certainty, that Bill 101 has achieved its overt aim: earlier enrollment trends have been reversed and minority students are increasingly enrolled in French, rather than English, language schools. 
  • 2010  Children acting as family interpreters are increasingly common in Canada, experts say, with young people enlisted to help their parents or other relatives with everything from conversations and shopping trips to apartment leases or doctors' orders. There are no statistics available on how many children and teens take on this role, but one in five people in Canada is an allophone -- someone whose first language is neither French nor English -- and their ranks are growing. 

• 2 adj.

  speaking a language other than English or French as a first language ('mother tongue').

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — See meaning 1.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "allophone" (1), which is marked "Cdn".

  • 1981  This paper says English control of the Liberal Party "is reflected by the numerous anglophone and allophone candidacies." (An allophone is a person whose mother tongue is neither French nor English.)
  • 1987  The neighboring province is not afflicted with the same population decline because of its much larger allophone (third-language) component, with higher fertility. 
  • 1990  Gunn also criticized a proposal before the Montreal Catholic School Commission to ban "allophone" students -- those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French -- from speaking languages other than French on school property. He added, "When immigrant kids are forbidden to speak English in Montreal playgrounds, that is not a free Canada." 
  • 1997  But which people? Neither anglophone nor allophone Quebeckers are seeking emancipation from the Canadian state. 
  • 2007  As francophone seats become harder for the Liberals to win, the party is giving its anglophone/allophone bastions to "star" francophones who can't win elsewhere. 
  • 2015  Francization Services are designed to develop communication skills. In the case of allophone immigrants, it will help develop the attitudes required to integrate into Quebec society while preparing the transition [...].