PROPORTION UNABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH OR FRENCH 161

83-3 pec. (10 years and over) reported themselves as being able to speak English. These
percentages are much more representative, for they apply where conditions affecting the learning
 of the other language are more or less equal.
The second point of note in Table 96 is that in each case the percentage of males able
to speak the language of the other was greater than the percentage of females reported as
able to do so. The influence of business and economic forces in stimulating among the
males the learning of the language of the other dominant stock is undoubtedly of con
siderable moment.

PROPORTION UNABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH OR FRENCH
Turning now to the extent to which the immigrant peoples have related themselves to
:he language spoken by those of French and British origins in Canada, Table 97 shows the
percentages, 10 years of age and over, unable to speak (1) English and (2) English or
French, for the principal non-British, non-French origins. The Indians, Japanese and
Chinese show the highest proportions. As in the case of assimilation by intermarriage
with the basic stock in the country, so in the matter of learning the languages of the
nation, these stocks are far behind the others. In respect of language, they are in a class
quite by themselves, within the neighbourhood of 40 p.c. unable to speak French or English.
The Syrians have learned one of the languages to within a very small percentage of their
population 10 years and over in the country. Many of them have learned French. Of the
Jewish residents, 54 p.c. are still unable to speak either of the languages.
Over five times as large a proportion of the South, Eastern and Central Europeans
were unable to speak either English or French as of the North Western European group.
In the North Western group the proportion of the Belgians unable to speak English was
exceptionally high at 17-1 p.e. The great majority of these, however, spoke French as their
mother tongue. Thus, the percentage unable tn speak either French or English is quite
small, being 4-1 p.c.
Of the stocks from South, Eastern and Central Europe, the Czechs and Greeks are
exceptional in having comparatively small numbers unable to speak one of the languages of
this country. The others in this group show considerably higher proportions unable to speak
French or English than any of the peoples from the North and West of Europe. Those of
Ukrainian origin seem to have made least progress in learning the Canadian languages; the
Austrians and Russians have made considerably more progress on the whole, though the
percentage unable to speak either is still very high. As far as inability to speak English is
concerned, the Italians stood second in the group, but quite large numbers of them speak
French, so when both languages are counted their position is much more favourable than
sither the Austrians or Russians.
It is instructive to reclassify the origins according to linguistic groups. Such classifeation
 is shown in the lower part of Table 98. The Flemish were omitted from the
Germanic group because, while 60 p.c. of the Belgians by origin classification speak Flemish
as their native language, the major part of the balance speak French as the mother tongue.
Large numbers of these have not learned English, and their inclusion with the Germanic
group would be misleading when considering the question of language. It appears from the
table that those of Scandinavian origin on the whole speak either English or French in the
largest numbers. Indeed most of them speak English, and comparatively few speak French,
Of the Scandinavian stocks, the Icelandic shows the largest percentage unable to speak the
languages of the country. It is interesting to recall that they also showed the least tendency
to jntermarry with the native British or French stock in Canada.
The Germans came next to the Danes and Norwegians, showing only a very slightly
larger percentage unable to speak English or French. In all three cases the proportions were
very small. The Dutch were on a par with the Greeks in the Latin and Greek group, where
considerably larger percentages were unable to speak the dominant languages of Canada than
in the Germanic group. The Slavic group had the highest percentage of all. Of the Slavs,
the Czechs showed the lowest proportion unable to speak our languages. and in this respect
were ahead even of the Dutch and Greeks.
14429—11