PROPORTIONS SPEAKING ENGLISH OR FRENCH AS MOTHER TONGUE 1865

appear between the individual peoples in the matter of learning the languages of Canada,
but those from the North Western part of Europe, as a group, show proportions much
larger than do those of South, Eastern and Central European origins.
That the Dutch, a northern people, should be so exceptional as to appear at the bottom
of the list in Table 100, can only be explained by the practice among the Mennonites in
the West of reporting themselves as of Dutch origin. This was very common, especially in
the 1921 Census. The attitude of that people toward Canadian schools and other Canadian
institutions is well known. :
How far these differences are due to distinctively “origin” causes and how far they are
due to length of residence in- the country, etc., is discussed in detail later in this section.
English and French as Mother Tongue—~—An additional aspect of the relation between
origin and language in Canada, is the extent to which the non-British and non-French
stocks speak English and French as the Mother Tongue, to which a passing reference has
already been made. One would expect ihe data on this point to show a somewhat marked
relation to the figures for intermarriage with the two Canadian basic stocks. Where English
or French is spoken in the home as the mother tongue, the inference is that intermarriage has
taken place and also that a larger percentage of the stock has lived for a considerable time
in Canada. While the relation between length of residence and amount of intermarriage
will not be examined at this point, the data in respect to the numbers of the non-British
and non-French origins who speak English or French as the mother tongue, are presented in
Tables 101, 102 and 103: below.
Had the Japanese, Chinese and Indians been shown in the above table the percentages
for those origins would have appeared as very small, Only 3-0 pe. of the Finns and 3-5 p.c.
of the Hebrew or Jewish origin spoke English or French as the mother tongue. The Syrians
showed a somewhat higher proportion, and it is noted that a number of them spoke French
as mother tongue, which is in accordance with the fact mentioned above, that quite a proportion
 spoke French rather than English.
The difference between the peoples of North Western Europe and those of the South,
East and Centre, is more marked here than in any table presented heretofore. The Icelanders
are the outstanding exception in the North. Their proportion of 6-1 p.c. speaking English or
French as the mother tongue, is below that of either the Czechs (10.5 p.c.) or Greeks
(8-8 p.c.). With those exceptions, however, there is no overlapping of the groups. The
balance of the northern stocks showed proportions several times as great as the Icelandic,
and the percentages for the other South, Eastern and Central European peoples were all
below those of the Czechs and Greeks The percentages for the North Western Europeans
as a group were more than ten times greater than for the South, Eastern and Central
Europeans.
The Swiss, with a percentage of 60-5 speaking English as mother tongue (and of 61-8
speaking either English or French as mother tongue), came second only to the Dutch for
the whole group of immigrant stocks. It is significant in this connection that Table 73 in
Chapter VI places the Swiss women at the top of the list in respect to marrying outside
their “ origin ” group and the men of that origin just below the Danes who top the list for
the men.
Table 103 below, classifies the principal European stocks by linguistic groups. In this
table the Belgians are shown as Flemish and, as is to be expected, they reduce the average
for the Germanic group. }
A marked disparity is indicated between those of Scandinavian and Germanic origin in
respect to speaking English or French as their mother tongue. The percentages for those
of Dutch and German origin are considerably higher than are those for the Scandinavians.
Yet the strange point is that, with the exception of the Icelanders, the Scandinavian peoples
on the average show a percentage unable to speak either French or English, about as low as
the Germans and lower than the Dutch. (See Table 98.) The explanation is found in the
fact that somewhat larger proportions of the Norwegians, Swedes and Danes had learned
English outside the home, than was found in the case of the Germans, and far larger pronortions
 than in the case of the Dutch.