If Quebec leaves Canada, the province of Prince Edward Island will probably become unilingually English within a short time. This contention is based both on table 17.1 and on my conviction that Quebec's departure would spell the end of the admirable efforts in this province, by francophones and anglophones alike, to foster French. No other languages are in a position to survive at all. English is so dominant on Prince Edward Island that its state of health is not very interesting. More interesting are French and Micmac, the latter because provincial and federal government policies have brought it, the province's one aboriginal tongue, to the point of extinction. Accordingly, this chapter will be devoted to these two languages only.

FRENCH

The history of Island French could be described as a series of waves, each peak somewhat lower than the one before. To substantiate this claim in what follows, I draw upon the work of Arsenault (1989), Baldwin (1985) and King (1996). In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht gave ‘the Acadian peninsula’ of Nova Scotia to England, while France retained the rest of what would become the Maritime provinces. Shortly afterwards, the French began building the fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton, to protect the approaches to their principal colony, Quebec.