Study of Aboriginal languages increasing
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Over the past 100 years or more, at least ten once-flourishing languages have become extinct. However, this trend is being offset as more people study an Aboriginal language as a second language.
In the 2008/2009 academic year, 48,000 students were taking an Aboriginal language course, with most (29,000) doing so in British Columbia. From 2002/2003 to 2008/2009, the number enrolled across Canada increased 3%. These figures include Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students at off-reserve, publicly funded schools (except in Alberta, where data were not available).
In 2006, the First Nations languages with the largest number of speakers were Cree (87,285), Ojibway (30,255), Oji-Cree (12,435) and Montagnais-Naskapi (11,080). In 2006, 29% of First Nations people said they could converse in an Aboriginal language; half (51%) of those living on a reserve could.
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