Newfoundland French
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Newfoundland French is a regional dialect of French that was once spoken by French colonists on the island of Newfoundland. It is distinct from other French dialects in Canada, such as the Québécois and Acadian varieties.[citation needed]
France colonized portions of Newfoundland from 1662 until 1713, when it ceded the island to Britain as part of the Treaty of Utrecht. In 1763, French fishing rights on the west coast of Newfoundland were preserved by the Treaty of Paris, and French fishing villages existed there exclusively until 1904.
Since 1949, when Newfoundland became a province of Canada, the use of French on the island has been in decline. Newfoundland French is now only spoken by a handful of elderly residents. Other French-speakers in Newfoundland use Acadian French, not that of Newfoundland. Today, 15,000 descendants of French settlers live in the province and there is a movement to reestablish the Newfoundland dialect as the French language of education in the province. However, schoolchildren in the province are currently being introduced to either standard Canadian French, or an Acadian-influenced variety thereof.
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