What is YOUR mother tongue?

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English remains the predominant mother tongue in Kamloops-area homes, according to language data released this week by Statistics Canada.

Based on the 2011 census, the numbers show 89.3 per cent (86.980) of residents in the Kamloops census area — which includes the city, the Tk’emlups Indian Band, Chase, Logan Lake, Sun Peaks and parts of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District — reported English as their mother tongue.

French was next, at 1.2 per cent (1,185), while non-official languages accounted for 8.6 per cent (8,410) of the Greater Kamloops population.

A remaining one per cent of respondents cited multiple languages as their mother tongue.

The three most-common mother tongues, other than English or French, in the Kamloops region are German (1.4 per cent; 1,385), Punjabi (1.3 per cent; 1,255) and Italian (1.1 per cent; 1,045).

The percentage of the Kamloops-area population that knows how to speak English and French is 5.2 per cent (5,095).

The 2011 census numbers on language in the Kamloops area are very similar to data collected in the 2006 census, to within  percentage point across the board.

Nationally, the census found more than 200 languages were reported as a home language or mother tongue.

The number of people who reported speaking Tagalog, a Philippine-based language, most often at home increased the most (64 per cent) between 2006 and 2011.

Nearly 279,000 people reported speaking the language at home, compared with 170,000 in 2006.

In 2011, 17.5 per cent (5.8 million) of the Canadian population reported speaking at least two languages at home.

In 2006, 14.2 per cent (4.5 million) did so.

In 2011, 80 per cent of the population who reported speaking an immigrant language (a language other than English, French or an aboriginal language) most often at home lived in one of Canada’s six largest census metropolitan areas.

In 2011, 11.5 per cent of the population reported speaking both English and a language other than French at home. The corresponding figure in 2006 was 9.1 per cent. This is an increase of 960,000 people, compared with about 410,000 between 2001 and 2006.