[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Urbanguy

^You found mother tongue which is a somewhat archaic term, the US Census used to used that too which is more closely aligned with what you identify with the most in regards to ancestry and culture.

First google search for the definition of "mother tongue"

noun
the language which a person has grown up speaking from early childhood.

Seems pretty straightforward. I've always understood that to be the common usage.

What's the preferred alternative? First language? Native language? (Linguists use L1).

And, I don't know anyone personally stateside who would interpret "mother tongue" as ancestry or culture independent of knowing a language, since the word "language" is in there, not culture or ancestry. Does any Hispanic-by-surname only person say Spanish is their "mother tongue" if they never speak a lick of it? I've never heard anyone say that. I know there are some countries in the world that treat things that way (eg. Ireland claiming that Irish, the language, is the first language of all Ireland, even if most don't really have it as native language, essentially saying that identification with a language is about symbolism, not practice), but most people I know use the same definition of mother tongue, native language and first language.

Originally Posted by memph

(the more interesting question would be about NE Ontario, which I believe has the most significant French speaking community outside of Quebec and New Brunswick)

Is a better parallel with Louisiana's situation with Cajun French, the Francophone communities within Anglo-Canada outside Quebec and New Brunswick (eg. NE Ontario, even Franco-Manitobans, though I know that's a really small group etc.)? I wonder if the two will have similar trajectories, since both are small populations not really being "replenished" by migration of French speakers, to present assimilating into English-speaking society.

Or does even NE Ontario and even smaller minority Francophone communities still stand more of a chance due to of course Canadian official language government policy (that holds nation-wise, benefiting all Francophones) that Louisiana lacks to "protect" French?

In the US, there's no official policy on language, so laissez-faire (no pun intended) attitudes ultimately favor the dominant English tongue, for better or worse, so that even "speak French in addition to English to keep it alive" fails as a strategy.