![\"Canada\"](\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Canada.jpg\")
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By our multi-lingual friend Brian Loo Soon Hua aka uTalk\u2019s Language Guru<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did you know that Canada was almost named Efisga? Or, even more unusual, Hochelaga? Imagine the jokes Americans would have been making about their Efisgan or Hochelagan neighbours to the north!<\/p>\n Thankfully, \u201cCanada\u201d came into official use in 1791 when the Province of Qu\u00e9bec (named after the Algonquian word for \u201cwhere the river narrows\u201d) was split into English-speaking Upper Canada (later Ontario) and French-speaking Lower Canada (later present-day Qu\u00e9bec). In 1841, the two regions were united into the Province of Canada. However, the nation of Canada as we know it came about in 1867 when the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were finally united.<\/p>\n Now, where did the name \u201cCanada\u201d come from?<\/p>\n \u201cCanada\u201d is derived from the word\u00a0kanata<\/em>, from a now-extinct Saint Lawrence River Iroquoian language, meaning \u201csettlement\u201d or \u201cvillage\u201d. In Mohawk, a closely-related language, the usual word for \u201ctown\u201d is still\u00a0kan\u00e1:ta’<\/em>. The Iroquois had a few settlements or\u00a0kanata\u00a0<\/em>throughout the Saint Lawrence River Valley, including Stadacona (modern-day Qu\u00e9bec City) and Hochelaga (modern-day Montr\u00e9al).<\/p>\n Interesting trivia: In 1867, among the names suggested for the newly-formed nation were: Albertsland (in honour of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria\u2019s husband), Victorialand (no guesses as to which \u201cVictoria\u201d this land was dedicated to), Efisga (an acronym of\u00a0English, French, Irish, Scottish, German,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Aboriginal<\/em>), Hochelaga (from the native name for\u00a0Montr\u00e9al) and even Tupona (standing for\u00a0T<\/em>he United Provinces of North America)<\/em>.<\/p>\n Thankfully, common sense prevailed and Canada was born!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Canada here we come! \u00a0The uTalk team is getting ready to go to this year\u2019s Langfest in Montreal ( Aug 24-26) where, as an event sponsor, \u00a0we\u2019ll be finding out even more interesting stuff about languages.\u00a0 \u00a0Check out our social media for updates.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By our multi-lingual friend Brian Loo Soon Hua aka uTalk\u2019s Language Guru Did you know that Canada was almost named Efisga? Or, even more unusual, Hochelaga? Imagine the jokes Americans would have been making about their Efisgan or Hochelagan neighbours to the north! Thankfully, \u201cCanada\u201d came into official use in 1791 when the Province … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,24,380,3,97,18,794],"tags":[1649,348],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}