The United States does not have an official language at the federal level, but the most commonly used language is English, which is the de facto national language. In addition, 32 U.S. states out of 50 and all five U.S. territories have declared English as an official language. The majority of the U.S. population (77.5%) speaks only English at home as of 2023. The remainder of the population speaks many other languages at home, most notably Spanish, according to the American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau; others include indigenous languages originally spoken by Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and native populations in the U.S. unincorporated territories. Other languages were brought in by people from Europe, Africa, Asia, other parts of the Americas, and Oceania, including multiple dialects, creole languages, pidgin languages, and sign languages originating in what is now the United States. Interlingua, an international auxiliary language, was also created in the U.S.
The French language is spoken as a minority language in the United States. Roughly 1.18 million Americans over the age of five reported speaking the language at home in the federal 2020 American Community Survey, making French the seventh most spoken language in the country behind English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic. Several varieties of French evolved in what is now the United States:
Marie-Clara Dorimène Roy Desjardins and her husband Alphonse Desjardins were co-founders of the Caisses populaires Desjardins, a forerunner of North American credit unions. She was appointed honorary member of the Union régionale des caisses populaires Desjardins de Québec in 1923.
Lévis is a city in eastern Quebec, Canada, located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec City. A ferry links Old Quebec with Old Lévis, and two bridges, the Quebec Bridge and the Pierre-Laporte Bridge, connect western Lévis with Quebec City.
The Desjardins Group is a Canadian financial service cooperative and the largest federation of credit unions in North America. It was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Quebec by Alphonse Desjardins. While its legal headquarters remains in Lévis, most of the executive management, including the CEO, is based in Montreal.
A multitude of languages have always been spoken in Canada. Prior to Confederation, the territories that would become Canada were home to over 70 distinct languages across 12 or so language families. Today, a majority of those indigenous languages are still spoken; however, most are endangered and only about 0.6% of the Canadian population report an indigenous language as their mother tongue. Since the establishment of the Canadian state, English and French have been the co-official languages and are, by far, the most-spoken languages in the country.
Little Canada is a name for any of the various communities where French Canadians congregated upon emigrating to the United States, in particular New England, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A variant of Canadian French known as New England French is still spoken in parts of New England.
Gabriel-Alphonse Desjardins, born in Levis, Canada East was the co-founder of the Caisses Populaires Desjardins, a forerunner of North American credit unions and community banks. For his contribution to the advancement of agriculture in the province of Quebec, he was posthumously inducted to the Agricultural Hall of Fame of Quebec in 1994.
Caisse populaire acadienne ltée, operating as UNI Financial Cooperation, is a Francophone credit union based in New Brunswick, Canada whose members are primarily Acadians. UNI's administrative headquarters are in Caraquet on the Acadian Peninsula.
The Canadian Credit Union Association is the national trade association for credit unions in Canada. Founded in 1953, it rebranded to its current name in January 2016 to reflect its "evolving role as an association that is focused on growing a stronger... credit union industry."
Desjardins is a common surname in French-speaking Canada. Notable people with the surname include:
Desjardins Financial Security (DFS) is the life and health insurance arm of Desjardins Group, the leading financial institution in Quebec and the largest cooperative financial group in Canada. DFS registered a record-breaking revenue data in 2016, with a year-over-year increase of 12.5%. In terms of written premium, the industry ranks second in Quebec, and fifth in Canada.
America's Credit Union Museum is located in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the site of the first credit union founded in the United States. The museum is housed at the original location for St. Mary's Cooperative Credit Association, renamed in 1925 to La Caisse Populaire Ste.-Marie, or "Bank of the People", St. Mary's. In 1996, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Building at 418–420 Notre Dame Ave.
Pierre Hevey was a Canadian-born American priest, and second pastor of Ste. Marie Church in Manchester, New Hampshire, in the early 20th century. He played a key role in the establishment of the first credit union in the United States on November 24, 1908, to help his parishioners save money and access credit at a reasonable cost.
Attorney Joseph Boivin was a co-founder and first president of the first credit union established in the United States, Ste. Marie's Cooperative Credit Association.
Cyrille Vaillancourt CBE was a journalist, civil servant, businessman and political figure in Quebec. Vaillancourt played an important role in the development of the caisses populaires in Quebec. He represented La Durantaye division in the Legislative Council of Quebec from 1943 to 1944 and sat for Kennebec division in the Senate of Canada from 1944 to 1969 as a Liberal.
New England French is a variety of French spoken in the New England region of the United States. It descends from Canadian French because it originally came from French Canadians who immigrated to New England during the Grande Hémorragie.
Canada has significant per-capita membership in credit unions, representing more than a third of the working-age population. Credit union membership is largest in Quebec, where they are known as caisses populaires, and in western Canada.
St. Mary's Bank is an American credit union based in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was founded in 1908 and was the first credit union in the United States.
