Misplaced Pages

#741258

139-615: The Canadian Museum of Nature ( French : Musée canadien de la nature ; CMN ) is a national natural history museum based in Canada's National Capital Region . The museum's exhibitions and public programs are housed in the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, a 18,910-square-metre structure (203,500 sq ft) in Ottawa , Ontario . The museum's administrative offices and scientific centres are housed at

278-602: A Beyond Ice installation. The Beyond Ice installation provides visitors a sensory experience of the Arctic region, and was designed alongside the National Film Board of Canada . Although many of the items on display in the Arctic Experience gallery form a part of the museum's collection, the seal-skin kayak, and the items originating from John Franklin 's lost expedition were loaned to the museum by

417-558: A National Historic Site of Canada , given the building's importance to the development of museology in Canada, as well as for its architecture. The 18,910-square-metre (203,492 sq ft) Tudor - Gothic Revival -style building was designed by David Ewart , the Chief Architect of the Department of Public Works . Tudor-Gothic detailing may be found throughout the building; including its original entrance that consists of

556-550: A Popemobile , donated to the museum in 1985 by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops ; and a Henry Seth Taylor steam buggy , the first automobile produced in Canada. The museum acquired the steam buggy in 1984. Notable computational artifacts in the museum's collection include two Millionaire calculators ; and the DRTE Computer , which was gifted to the museum in 1968. Other notable artifacts in

695-439: A 2,300 square metres (25,000 sq ft) partially below-grade expansion to the south of the building, which included laboratories, the shipping and receiving area, workshops, and a green roof ; the latter feature used as an outdoor public gathering place. The area surrounding the building's south-side expansion includes green spaces, a greenhouse, and a live animal display area. Other renovations included extensive redesigns to

834-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process

973-517: A collection of 60 kites, primarily from Asia. The museum's medical collection also has a medical collection numbering over 8,000 pieces, most of which originated from the former Academy of Medicine Collection. In 2021, the museum started a COVID-19 pandemic collection, whose earliest items includes the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine , and the 10-millionth face mask produced at CAMI Automotive . All items that are deaccessioned from

1112-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,

1251-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and

1390-450: A formal hall from which all the museum's other spaces are accessible. The building initially included a central tower at its entrance. However, the original tower caused the building to "sink" as the original design did not account for the Leda clay the structure was built on, resulting in the original tower's removal several years after the building opened. A glass and steel tower erected in

1529-442: A number of improvements added to the building, including seismic upgrades to the facility, and a complete replacement of the roof which also supports photovoltaic panels. A new mechanical room was also built, allowing staff to more precisely control the temperature in the building, and better host fragile artifacts susceptible to damage. The façade at the entrance of the museum features an articulated roof. The articulated roof at

SECTION 10

#1732772755742

1668-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on

1807-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in

1946-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and

2085-526: A second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only

2224-941: A second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as

2363-707: A separate location, the Natural Heritage Campus, in Gatineau , Quebec . The museum originated from a museum established by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1856. Initially based in Montreal , the museum relocated to downtown Ottawa in 1881. In 1911, the museum relocated to the Victoria Memorial Museum Building. Initially, a natural history museum, the institution later expanded to include an anthropology and human history department; with

2502-458: A travelling exhibition on human sexuality after receiving criticism from select groups and James Moore , the minister of Canadian Heritage . The museum removed a video covering masturbation from the exhibition and placed a minimum age requirement to view the exhibition. The museum was forced to close its doors to the public in September 2014 after it found high levels of airborne mould in

2641-553: A triple arch with neo-gothic tracery, pointed arch windows, decorative buttresses , and crenellations and corner turret . Many of the carvings found on the building depict Canadian flora and fauna. In addition to its Tudor-Gothic detailing, the design and orientation of the building also draw upon Beaux-Arts architectural principles. The interior is also embellished with carved wood and bronze balustrades , mosaic floors, marble and plaster detailing and decorative works, and stained glass windows. The interior spaces are centred around

2780-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in

2919-706: A variety of artifacts is also spread throughout the museum's exhibitions. The museum has also organized exhibitions alongside other Canadian governmental agencies, with the Cipher-Decipher travelling exhibition having been organized in partnership with the Communications Security Establishment . Some exhibitions feature exhibits with corporate sponsors, such as the ZOOOMobile, a car building station sponsored by Michelin . Although several exhibits have corporate sponsors,

SECTION 20

#1732772755742

3058-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French

3197-779: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French

3336-535: Is a collection of 750,000 photographs dating as early as the 1850s. The collection was donated to the museum by the Canadian National Railway in 1999. The Petrovic collection is a collection of over 130 artifacts including rulers, compasses, and other measuring instruments from the 12th to 19th centuries. The collection was purchased by the museum for C$ 35,000 in 1980. The museum also has a collection of radio artifacts numbering 70 pieces; and

3475-631: Is a permanent exhibition focused on minerals, rocks, and other geological forces. A goodwill Lunar sample gifted to Canada by the United States is on display in the Earth Gallery. The Fossil Gallery is another permanent exhibition that contains fossils from dinosaurs, mammals, and marine animals from approximately 35 to 85 million years ago; including over 30 nearly complete sets of dinosaur skeletons dating between 65 and 85 million years old. A fairly complete specimen of an Edmontosaurus in

3614-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English

3753-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given

3892-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including

4031-462: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share

4170-420: Is designed with glazed walls from the exhibit spaces, acting as a functional exhibit for the museum with its colour coded piping. The museum organizes a number of permanent, temporary, and travelling exhibitions . The museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions place an emphasis on being interactive with visitors. Although the museum is primarily interactive, a number of traditional display cases containing

4309-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in

Canadian Museum of Nature - Misplaced Pages Continue

4448-503: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English

4587-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from

4726-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in

4865-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for

5004-576: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,

5143-472: Is the first purpose-built museum building erected in Canada. The federal government authorized the construction of the building in 1901, in honour of Queen Victoria; with construction for the building taking place between 1905 and 1911. After its completion, the building housed the national museums, in addition to the National Gallery of Canada from 1911 to 1959. The building's auditorium also housed

5282-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure

5421-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in

5560-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially

5699-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism

Canadian Museum of Nature - Misplaced Pages Continue

5838-722: The Tiktaalik roseae . The species was discovered by American paleontologists Edward Daeschler , Farish Jenkins , and Neil Shubin on Ellesmere Island , who studied the fossils in the United States before they were sent to the Canadian Museum of Nature. Supporting and conducting research into natural history forms a part of the museum's core mandate according to the Museum Act . The museum's Research Services are split into two disciplines, life sciences and earth sciences . The museum operates two cross-disciplinary centres,

5977-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of

6116-462: The Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as

6255-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of

6394-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains

6533-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,

6672-733: The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), an organization established in 1842 in Montreal . In 1856 the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada passed an act that enabled the GSC to establish a museum to exhibit items found from its geological and archaeological field trips; with the museum initially established in Montreal. In 1877, the museum mandate was formally expanded to include the study of modern fauna and flora, in addition to human history, languages, and traditions. In 1881,

6811-627: The Government of Nunavut . Canada Goose Inc. is the gallery's title sponsor. Collecting efforts by the Canadian Museum of Nature forms a part of the museum's core mandate, with the collection intended to be used to facilitate "interest in, knowledge of and appreciation and respect for the natural world." The museum's collection includes algae, amphibians, birds, bryophytes, fishes, gemstones, invertebrate animals, lichens, mammals, minerals, mosses, palaeobotany material, reptiles, rocks, vascular plants, and vertebrate fossils. In addition these specimens,

6950-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It

7089-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It

SECTION 50

#1732772755742

7228-405: The Ottawa Little Theatre until 1916. The theatre company was forced to vacate the space after a fire ravaged Centre Block , forcing the temporary relocation of the parliament to the building until 1920. The Canadian Museum of Nature became the building's sole occupant after the Canadian Museum of Civilization relocated to another facility in 1988. On 23 February 1990, the building was designated as

7367-520: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin

7506-455: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

7645-474: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed

7784-439: The Beaty Centre for Species Discovery and the Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration. Museum researchers have been conducting research on Arctic flora since the 1980s, with a particular emphasis on alkali grass . Other major research programs the museum took part in include several excavations of the Foremost Formation for dinosaur remains, and the China-Canada Dinosaur Project between 1986 and 1991. Between 1972 and 1995,

7923-441: The Canadian Museum of Civilization in 1988, and the Canadian Museum of History in 2013), while the science and technology branch became the National Museum of Science and Technology (later renamed the Canada Science and Technology Museum ). In the same year, the National Museums of Canada Corporation (NMC) was formed to serve as an umbrella organization for the national museums, as well as provide support and administrative units for

8062-510: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French

8201-614: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,

8340-422: The Crown corporation, including the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum. Prior to the construction of the Ingenium Centre, the site was occupied by the museum's observatory; which was dismantled in 2016. The grounds of the museum includes a 4.0 hectares (10 acres) park in front of the building, and includes a pathway that leads to

8479-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of

SECTION 60

#1732772755742

8618-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained

8757-421: The National Herbarium of Canada collection. The museum's collection also includes the skull of an Albertosaurus , the first dinosaur skull found in Canada, discovered by Joseph Tyrrell . Other specimens from its fossil collection include the holotypes for the Daspletosaurus torosus and the Vagaceratops . The former skeletal set was initially mistaken for a Gorgosaurus although research conducted by

8896-414: The National Museum of Science and Technology, alongside the Canada Aviation Museum and the Agriculture Museum . In 2000, the National Museum of Science and Technology was renamed the Canada Science and Technology Museum. During the early 2000s, several plans were proposed by the federal government to move the museum building from its location to a new site. In 2012, the museum was prompted to modify

9035-410: The National Museum was transferred from the Department of Mines to the Department of Resources and Development in 1950. In 1956, the museum was split into two branches, one focused on natural history and another on anthropology. The mandate of the museum was later expanded when the National Museum of Canada assumed management of the Canadian War Museum in 1958. A history division was established within

9174-498: The Natural Heritage Campus in Gatineau, Quebec. The off-site facility holds over 3.1 million accessioned lots representing more than 10.6 million specimens. As of 2014, approximately 22 per cent of the accessioned lots have been digitized and may be viewed through an online database. Since 2001, there were approximately 43,000 specimens added to the museum's collections annually; acquired primarily through fieldwork by staff, research associates and other collaborators. The first items from

9313-408: The Victoria Memorial Museum Building. The museum's collection contains over 14.6 million specimens of the natural world, several of which are displayed in its permanent exhibitions. The museum also hosts and organizes several travelling exhibitions and supports and conducts several research programs relating to natural history. The Canadian Museum of Nature originates from the collecting efforts of

9452-402: The bone structure inside their body, and their muscle and blood systems. The medical exhibition occupies 330 square metres (3,500 sq ft) of space, and includes nearly 100 pieces from the museum's collection. A specimen bottle containing the first appendix removed through an appendectomy , by Abraham Groves , is on display in the exhibition. Wearable Tech is a permanent exhibition at

9591-410: The building was initially designed to mirror the Canadian Parliament Buildings as a part of a larger envisioned planned capital . The property is surrounded by several roadways including O'Connor Street to the west, and Metcalfe Street to the east. Metcalfe Street's southern and northern portions also terminate north and south of the building as it detours to the east of the property. The building

9730-517: The building's entrance. The most recent changes to the surrounding park occurred with the approval of a new landscaping project approved by the National Capital Commission in 2017. The museum first occupied the site in 1967, having repurposed a pre-existing bakery and distribution centre for its own use. The building was later renovated and expanded to 13,458 square metres (144,860 sq ft) from 2014 to 2017, with designs by Canadian architecture firm NORR. The 2014 to 2017 renovations also saw

9869-445: The building, and its southern wall risked collapse. In November 2014, it was announced that the building would remain closed to the public until 2017, as a part of a C$ 80.5 million overhaul of the building's interior and façade, and expand the building's exhibition space. During the closure, several larger artifacts displayed outside, including the Atlas rocket and a pumpjack originally from Saskatchewan were dismantled. The former

10008-513: The colder climate, the ceramic white tiles were installed with Neolith stone slabs. Use of the Neolith slabs also allowed NORR to incorporate sharp angles and smooth expanses into their building designs. A three-minute looping video is played on the LED surface, with a second phase of the film projected on the flat ceramic wall facing St. Laurent Boulevard during the evenings. The interior entrance of

10147-703: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Canada Science and Technology Museum The museum originated as the science and technology branch of the defunct National Museum of Canada. The branch opened its own building in 1967, and subsequently became its own institution in 1968, named the National Museum of Science and Technology . The museum adopted its current name in 2000. The museum's building underwent significant renovations from 2014 to 2017, which saw most of

10286-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French

10425-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French

10564-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as

10703-400: The entrance is raised 12 metres (40 ft) in height, and includes 108.9 square metres (1,172 sq ft) canopy. The building's entrance is cladded in a white ceramic material that doubles as a 76-metre-long (250 ft) projection screen. In total, approximately 2,025.2 square metres (21,799 sq ft) of ceramic material was used throughout the building's façade. To accommodate

10842-467: The exhibitions, seismic and building code upgrades, mechanical and electrical system upgrades, asbestos removal , and repairing and restoring the masonry on the building. Designs for the 2004-2010 renovations, including the Queens' Lantern, was a joint effort between Barry Padolsky Associates Inc., KPMB Architects , and Gagnon Joint Venture Architects; with PCL Construction contracted to renovate and build

10981-452: The expansion. Materials used to erect the building include Tyndall stone , steel frames, reinforced concrete, stone exterior cladding, and sandstone. Most of the sandstone used in the building was quarried from Nepean , Ontario, Wallace , Nova Scotia , and several communities in Quebec. Granite used in the building was quarried from Stanstead , Quebec. The Natural Heritage Campus houses

11120-469: The facility's storage spaces to house the museum's specimens. To help preserve the specimens, none of the storage facilities share a wall with the exterior of the building; with a specially sealed corridor surrounding its storage spaces. The museum has seven permanent exhibitions at its Victoria Memorial Museum Building. In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the museum also hosts and organizes several travelling exhibitions . The permanent exhibitions at

11259-400: The first 20 years of operation, the museum's collecting and research efforts focused on "type collecting," as curators attempted to assemble a collection of different types of machines, and researched only their function and internal operations. A shift towards public history and exploring the cultural role these technologies played in society did not emerge until the 1980s. The museum hosts

11398-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of

11537-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,

11676-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being

11815-738: The institution published its own scientific journal , Syllogeus . The museum also operates a library and archive at the Natural Heritage Centre. The library contains over 35,000 books, 2,000 periodic titles, museum publications, and microfilms relating to natural history. The museum's archives contain three collections: archival records relating to the museum; a photograph collection of more than 275,000 slides, photos, negatives, and plates; and an art collection of 1,800 works primarily focused on nature. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

11954-470: The institution renamed the National Museum of Canada in 1927. The departments of the national museum were later split into separate national institutions, with the natural history department forming the National Museum of Natural Sciences in 1968. The museum adopted its current name in 1990 after it was made its own autonomous crown corporation . From 2004 to 2010, the museum renovated and expanded

12093-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French

12232-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon

12371-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,

12510-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what

12649-427: The locomotives have formed part of an exhibit on steam power, being exhibited next to a steam engine from a Canadian Coast Guard ship. The museum's collection preserves objects and data relating to the scientific and technological heritage of the country. The museum's collections originates from a small collection of artifacts transferred to the institution from the defunct National Museum of Canada in 1966. In 1989,

12788-542: The most extensive collection of plant pressings by Traill. The Traill collection forms a part of the National Herbarium of Canada, the museum's botany collection. The museum's herpetology collection includes over 133,000 specimens and forms the world's largest collection of herpetological specimens that originate from Canada. The museum also holds the largest collection of Arctic plant specimens from Canada; with over 100,000 Arctic plant specimens forming part of

12927-424: The museum adopted a collection development strategy that provided its collection team with a more focused approach to explore how science and technology contributed to the "transformation of Canada". The museum's collection has grown through acquisitions and donations. Approximately 90 per cent of items in the museum's collection are donated, most of whom were gifted to the museum at the donor's initiative. However,

13066-674: The museum and relocated online. In 2018, the museum announced it had suspended large-scale collecting efforts, until new storage facilities at the Ingenium Centre were completed, and its excess items were moved inside it. The museum is situated in Ottawa, adjacent to the Sheffield Glen neighbourhood on St. Laurent Boulevard . The museum building is situated next to the Ingenium Centre, a building that houses Ingenium's research labs and storage facilities for museums operated by

13205-402: The museum does not accept conditional donations. As of 2021, the permanent collection includes approximately 20,000 artifact lots with 60,000 individual objects and 80,000 photos and other associated archival materials; providing the museum with the largest collection of scientific and technological artifacts in Canada. Items rom the collection date from the 12th century to present. Items from

13344-471: The museum during the 1960s determined that the fossils were a new species of dinosaur. The holotype for the Vagaceratops was similarly mistaken for a different species when its fossils were first delivered to the museum in 1958; with museum researchers later discovering the fossil was a new species after removing it from the plaster field during the 1990s. In 2015, the museum received over 60 specimens of

13483-552: The museum features an interactive light and sound display inspired after auroras . The building's contains five main galleries, a temporary exhibition space, an artifacts gallery, creative spaces and classrooms, theatres, cafeterias, boutiques, and offices. The building contains over 7,400 square metres (80,000 sq ft) of exhibition space, including a 850 square metres (9,200 sq ft) temporary exhibition hall for travelling exhibitions. The museum's chiller boiler system provides localized heating and cooling controls, and

13622-461: The museum include the Bird Gallery; with over 500 specimens mounted throughout the gallery, representing over 450 species. Several diorama backgrounds featured in the Bird Gallery were painted by James Perry Wilson . The Mammal Gallery is a gallery centred on mammals found in Canada, and also includes several dioramas painted by Clarence Tillenius during the mid-20th century. The Earth Gallery

13761-654: The museum is the Canada Goose Arctic Experience, with over 200 specimens and artifacts from the Canadian Arctic on display in the exhibition. The Arctic Experience gallery was opened in June 2017, coinciding with the 150th anniversary celebrations for Canada . The Arctic Experience gallery encompasses 8,000 square feet (740 m), and is divided into four themed areas that cover climate, ecosystems, geography, and sustainability; in addition to

13900-467: The museum relocated from Montreal to downtown Ottawa ; although space in the new facility soon proved to be inadequate, with the Royal Society of Canada petitioning the federal government to build a new building for the museum by 1896. Preliminary plans for a new building were drawn up by 1899, although work on the building did not begin until 1906. In the following year, management of the museum

14039-581: The museum retains all rights and control over the content of the exhibition. Permanent exhibitions include Artifact Alley , an exhibition at the centre of the museum that features over 700 artifacts on display; the Sound by Design , an interactive exhibition where visitors can try a variety of instruments and musical inventions; and The Great Outdoors , an exhibition on transportation and outdoor recreation. The permanent exhibition Medical Sensations also includes an interactive exhibit that allows visitors to see

14178-485: The museum was the only remaining occupant of the Victoria Memorial building. In 1997, the museum opened a new research and collections facility in Gatineau , Quebec , consolidating its research facilities and collections holdings in one building. Between 2004 and 2010, the federal government spent approximately C$ 216 million dollars on expanding and renovating the Canadian Museum of Nature. Construction for

14317-456: The museum which displays a variety of body-worn artifacts drawn from the museum's collections, including a modernized amauti , Google Glass , and Newtsuit . Crazy Kitchen is an exhibition that explores human perception, and is the oldest permanent exhibition maintained by the museum. Crazy Kitchen and the locomotives installed inside are the only remaining exhibits that date back to the museum's opening in 1967. Since its renovations in 2017,

14456-470: The museum's Fossil Gallery was the first specimen to be mounted in a Canadian museum; having been acquired by the museum in 1912 and on display since 1913. The other permanent exhibitions include Nature Live, a gallery that houses live arachnids, insects and other invertebrates; and the Water Gallery, which focuses on marine animals and hydrology . The newest permanent exhibition to be introduced at

14595-538: The museum's administrative offices, scientific facilities, and collection storage. Situated in Gatineau, Quebec, the 76 hectares (190 acres) campus was opened by the museum in 1997. The building itself is 20,478 square metres (220,420 sq ft), and offers workspaces, in addition to laboratory spaces. The building includes three environmentally controlled "pods," housing 42 individual collection rooms and nine documentation rooms. More than 3,000 cabinets are used in

14734-423: The museum's anthropology branch in 1964. In 1968, the branches of the National Museum of Canada were split into separate museums. The Canadian Museum of Nature originated from the natural history branch of the museum, initially incorporated as the National Museum of Natural Sciences . The anthropological and human history branch of the former National Museum of Canada became the National Museum of Man (later renamed

14873-499: The museum's collection also includes a collection of art and film pertaining to natural history, audio recording of animal behaviours, and animal models; the latter two typically employed in the museum's exhibitions. As of February 2017 the museum's collection includes over 14.6 million specimens, forming the largest collection of biological specimens in Canada. Although a number of these items are on display in its exhibitions, many of these specimens are held at an off-site storage facility,

15012-587: The museum's collection includes an electronic sackbut ; the first electron microscope produced in North America; the country's largest refracting telescope , from the Dominion Observatory ; the original hitchBOT that travelled across Canada; and George Klein 's prototype for the world's first motorized wheelchair. The Canada Science and Technology Museum acquired the prototype from the National Museum of American History in 2005. In

15151-522: The museum's collection must be approved by its board of trustees and offered to another museum before it is disposed of through other channels like Crown Assets Distribution . Notable artifacts related to transportation include the last spike for the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway ; a McLaughlin-Buick and railway car used during the 1939 royal tour of Canada ; the Bras d'Or prototype hydrofoil ; two nocturnals dating back to 17th century;

15290-629: The museum's collection originated from the collecting efforts of John Macoun , who was hired as the museum's first biologist by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1882. Other early researchers who helped build up the institution's collections includes Erling Porsild , Charles Mortram Sternberg , and Percy A. Taverner . In addition to museum staff, the museum's collection also includes specimens collected from other naturalists including Catharine Parr Traill . The museum's collection includes over 25 scrapbooks from Traill from 1866 to 1899, forming

15429-647: The museum's collection that are not on display are stored in the Ingenium Centre's storage facilities. Items from the museum's library and archives is also located in the Ingenium Centre, sharing facilities with the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum. The collection is organized into eight categories, communications; computing and mathematics; domestic technologies; energy and mining; industrial technology; medical technology; scientific instruments; and transportation. The permanent collection also contains several smaller collections. The CN Photo Collection

15568-582: The museum's exhibitions and public programs, while its administrative, research and collections facility is situated at the Natural Heritage Centre in Gatineau. The Victoria Memorial Museum Building in Ottawa houses the museum's exhibitions and galleries and other public programs operated by the museum. The building is located on a 3.6 hectares (8.9 acres) property is located in Centretown , a neighbourhood of Ottawa. Situated approximately 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) south of Centre Block on Parliament Hill ,

15707-585: The museum, including an Atlas long-range rocket in 1973, and a pre-fabricated iron lighthouse in 1980. The lighthouse was originally built during the 1860s in Cape North , Nova Scotia , before it was disassembled and brought to Ottawa. In 1990, the National Museums of Canada Corporation was disbanded. A new Crown corporation, Ingenium , was formed through the Museums Act, 1990 to manage

15846-484: The museums. The National Museum of Natural Sciences formed a part of the NMC until the organization was dissolved in 1988. In 1990, the government of Canada passed the Museums Act , which led to the National Museum of Natural Sciences and several national museums being incorporated as autonomous crown corporations . The same act also renamed the National Museum of Natural Sciences into the Canadian Museum of Nature. By 1990,

15985-508: The natural history branch forming the National Museum of Natural Sciences , and the science and technology branch forming the National Museum of Science and Technology. The National Museums of Canada Corporation was also formed that year to manage the new institutions, including the National Museum of Science and Technology. The museum's early exhibition designs were inspired by equivalent museums in Europe that emphasized interactive exhibitions. A number of larger artifacts were installed outside

16124-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by

16263-589: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;

16402-504: The original structure renovated. The museum's collection contains over 20,000 artifact lots with 60,000 individual objects, some of which are on display in the museum's exhibitions. The museum also hosts and organizes a number of temporary and travelling exhibitions . The institution originates from the science and technology branch of the defunct National Museum of Canada. The National Museum of Canada originates from an institution formed in 1842, although its science and technology branch

16541-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of

16680-407: The outskirts of Ottawa was selected for use by the science and technology branch. The building opened to the public on 16 November 1967. In its first year, the museum attracted over 400,000 visitors. On 1 April 1968, the different branches of the National Museum of Canada were split up into several different institutions, with the museum's human history branch forming the National Museum of Man ,

16819-538: The place of the former central tower was built between 2004 and 2010. The new central tower, named the Queens' Lantern was formally opened in May 2010. The 20 metres (66 ft) glass tower houses a butterfly staircase that was installed to improve visitor circulation in the museum. The construction of the Queens' Lantern formed a part of a larger rehabilitation project undertaken by the museum between 2004 and 2010, including

16958-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French

17097-547: The rehabilitation project was done in phases, with large portions of the existing structure removed and demolished for renovations. On 22 May 2010, International Day for Biological Diversity , the museum building was reopened to the public. The building's glass tower, or the Queens' Lantern , was dedicated in honour of Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II , with the latter attending the tower's dedication ceremony in June 2010. The Canadian Museum of Nature operates two facilities. The Victoria Memorial Museum Building in Ottawa houses

17236-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in

17375-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In

17514-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French

17653-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by

17792-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of

17931-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of

18070-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as

18209-417: Was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French

18348-471: Was assumed by the Department of Mines , with the mandate formally expanded to include anthropological studies. The new museum building, the Victoria Memorial building, was also completed in 1910, although it was not opened to the public until 1912. In 1927, the museum division of the Department of Mines was renamed the National Museum of Canada ; with the museum formally split from the GSC. Management of

18487-522: Was dismantled and destroyed in accordance with the rocket's owner, the United States Air Force , whereas the latter was dismantled and placed in storage. During the building's closure, the institution lent out the museum's exhibitions for public display. The new building was reopened to the public on 17 November 2017. As a result of the renovations, portraits of Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame inductees were removed from

18626-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but

18765-463: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul

18904-652: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates

19043-503: Was not formed until 1966. The science and technology branch was headed by its own director, David McCurdy Baird , and had a small collection of artifacts transferred under its care by the National Museum of Canada. Baird was hired as the museum's first director in October 1966 to help oversee the design and installation of the science and technology museum. In April 1967, the former bakery and distribution centre for Morrison Lamothe in

19182-594: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of

19321-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,

#741258