Montreal

Montreal (French: Montréal) (pronounced [mɔ̃ʁeˈal] (help·info) in French, /ˌmʌntriˈɑːl/ in English) is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie (’City of Mary’), the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the city is located, or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French, (Mont Royal in present French).

As of the 2006 census, 1,620,693 people resided in the city, ranking it as the sixth largest city overall across Canada and the United States. The population of themetropolitan area (known as Greater Montreal) was 3,635,571 at the same 2006 census.

The language most spoken at home in the city is French by 57% of the population, followed by English at 19% (as of 2006 census). The official language of Montreal is French as defined by the city’s charter. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.