Montreal (French: Montréal; pronounced [mɔ̃ʁeˈal] (
listen) in French, 
i/ˌmʌntriˈɑːl/ in English) is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Québec. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "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 July 2009, Statistics Canada identifies Montréal's Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) (land area 4,259 square kilometres (1,644 sq mi) as Canada's second most populous with a population of 1,906,811 in the city and metropolitan area population of 3,814,700. As of the 2006 census, 1,620,698 people resided in the city, ranking it as the sixth largest city overall across Canada and the United States. The population of the metropolitan area (known as Greater Montreal) was 3,635,571 at 2006 census.
The language most spoken at home in the city is French by 60.5% of the population, followed by English at 18.6% (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. Although a few francophone African cities are bigger in size, such as Algiers, Kinshasa, and Abidjan, it is agreed that none of these cities have a significant number of mother-tongue French speakers. Montreal is consistently rated as one of the world's most livable cities and was called "Canada's Cultural Capital" by Monocle Magazine. Though historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population by Toronto in 1976. Today it continues as an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, culture, tourism, film and world affairs. As of 2009, Montreal is North America's number one host city for international association events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
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