Languages in the US

immigrant an Americanism coined by Jeremy Belknap in 1792 (The history of New Hampshire) OED s.v. immigrant

language & ancestry Census 2000 (millions); total population 281 (2007: 303) ANCESTRY HOME LANGUAGE 215.4 42.8 28.1 30.5 2.0 24.9 1.6 24.5 1.4 20.2 1.2 18.4 1.0 (x 2) 15.6 0.9 9.0 0.7 (x 2) 8.3 0.6 7.9 Arabic, Chinese, English, French, African American, American, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, American Indian, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, German, Irish, Italian, Mexican, Vietnamese Polish

1 Hispanic Americans

Community Survey 2006: 42.5 million Hispanic Americans (14.4 % of the population) 21.5m from Mexico (Chicanos) 3.5m from Puerto Rico 1.2m Cuba + 3.8m Puerto Ricans on Puerto Rico

Hispanic Americans or Latinos

new immigrants or original settlers? fastest growing minority group: 1950 ~4m, 1996 27m Spanish explorations in the Southwest from 1540 Florida: Spain 1513-,Britain 1763-,Spain 1783-,USA 1821- Texas: Spain 1690-,Mexico 1821-,Texas 1836-,USA 1845- Santa Fe, New Mexico founded 1605 Jamestown, Virginia founded 1607

2 Chicano English

- simplification of consonant clusters: desk = des’ - devoicing of final voiced consonants: spies = spice - [v] word-finally [f] live (adj) = life, elsewhere [b] variety = bariety, fever = feber -[tʃ] = [ʃ] choose = shoes; initial [dʒ] = [j] just [jas] -[θ] = [t] and [ð] = [d] this thing = dis ting - stress on final element in compounds: police department, text book - rising intonation for stress, in statements

Spanish and/or English

Census 2000: 28.1m speak Spanish at home 51.1% speak English very well (20.7% speak English well)

Mexican Americans: most bilingual English .. Chicano English .. Spanglish .. Tex-Mex .. Spanish urban in California, rural in Texas Puerto Rico: education in Spanish + English as L2 US citizens since 1917 Cubans: second generation native English early 60’s well-educated political refugees

3 German

42.8m Americans of German ancestry 7.1m born in Germany 1.2m speak German at home (2000 census)

German influence on English placenames: Berlin, Germantown, Bismarck, Frederick loanwords: cookbook, delicatessen, ecology, kindergarten, nix, no way, will do, let it be middle-class, well educated by 1860, 28 daily newspapers in 15 cities language use: monolingual English or bilingual Eng/Ger Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvania Dutch) ca 255,800 speakers in USA (Census 2000) bilingual religious communities (Amish, Mennonites..)

4 Italians

15.7m people of Italian ancestry (600,000 born in Italy) 1m speak Italian (69% speak English very well; 20% well) early immigrants poor illiterate peasants from the South Little Italies influence on English loanwords: pizza, pasta, espresso, parmesan, broccoli, godfather, doing the dirty work, the family, hatchet man

Native Americans

2-2.4m native Americans 563 federally recognized tribal governments 145 languages reported in Census 2000; 400,000 speakers most languages endangered Navajo (178,000), Dakota (24,500), Cherokee (16,400) 45 languages with less than 100 speakers, 66 with 100-1000 speakers only seven languages with more than 10,000 speakers possible over-reporting

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