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Since the languages in the Americas have been spoken here for about 17,000-12,000 years, our current knowledge of American languages is limited. There are doubtless a number of languages that were spoken in the United States that are missing from historical record.

Native American sign languages
A sign-language trade pidgin, known as Plains Indian Sign Language or Plains Standard, arose among the Plains Indians. Each signing nation had a separate signed version of their spoken language, that was used by the hearing, and these were not mutually intelligible. Plains Standard was used to communicate between these nations. It seems to have started in Texas, and then spread north, though the Great Plains, as far as British Columbia. There are still a few users today, especially among the Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Unlike other sign languages developed by hearing people, it shares the spatial grammar of deaf sign languages.

Austronesian languages

Hawaiian
Hawaiian is an official state language of Hawaii as prescribed in the Constitution of Hawaii. Hawaiian has 1000 native speakers. Formerly considered critically endangered, Hawaiian is showing signs of language renaissance. The recent trend is based on new Hawaiian language immersion programs of the Hawaii State Department of Education and the University of Hawaii, as well as efforts by the Hawaii State Legislature and county governments to preserve Hawaiian place names. In 1993 about 8,000 could speak and understand it; today estimates range up to 27,000.

Samoan
Samoan is an official territorial language of American Samoa. Samoans make up 90% of the population, and most people are bilingual.

Chamorro
Chamorro is co-official in the Mariana Islands, both in the territory of Guam and in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In Guam, the Chamorro people make up about half of the population.

Carolinian
Carolinian is also co-official in the Northern Marianas, where only 14% of people speak English at home.

The colonial languages
In the 17th century, there were colonies in North America, whose languages were English (from Virginia and Nova Albion colonies), Dutch (from New Netherland), French (from New France), Spanish (from New Spain), Swedish (from New Sweden), Scottish Gaelic (from Carolina), Welsh (from Welsh Tract) and Russian (from Russian-American Company).

English
English was inherited from British colonization and it is spoken by the vast majority of the population. It serves as the de facto language: the language in which government business is carried out. According to the 1990 census, 97% of U.S. residents speak English "well" or "very well". Only 0.8% speak no English at all, as compared with 3.6% in 1890. American English is different from British English, in terms of spelling (a classic example being the dropped "u" in words such as color/colour), grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and slang usage. The differences are not usually a barrier to effective communication between an American English and a British English speaker, but there are certainly enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings, usually surrounding slang or region dialect differences. Two cores of English speaking are on the Eastern Seaboard, which were the Thirteen Colonies chartered by the Virginia Company and Oregon Country, formerly called New Albion and settled from the Oregon Trail.

Some states, like California, have amended their constitutions to make English the only official language, but in practice, this only means that official government documents must at least be in English, and does not mean that they should be exclusively available only in English. For example, the standard California Class C driver's license examination is available in 32 different languages.

French
See French in the United States
French (in its Cajun variant) is the second official language in the state of Louisiana. The largest French-speaking communities in the United States reside in Northeast Maine; Hollywood and Miami, Florida; New York City and certain areas of rural Louisiana. More than 13 million Americans possess primary French heritage, but only 1.5 million speak that language.

Welsh
Up to two million Americans are thought to have Welsh ancestry, however, there is very little Welsh being used commonly in the USA. However, some key Welsh words and phrases have been adopted in some areas, and some place names, such as Bryn Mawr (English: Big Hill) in Chicago are Welsh. Examples include, 'bore da' meaning good morning, which is used sparingly. Several towns in Pennsylvania, mostly in the Welsh Tract, have Welsh namesakes, including Uwchlan, Bala Cynwyd, and Tredyffrin.

Scottish Gaelic

Dutch
In 1602, the government of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands chartered the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) with the mission of exploring for a passage to the Indies and claiming any unchartered territories for the Dutch republic.

In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson attempted to find a northwest passage to the Indies, instead discovering areas of current United States and Canada, among others giving his name to the Hudson River and Hudson Bay and claiming the surrounding land for the VOC.

After some early trading expeditions, the first settlement was founded in 1615: Fort Nassau, on Castle Island, near present-day Albany. The settlement served mostly as a trade post for fur trade with the natives and was later replaced by Fort Oranje (or Fort Orange) at present-day Albany.

In 1621, a new company was established with a trading monopoly in the Americas and West Africa: the Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie or WIC). The WIC sought recognition for the area in the New World - which had been called New Netherland - as a province, which was granted in 1623. Soon after, the first colonists, mostly from present-day Belgium and Germany, arrived in the new province.

In 1626, director general of the WIC Peter Minuit "purchased" the island of Manhattan from Indians and started the construction of fort New Amsterdam. In the same year, Fort Nassau was built in the New Jersey area. Other settlements were Fort Casimir (Newcastle) and Fort Beversrede (Philadelphia). In 1655, the main settlement of New Sweden, Fort Christina, was captured after the Swedes had briefly occupied Fort Casimir. Large numbers of the inhabitants of these settlements were not Dutch, but came from a variety of other European countries, including England.

In 1664, English troops under the command of the Duke of York (later James II of England) attacked the New Netherland colony. Being greatly outnumbered, director general Peter Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam, with Fort Orange following soon. New Amsterdam was renamed New York, Fort Orange was renamed Fort Albany.

Martin van Buren, the first President born in the United States (As opposed to the British colonies), spoke Dutch as his native language, making him the only President whose first language was not English.

Dutch was still spoken in many parts of New York at the time of the Revolution. For example, Alexander Hamilton's wife Eliza Hamilton attended a Dutch-language church during their marriage.

In a 1990 demographic consensus, 3% of surveyed citizens claimed descent from Dutch settlers. Modern estimates place the Dutch-American population at 5 million, lagging just a bit behind Scottish-Americans and Swedish-Americans.

Notable Dutch-Americans include the Roosevelts, Marlon Brando, Thomas Alva Edison, Martin Van Buren and the Vanderbilts.

Only 20,000 people in the US still speak the Dutch language today, concentrated mainly in Michigan, Tennessee, Miami, Houston, and Chicago.

An aberrant vernacular dialect of Dutch, known as Jersey Dutch was spoken by a significant number of people in the New Jersey area between the start of the 17th century to the mid-20th century. With the beginning of the 20th century, usage of the language became restricted to internal family circles, with an ever-growing insurgence of people abandoning the language in favor of English. It was suffering gradual decline throughout the 20th century, and it ultimately dissipated from casual usage.

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German
German was a widely spoken tongue in some of the colonies, especially Pennsylvania, where a number of German-speaking religious minorities settled to escape persecution in Europe. Dutch, Swedish and Scottish Gaelic all became less common than German after the American Revolution. There is a myth (known as 'the Muhlenberg Vote') that German was to be the official language of the U.S., but this is inaccurate, and based on a failed early attempt to have government documents translated into German.[2] Another wave of settlement occurred when Germans fleeing the failure of 19th Century German revolutions emigrated to the United States. Large numbers of Germans settled throughout the U.S. especially in the cities. Neighborhoods in many cities were German speaking. German farmers took up farming around the country, including the Texas Hill Country, at this time. German was widely spoken until the United States entered World War I. Numerous local German language newspaper and periodicals existed.

In the early twentieth century, German was the most widely-studied foreign language in the United States, and prior to World War I, more than 6% of American school-children received their primary education exclusively in German, though some of these Germans came from areas outside of Germany proper. Currently, more than 47 million Americans claim German ancestry, the largest self-described ethnic group in the U.S., and 10% of them speak or could speak the language. The Amish speak a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch. German was a second official language of the State of Pennsylvania and widely spoken in the Midwest until the late 1950s. One reason for this decline of German language was the perception during both World Wars that speaking the language of the enemy was unpatriotic; foreign language instruction was banned in places during the First World War. Another was the demise of traditional agriculture. The last wave of German immigration followed the World War II, as post-war Germany suffered economic problems, and ethnic Germans were uprooted from their homes in Eastern Europe. Unlike earlier waves, they were more concentrated in cities, and integrated quickly. Since the Wirtschaftswunder, German immigration to the U.S. has all but ended. Most German Americans are completely integrated into the mainstream American society and the language is being taught less and less in schools because of diminishing demand.
See also: Hutterite German, Texas German, Pennsylvania Dutchified English, Plautdietsch.

Swedish
New Sweden, or Nya Sverige, was a Swedish colony in North America corresponding roughly to the networked region of urban sprawl around Philadelphia, containing such settlements as New Stockholm (now Bridgeport) and Swedesboro in New Jersey, as well as others in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The colony existed from March 1638 to September 1655.

The first Swedish expedition to North America was launched from the port of Gothenburg in late 1637. Samuel Blommaert assisted with the fitting-out and appointed Peter Minuit to lead the expedition. Minuit was formerly the governor of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands. The members of the expedition, traveling aboard the ships Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel, arrived in Delaware Bay, a location within the territory claimed by the Dutch, in late March 1638. They built a fort on the present-day location of the city of Wilmington, which they named Fort Christina, after Queen Christina of Sweden. In the following years, approximately one thousand people from the Swedish mainland and Finland settled in the colonized establishments and townships.

Widespread diaspora of Swedish immigration did not occur until the latter half of the 19th century, bringing in a total of a million Swedes. No other country had a higher percentage of its people leave for the United States except Ireland. At the beginning of the 20th century, Minnesota had the highest ethnic Swedish population in the world after the city of Stockholm.

3.7% of US residents claim descent from Scandinavian ancestors, amounting to roughly 11-12 million people. According to SIL's Ethnologue, over half a million ethnic Swedes still speak the language. Transculture assimilation has contributed to the gradual and steady decline of the language in the US. After the independence of the US from Great Britain, the government encouraged colonists to adopt the English language as a common medium of communication, and in some cases, imposed it upon them. Subsequent generations of Swedish-Americans received education in English and spoke it as their first language. Lutheran churches scattered across the midwest started abandoning Swedish in favour of English as their language of worship. Swedish newspapers and publications alike slowly faded away.

Predicted figures of citizens with direct Swedish ancestry usually remain between 5.5 million to 6 million, or 3% of the US population.

There are sizeable Swedish communities in Minnesota, Ohio, Maryland, Philadelphia and Delaware, along with small isolated pockets in Pennsylvania, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, and New York.

John Morton, the person who cast the decisive vote leading to the American Declaration of Independence, was a Finland-Swede.

Spanish
The Spanish language is the second-most common language in the country, spoken by about 28.1 million people (or 10.7% of the population) in 2000. In Puerto Rico, both Spanish and English have the status of official language, and in New Mexico both languages enjoy widespread usage. The United States holds the world's fifth largest Spanish-speaking population, outnumbered only by Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is predominantly Spanish-speaking. New Spain was steadily eroded in territory by Mestizo and American forces, from the Mexican-American War to the Spanish-American War. Although many new Latin American immigrants are less than fluent in English, second-generation Hispanic Americans nearly all speak English fluently, while only about half still speak Spanish. For a detailed history, see Spanish in the United States.

Spanglish is a Dialectical variation of Spanish and English and is spoken in areas with large bilingual populations of Spanish and English speakers, such as along the U.S. - Mexico border (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), Florida, and New York City.

Russian
The Russian language is frequently spoken in areas of Alaska, Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, New York City, and Chicago. The Russian-American Company used to own Alaska Territory, until selling it after the Crimean War. Russian had always been limited, especially after the assassination of the Romanov dynasty of tsars. The largest Russian-speaking neighborhoods in the United States are found in Queens and Brooklyn, in New York City (specifically the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn) and in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.

Finnish
The following of the Civil War prompted many Finnish citizens to immigrate to the United States, mainly in rural areas of the Midwest (and more primarily in Michigan's Upper Peninsula). Hancock, Michigan, as of 2005, still incorporates bi-lingual street signs written in both English and Finnish [3]. Americans of Finnish origin yield at 800,000 individuals, though actual speakers range between 20,000 and 50,000. Notable Finnish-Americans include Gus Hall, US Communist Party leader, Renny Harlin, film director, and the Canadian-born actress, Pamela Anderson. Another Finnish community in the US is found in Lake Worth, Florida, north of Miami.

Immigrant languages
The U.S. has long been the destination of many immigrants. From the mid 19th century on, the nation had large numbers of residents who spoke little or no English, and throughout the country state laws, constitutions, and legislative proceedings appeared in the languages of politically important immigrant groups. There have been bilingual schools and local newspapers in such languages as German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Greek, Polish, Swedish, Romanian, Czech, Japanese, Yiddish, Welsh, Cantonese, Bulgarian, etc., despite opposing English-only laws that, for example, illegalized church services, telephone conversations, and even conversations in the street or on railway platforms in any language other than English, until the first of these laws was ruled unconstitutional in 1923 (Meyer v. Nebraska). Currently, Asian languages account for the majority of languages spoken in immigrant communities: Korean, various Chinese languages, Hindi, Telugu, Vietnamese, and Tagalog. Typically, immigrant languages tend to be lost through assimilation within a few generations, though there are a couple groups such as the Cajuns (French), Pennsylvania Dutch (German), and the original settlers of the Southwest (Spanish) who have maintained their languages for centuries.

According to the 2000 census [4], the main immigrant/ex-colonial languages by number of speakers older than 5 are:

Spanish - 28 million
Chinese languages - 2.0 million + (mostly Cantonese, some Mandarin)
French - 1.6 million
German - 1.4 million (High German) + German dialects like Hutterite German, Texas German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Plautdietsch + Yiddish
Tagalog - 1.2 million
Vietnamese - 1.01 million
Italian - 1.01 million
Korean - 890 thousand
Russian - 710 thousand
Polish - 670 thousand
Arabic - 610 thousand
Portuguese - 560 thousand
Japanese - 480 thousand
French Creole - 450 thousand
Greek - 370 thousand
Hindi - 320 thousand
Persian - 310 thousand
Urdu - 260 thousand
Gujarati - 240 thousand
Armenian - 200 thousand

New American languages
Several languages have been born on American soil, including creoles and sign languages.

Gullah
Gullah, an English-African creole language is spoken on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. It retains strong influences of West African languages, and is distinct enough to be considered a separate language from English. [citation needed]

African-American Vernacular
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), also known as Ebonics, is a variety of English spoken by many African-Americans, in both rural and urban areas. Not all African-Americans speak AAVE, of course, and many Anglo-Americans do. Indeed, it is generally accepted that Southern American English is part of the same continuum as AAVE.

There is considerable debate among non-linguists as to whether the word "dialect" is appropriate to describe it. However, there is general agreement among linguists and many African Americans that AAVE is part of a historical continuum between creoles such as Gullah and the language brought by English colonists.

Some educators view AAVE as exerting a negative influence on the learning of Proper and Standard English, as numerous AAVE rules differ from the rules of Standard English. Other educators, however, propose that Standard English should be taught as a "second dialect" in areas where AAVE is a strong part of local tradition.

Hawaiian Creole
Hawaiian Pidgin, more accurately known as Hawaiian Creoles, is commonly used by locals and is considered an unofficial language of the state.

Sign languages
See also: Languages in the United States#Native American sign languages.
Please expand and improve this section. Further information might be found on this article's talk page or at Requests for expansion.

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language
Martha's Vineyard Sign Language is now extinct. Along with French Sign Language, it was one of two main contributors to American Sign Language.

American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is the native language of between 100,000 and 500,000 deaf people in America. Unlike Signed English, ASL is a natural language in its own right, not a manual representation of English.

Black American Sign Language
Black American Sign Language developed in segregated schools in the south. Much like AAVE and standard English, it differs in vocabulary and grammatical structure from ASL.

Hawaii Pidgin Sign Language
Hawaii Pidgin Sign Language (named after Hawaiian Pidgin English, but not itself a pidgin) is moribund.

Artificial languages

Esperanto
Esperanto is a constructed 'international' language, developed by L. L. Zamenhof, a Jewish occulist in the Russian part of partitioned Poland, and released in 1887. A nationwide organization called the Esperanto League for North America, headquartered in Emeryville, California oversees the Esperanto movement in the U.S., publishing literature, issuing a periodical, and organizing its annual conference. Smaller local groups organize meetings and annual banquets, and also host Esperanto-speaking foreign visitors.

See also
Culture of the United States
American English
Bilingual education
Language Spoken at Home (U.S. Census)

External links
Bilingualism in the United States
Detailed List of Languages Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over by State: U.S. Census 2000
Foreign Languages in the U.S. About foreign languages and language learning in the United States
How many indigenous American languages are spoken in the United States? By how many speakers?
Native Languages of the Americas
Spanish-speaking in the U.S.

Bibliography
Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671106-9. Online edition: http://www.ethnologue.com/, accessed on Dec. 7, 2004.
Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zededa, Ofelia; Hill, Jane H. (1991). The condition of Native American Languages in the United States. In R. H. Robins & E. M. Uhlenbeck (Eds.), Endangered languages (pp. 135-155). Oxford: Berg.

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