Languages spoken in USA and their importance
18 Jan Languages spoken in USA and their importance
The United States is known to be the ‘Country of Immigrants’ and has been the cradle for many mass migrations that have occurred since historical times. This made the US a nation of multicultural and multilingual communities. There is a diverse combination of languages spoken in USA; and even though English is its most commonly spoken language, it has no official language at all.
Being a former colony of the British Empire, it is understandably obvious that English is still the most widely used language in the US.
Researchers have surveyed the languages that are being spoken in the country particularly in the homes. It reflected a truly diverse country due to its people.
Important languages spoken in USA
- Primarily spoken by more than 231 million speakers, where it’s widely used in the government, in entertainment, and in school teachings. It may not be surprising as the nation has been colonized by the British Empire.
- British colonization had covered the most of America, but Spanish colonizers had conquered Florida and many parts of Latin America. With over 37 million speakers, this had made the US second in the list of the world’s largest Spanish speaking communities; posing on top of Spain and next to the topmost Mexico.
- Around 3 million people speak only Chinese in their households. Collectively, the Chinese languages spoken in the US include the dialects or varieties like Cantonese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, and a few more.
- About 2 million French speaking people are found in the US.
They are mostly from the households in Louisiana (bought from France by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase) and Maine.
- Around 1.6 million Tagalog speaking people that are now residing in the US, particularly in California, Nevada, and Hawaii.
Their increase followed after the Philippines was annexed by the United States.
- About 1.4 million people in the US speak Vietnamese.
They can be found mostly in California, where the Little Saigon in Orange County is found.
Vietnamese population increased after the Vietnam War.
- More than 1.1 million Korean speakers in the US were immigrants after the Korean War. Their largest populations are found in New York, California, and New Jersey.
- Around 1 million German speaking people are in the US and they are mostly found in North and South Dakota.
- At around 0.9 million, Arabic speakers can be found the most in New York, California, Texas, and Michigan, therefore Arabic is one of the important languages spoken in USA.
- Like Arabic speakers, there are also around 0.9 million Russian speakers residing in the US. Many of them can be found in California, New York, Washington, and Alaska.
The above are the most important languages spoken in USA at the time, but with more and more migrants getting in the United States every day, the classification may change over time. The translation industry might change as well as the need for certified translation in at the highest levels.