Languages in the United States of America

The United States does not have an official language at the federal level. English is the language generally used for official pronouncements, though there is legislation that assists non-English speakers, such as the Voting Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992, which prohibits covered States and political subdivisions from providing English-only voting materials.

Twenty-seven individual states have adopted English as their official language, and three of those-Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico-have also adopted a second official language (Hawaiian, French and Spanish, respectively).

Spanish follows English as the second-most spoken language primarily due to the influence of recent Latin American immigrants. It is the primary spoken language in some areas of the Southwest. Puerto Rico’s first language is Spanish. While it is a US commonwealth and not a state, its citizens have similar rights and their migration has had a significant linguistic impact on New York State and other areas.

The primary signed language is American Sign Language (ASL).

As of 2004, the United States was the home of approximately 336 languages (spoken or signed), of which 176 are indigenous to U.S. territory.

The United States is home to approximately 336 languages (spoken or signed) of which 176 are indigenous to the area. 52 languages formerly spoken in the US territory are now extinct (Grimes 2000).

Official language status

The United States does not have an official language; nevertheless, American English (referred to in the US as simply English) is the language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements. Many individual states have adopted English as their official language:

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming

Several states and territories are officially bilingual:
Louisiana (English and French),
New Mexico (English and Spanish),
Hawaii (Hawaiian English and Hawaiian),
Puerto Rico (Spanish and English),
Guam (Chamorro and English),
American Samoa (Samoan and English);

And one is officially trilingual:
Northern Mariana Islands (English, Chamorro, and Carolinian).

Until the 1950s, Pennsylvania was officially bilingual in English and German.

Native American languages are official or co-official on many of the US Indian reservations and Pueblos.

In 2000, the census bureau printed the standard census questionnaires in six languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin (in traditional characters), Vietnamese, and Tagalog. The English-only movement seeks to establish English as the only official language of the entire nation.

Pre-colonial languages

American Indian languages

The Native American languages predate European settlement of the New World. In a few parts of the U.S. (mostly on Indian reservations) they continue to be spoken fluently. Most of these languages are endangered, although there are efforts to revive them. Normally the fewer the speakers of a language the greater the degree of endangerment but there are many small Native American language communities in the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico) which continue to thrive despite their small size.

According to the 2000 Census and other language surveys, the largest Native American language-speaking community by far is the Navajo. The largest communities are:

Navajo

178,000 speakers. Navajo is one of the Athabascan languages of the Na-Dene family. Along with the closely related Apache, the Navajo are relative newcomers to the Southwest, arriving only a few centuries before the Spanish.

Dakota

18,000 speakers (22,000 including speakers in Canada), not counting 6000 speakers of the closely related Lakota. Dakota is a member of the Siouan language family.

Central Alaskan Yup’ik

16,000 speakers. The Yup’ik are part of the Eskimo-Aleut language family, but are not Inuit.

Cherokee

16,000 speakers, of the Iroquoian language family. The Cherokee have the largest tribal affiliation in the US, but most are of mixed ancestry and do not speak the language.

Western Apache

12,500 speakers. Also of the Na-Dene language family. Not mutually intelligible with Navajo, but the relationship is easy to see.

Pima

12,000 speakers. One of the Uto-Aztecan languages, along with Hopi, Comanche, Huichol, and Aztec.

Choctaw

11,000 speakers. One of the Muskogean language family, like Seminole and Alabama.

Keres

11,000 speakers. A language isolate, the Keres are the largest of the Pueblo nations. The Keres pueblo of Acoma is the oldest continually inhabited community in the United States.

Zuni

10,000 speakers. Zuni is a language isolate mostly spoken in a single pueblo, Zuni, the largest in the US.

Ojibway/Chippewa

7,000 speakers (about 55,000 including speakers in Canada). The Algonquian language family includes populous languages like Cree in Canada.

Other languages

North America, and especially California and the Pacific Coast, is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world. As a result, many different languages that have been spoken within the current borders of the United States. The following is a list of 28 language families (groups of demonstrably related languages) indigenous to the territory of the continental United States. With further study, some of these will probably turn out to be related to each other. For example, a relationship between Alsea, Coos, Siuslaw, and Wintu looks promising.

Algic
Alsean
Caddoan
Chimakuan
Chinookan
Chumashan
Coosan
Comecrudan
Eskimo-Aleut
Iroquoian
Kalapuyan
Kiowa-Tanoan
Maiduan
Muskogean
Na-Dene
Palaihnihan
Plateau Penutian
Pomoan
Salishan
Shastan
Siouan
Tsimshian
Utian
Uto-Aztecan
Wakashan
Wintuan
Yokutsan
Yuman-Cochimi

In addition to the above list of families, there are many languages in the US that are well enough known to attempt to classify, but which have not been shown to be related to any other language in the world. These 25 language isolates are listed below. With further study, some of these will likely prove to be related to each other or to one of the established families.

Yuki-Wappo, for example, looks promising, and Natchez is frequently classified with the Muskogean family. Others, such as Cayuse and Adai, are so poorly known that it will probably never be possible to classify them properly. There are also larger, and more contentious proposals, such as Penutian and Hokan.

Adai
Atakapa
Cayuse
Chimariko
Chitimacha
Coahuilteco
Esselen
Haida
Karankawa
Karok
Keres
Kootenai
Natchez
Salinan
Siuslaw
Takelma
Timucua
Tonkawa
Tunica
Washo
Yana
Yuchi
Yuki
Wappo
Zuni

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.