The 13 languages spoken most often in the US. Here in Chicago, the languages I hear spoken around me are primarily English, followed by Spanish and a smattering of Polish. But that doesn't reflect our country. According to Wikipedia, these are languages most commonly spoken at home in the United States.
Remember, this refers to conversation within a household. That doesn't mean that our neighbors don't understand English, our national language.
1. English (80% of households speak English exclusively)
2. Spanish
3. Chinese
4. Tagalog
5. Vietnamese
6. Modern Standard Arabic
7. French
8. Korean
9. Russian
10. Portugese
11. Haitian Creole
12. Hindi
13. German
Does this reflect your neighborhood? I know I was surprised that Polish came in at #14. When I'm in the hallway I can hear my neighbor Hannah on the phone, speaking Polish.
Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.
Wow. I had never heard of Tagalog, I had to look that up (it's from the Philippines). Around here, mostly I hear English. Sometimes I hear a foreign language in the supermarket locally, but not often. If I go into the city, I hear Spanish occasionally, and what sounds to me like Hindi, but I don't know that for sure. Great TT.
ReplyDeleteWell, there are more Philipino than Indonesian in US
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. I speak two of those besides English, with varying levels of fluency. French and Vietnamese. I also speak Polish. I was a linguist in the Army and a nerd who loves learning languages! I grew up near the Canadian border in NY, so there was a lot of French. But living in Hawai'i, there's a lot of Tagalog, Japanese, Hawaiian, Hawaiian Creole, Ilocano , Vietnamese, and Chinese.
ReplyDeleteLiving along the border with Quebec, Canada, there is a heavy French influence around the river valley (referred to as The Valley).
ReplyDeleteAt the school where I teach, Spanish is spoken probably almost as much as English. We also have some students who are refugees from Africa and many speak Swahili. I speak a little Spanish, but I am not fluent. This was an interesting post.
ReplyDelete