Many Languages (322) , One America (Report searchable by state, cities)

US English ^ | March 8, 2005 | US English survey

[FairOpinion]

Over the history of the United States, many languages have risen to the rank of "most important foreign language to know." A century ago, this title was bestowed on German. In subsequent years, the spotlight moved to French, then Japanese, and today is cast on Spanish. Tomorrow, Arabic or Chinese might take center stage.

What can be said for sure is that the United States has never been a land of just two languages. We have revolved around one central language — English — with many more languages making up the distinctly American accent. The amount of linguistic diversity varies between states, and even within states. Speakers of non-English languages, 321 at last count, are not evenly distributed within the United States, leaving each state, county, and metropolitan area with its own unique linguistic composition.

The scope of these differences illustrate the perilous nature of concentrating on a second or third language when creating language policy. Linguistic diversity in America encompasses far more than even the most ambitious efforts could meet. The true degree is brought to light by this report.

[FairOpinion]

A lot of interesting information -- searchable, you can search by your state or major metropolitan area.

For US:

1 English 215,423,555
2 Spanish 28,100,725
3 French 1,606,790

[FairOpinion]

In CA:

1 English 19,014,875
2 Spanish 8,105,445

[raybbr]

I don't see ebonics anywhere.

[StonyBurk]

When I served on Activ eDuty in Panama the Escuella De Las Americas The School we trained south American terrorists in our style of warfare-- was to provide Translators to
recieve the free medical /dental care at our clinics. The freakin School often ignored it. Our Base Commander to his
credit reminded the School we were an American Military base
and English is th eofficial language of the United States.
It was the duty of the beggars to obey the guidlines and
provide translators-IT was Not the obligaiton of our Doctors and Medical personell to play guessing games.