If one walks through one of the large cities’ streets in our country. They will hear and experience a variety of languages. Our history and tradition of being a land of immigrants is reflected in the languages we speak. This means that the USA is home to a vast number of languages, one would be hard pressed to find a language that is not spoken in the U.S. The official list as the number of languages spoken in the United States go as high as 322. The most spoken and prominent languages in the country being English, Spanish, and French. English has the highest number of speakers with 215 million. Spanish is the second most spoken language with 28 million speaker. The French language is the third most spoken language with a million and a half speakers in the U.S (Many Languages).
If one goes through the list of languages that are spoken in the U.S. They would recognize familiar languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, or Greek. Each of these languages have their own large number of speakers. But if one is continuing through the list they would begin to see less familiar languages each with dwindling number of speakers. The numbers for these languages dwindle from the millions to the hundred thousands, continuing to the tens of thousands, to the hundreds and even down to the tens (Many Languages).
Among this long list of languages there is a group of Native American languages. These are the languages that are spoken by the Native American population. The most prominent Native American language being the Navajo language with 178 thousand speakers. The number of speakers continually decrease until we reach the bottom of the list. At the bottom of the list is the Kalispel language with a mere four speakers. This is a tremendous gap of speake...
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...ngerment." Stabilizing Indigenous Languages (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
"Many Languages, One America." Many Languages, One America. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Moskowitz, Clara. "Native Americans Fight to Save Endangered Languages." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
"Preserving Native American Languages." The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Weston, Jennifer, and Barbara Sorensen. "Awakening a Sleeping Language on Cape Cod: The Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project | Cultural Survival." Awakening a Sleeping Language on Cape Cod: The Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project | Cultural Survival. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Woodbury, Anthony C. "Linguistic Society of America." What Is an Endangered Language? N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
of Native American Culture as a Means of Reform,” American Indian Quarterly 26, no. 1
Even though the dominance of a language can allow for the loss of a culture, it can also bring awareness. In schools, local community centers and other various places, foreign languages are taught, not only do non-native speakers take on these languages but native speakers do as well to keep their culture. By doing so it “revitalizes cultures and cultural artifacts through foreign influences, technologies, and markets.” (Gerdes
Latin was the main language for the Roman empire and was used all across the land. In document 1 it revealed that,”Latin is the basis for the languages of French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian… Even the German and English languages have derived worlds from Latin.” This evidence shows that all these widely spoken languages are all from Latin which means that if it weren’t for the creation of Latin these languages wouldn’t be the way they are and as popular as they are. Just like how Latin affected the way languages are spoken in Europe, these languages also spread to the U.S. as well with some languages gaining more speakers due to the spread. In the article,”The Most Spoken Languages In America” by Jessica Dillinger, around 230 million people speak english and out of the top twelve languages spoken in the U.S. half are romance languages. The latin language has changed how people speak and what to speak in the U.S. since about 70% of the population speak english. Also since all the Romance languages are from Latin it’s easier to learn other languages when you know one already. The way people talk and the way people try to communicate in the U.S. is, ironically the effect of the the one language that no one
Duane Champagne in Social Change and Cultural Continuity Among Native Nations explains that there has never been one definitive world view that comprises any one Native American culture, as there is no such thing as one “Native community” (2007:10). However, there are certain commonalities in the ways of seeing and experiencing the world that many Native communities and their religions seem to share.
Across Canada and the United States there are many First Nations languages which are a part of the Algonquian language family, all of which with varying states of health. Although these languages share many characteristics of the Algonquian language family, the cultures, systems of beliefs, and geographic location of their respective Nations differentiate them. In being shaped by the landscape, cultures, and spirituality of the First Nations, the language brings the speakers closer to their land and traditions while reaffirming their identity as First Peoples. Using the Blackfoot Nation to further explore this concept, this paper will show that while language threads together First Nations culture, spirituality, traditions and land, as well as their identity, each of these essential components also maintain and revitalize the language.
Atiwaneto “Speech Resisting Colonial Expansion 1752”, in The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America, ed. Colin G. Calloway (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1994), 127
Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue." 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. 4th Edition. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 417-23. Print.
"Native American Youth 101." Aspen Institue. Aspen Institues, 24 July 11. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
Language is part of the few benefits that immigrants bring with their culture. United States benefits from cultures of the many immigrants that migrate to the U.S. the variation of different languages brings great benefit to the U.
Senghas, Richard and Leila Monaghan. “Signs of Their Times: Deaf Communities and the Culture of Language.” Annual Review of Anthropology. 31.1 (2002): 69-90. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.
The statistics of those not speaking English could lead to the idea that English is diminishing in certain sections of the United States. An example of this is shown in the article “Why the U.S. Needs an Official Languag...
Language is universal, but there are different meanings and sounds, which vary from one culture to another. In China citizens speak many languages, but about 94% speak the Chinese language. The difference in dialects was overcome by the written word and eventually a version of Mandrin became the “official speech” (The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, 1996,p.304). In America there are many ethnic groups with many varieties of language. The U.S. was created through many people from different countries migrating to the new states. In the U.S. there is an “official speech” which is the English language. The language of both these countries are not only different in meaning and sound, but also reflect the way in which the people in these societies live, believe, and function.
The Cherokee language, alike the culture, has greatly declined in the amount of fluent speakers. A Cherokee speaking man stated that, “the language is critical…it’s a God-given gift to be able to communicate and speak” (Sturm 121). The death of such a language would likely be the downfall of the rest of the culture, without speaking the native language, certain implications of why a task is done a certain way may be lost or misinterpreted.
For this summary I watched a video called Voices of the World: The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity. The video starts off with how people believe that there are about 6, 000 languages. David Crystal talks about how with all these different languages half of them are endangered of becoming extinct. Each different language offers a different point of view of the world and culture. He said that if different languages are lost then “we lose the meaning what is it to be human.”
Project, Harvard. The State of the Native Nations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 221-222.