In the United States, the number of people who speak a language other than English at home has nearly tripled from 23.1 million (about 1 in 10 people) to 67.8 million (about 1 in 5 people) over the last three decades, according to the Census Bureau.
There are between 350 and 430 languages spoken in the U.S., making it one of the countries with the greatest linguistic diversity on Earth, according to the nonprofit organization Translators Without Borders.
Americans have roots from all over the globe, and many end up speaking the native language of the places from which they or their ancestors came.
In other words, while the majority of the U.S. population (78.4%) speaks only English at home, a growing share (21.6%) of American households speaks other languages besides English.
The Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the U.S., so it is no surprise that Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in American homes. About 42 million people speak Spanish at home (representing about two-thirds of those who speak a language other than English).
The top five non-English languages spoken in American households are: Chinese (spoken by 3.49 million, or 5.2% of these households); Tagalog – the language spoken in the Philippines (1.7 million, or 2.6%); Vietnamese (1.5 million, or 2.3%); and Arabic (1.2 million, or 1.9%).
Revitalizing English
But if you think this is bad for English, you are very mistaken. The increase in the number of languages spoken enriches English, which is constantly evolving with the inclusion of “borrowed words” from these other languages.
Suzanne Kemmer, a linguistics professor at Rice University, says: “It is part of the cultural history of English speakers to adopt borrowed words from the languages of any cultures they have come into contact with.”
Thanks to the popularity of Mexican cuisine, for example, there are many Spanish words that Americans use daily. Furthermore, U.S. states and cities often bear names of saints in Spanish (San Francisco, Santa Clara, etc.) or geographical features. For instance, the state of Montana is named after the Spanish word for “mountain” (“montaña”), and the city name Monterey, California, is a Spanish word meaning “mountain of the king.”
The word “rodeo” has Spanish origins, as does the word “alligator” (from “el lagarto,” which means “the lizard”). Spanish has also expanded the English vocabulary with words like “barracuda,” “aficionado,” “plaza,” “tango,” “bonanza,” “savvy,” “coyote,” and “vigilante” (“watchman”), to name just a few examples.
Chinese, like Spanish, has also provided English speakers with a wealth of food-related words and also words like “gung-ho” (“to show enthusiasm”) and “typhoon.”
The American slang “boondocks” (or “boonies” for short) came from the Tagalog word “bundók,” which means “mountain,” used as shorthand for a rural and mountainous area. And the Vietnamese word “pho,” the name of a traditional soup dish, is used by English-speaking food lovers everywhere.
Arabic, like Spanish and Chinese, has contributed prolifically to the English language. Commonly used words like “algebra,” “giraffe,” “sofa,” “tariff,” “safari,” “alchemy,” “gazelle,” “alcohol,” “cotton,” “sugar,” and “ghoul” all come from Arabic.
And at the end of the story, a common language is needed for all these populations to communicate, isn’t it?
Source: ShareAmerica