Languages Other Than English Spoken At Home

The Washington Post has an interesting article and link to a revealing map showing, county by county, where in the US languages other than English are spoken in the home.

One interesting revelation is that Spanish is spoken at home in almost every county in the United States. Other prevalent languages are German and French.



In all of the hullabaloo over immigrants learning English, we often forget about some of our history. A century ago, there was a thriving trade in newspapers printed for immigrants in foreign languages. There were newspapers and magazines printed in German, Yiddish, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Russian, Cherokee and others. Headstones in Bethlehem and Lebanon, Pennsylvania and in Wythe County Virginia and Frederick County, Maryland are carved in German. The language of instruction in elementary school in Fredericksburg, Texas was German until about 1920. My high school Spanish teacher was raised in a German-speaking community in Wisconsin and spoke only German until she started in first grade. When Colorado achieved statehood, the record of state legislative proceedings was published in both Spanish and English. Новое русское слово (Novoye Russkoye Slovo or "New Russian Word") has been published in New York City since about 1920. It is still published.

We are a far more polyglot nation than most of us think.