Languages of the US

by Ivana Recmanova

The United States of America consists of many states as well as languages. Even with over 300 million inhabitants, it may be surprising to some that the country has, in fact, no official language.

However, English is, of course, the most widespread language in the country. It is spoken in almost every corner of the US and it is also used by all US government institutions. That being said, Spanish is also widely used, especially in the southern states that have large native Spanish speaking populations. Lots of US towns, cities and villages have Spanish names, such as Los Ángeles (“the angels”), Las Vegas (“the meadows”), and El Paso (“the step”). It’s not just the names of the settlements though; a number of the US states and territories also have Spanish names, such as Nevada (“covered with snow”) and Colorado (“coloured red”).

A number of the US states have their names derived from the local native languages, such as Alabama, Hawaii, Minnesota, Texas, etc.

There are some other languages that are used in the US too; Russian (in Alaska, New York, Chicago etc.) and French (Illinois, Louisiana, Vermont). Some US cities also use the Greek word polis (which means “city”) in their names, such as Indianapolis or Minneapolis. These names can be misleading though; for example, there is a town named Athens (like the capital of Greece) in the US state of Georgia, which is also the name of a country in The Caucasus region. This could be confusing if you’re not familiar with the geography.

As in many countries with colonial pasts, the US native languages are diminishing while the languages of migrants’ are on the rise. Many incentives are introduced, however, to support minority languages, such as school classes and radio stations in these native languages. In fact, the US owes much to its native languages. In the Second World War, Navajo speakers were used as soldiers because when they communicated in their native tongue, the Japanese didn’t understand them. With the help of these code talkers, the US was able to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific.

Nowadays, the most popular language in the US, apart from English, is probably Spanish. As we have already said, it is the major language of the country’s south, and, to a certain extent, one of the languages of US popular culture. There are US singers that sing or have sung in Spanish, such as Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Pitbull, and Selena Gomez. There are also numerous TV programs in Spanish which are aimed at the Spanish-speaking population of the US.

Does all this sound concerning? Don’t worry, monolingualism is curable. For US citizens as well as everybody else. However, if you travel to the US, then speaking English should be enough.

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