[WHPR] International Mother Language Day

Day 4,111, 22:09 Published in USA USA by James S. Brady Press Room





International Mother Language Day

eUSA has been invited to partake in the eRepublik-wide event called International Mother Language Day. This event calls for each country that is participating to write an essay on its native or mother language(s). This is eUSA’s entry and I wanna thank the event organizers and viewers for reading.





First of all before we get into it I would like to remind everyone that the United States does not have an official language because constitutionally this is questionable, but our government business is almost always carried out in English. specifically American English but there can be different dialects of this depending on the region that you live in or visit or the people you talk to. However, certain states in the United States have an official language and some of these states include: Mississippi, Indiana, Hawaii and many more. Hawaii has two official languages Hawaiian and English and Alaska has several official languages all of which are native and none of which are English.



Without further ado, let's get into it.




A Summary of Language in the United States Past and Present




Native Languages:

Before Europeans had arrived on the North American continent there were hundreds of different languages being spoken in and around the land we call the United States and hundreds of different tribes of Native Americans but it is difficult to know exactly how many languages there were back then and across time.

In 1929 Edward Sapir organized several native linguistic groups into six major linguistic families these families are:









Algonquian-Wakashan - With over 50 different languages ranging from the Algonquin on the east coast to the Wakashan speakers in the Pacific-Northwest this family is and was prevalent across the United States.


Hokan-Siouan - This Linguistic family has languages in it that are disputable but the speakers range from the southeastern United States up across the midwest into Canada and in some places in the southwestern United States and some of the languages included in this family are: Mohave, Oneida, Mohawk, and Seneca.


Aztec-Tanoan - The languages in this family are spoken from Mexico on up into the Central US and they include: Hopi, Shoshone, and Comanche. This linguistic family is thought to show some polysynthesism.


Nadene - This linguistic family consists of languages spoken in Alaska and in Canada and languages that fall into this group include: Athabascan, Haida, and Tlingit. These languages are somewhat polysynthetic.


Penutian - This family has speakers mostly in the southwest and on the pacific coast in california. Languages in this family include: Chinook, Maidu, and Wintun


Hokan-Siouan - the classifications of linguistic groups in this family are somewhat disputed but some of the languages included are: Creek, Pawnee, and Wichita. This family has speakers across the eastern and central United States.








Modern Native Languages by usage:

Navajo: -165k speakers

Yupik: -19k speakers

Dakota: -18k speakers

Apache: -13k speakers

Keres: -13k speakers

Cherokee: -11k speakers

Ojibwa: -10k speakers

Choctaw: -10k speakers

Zuni: -10k speakers

Pima: - 7k speakers





European Languages:

English: – 229.7 million speakers

Spanish: – 40.5 million speakers

French: – 1.2 million speakers

Russian: – 0.91 million speakers

German: – 0.91 million speakers

Haitian Creole: – 0.86 million

Portuguese: – 0.77 million speakers

Italian: – 0.58 million speakers

Polish: – 0.54 million speakers

Greek: – 0.29 million

Armenian: – 0.24 million speakers

Serb-Cro (including Bosnian, and Montenegrin): – 0.24 million speakers






Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Languages

Chinese: – 3.4 million speakers

Vietnamese: – 1.5 million speakers

Arabic: – 1.2 million speakers

Tagalog: - 1.6 million speakers

Korean: – 1.1 million speakers

Hindi: – 0.81 million speakers

Japanese: – 0.46 million speakers

Persian: – 0.44 million speakers

Hebrew: – 0.23 million speakers

Bantu and Swahili: – 0.22 million speakers






Thank you for reading, I hope this was enjoyable and informative and eUSA is happy to have participated. Thanks again to the event organizers and our viewers.