LANGUAGE IN THE USA

ONE PEOPLE, ONE LANGUAGE?

HANDOUT

TRUE OR FALSE? As you listen to the lecture, mark whether each of the following
statements is T (true) or F (false).

1. English is the official language of the United States.

2. Non-Hispanic whites make up 75% of the U.S. population.

3. The number of Hispanic Americans is greater than the number of Black

Americans.

4. The majority of U.S. citizens speak English.

5. The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. numbers about 5 million.

6. Eighteen percent of Americans speak a language other than English at home.

7. About 3 out of 5 of those who speak a language other than English at home are
U.S. born.

8. After English and Spanish, the most frequently spoken language in the U.S. is
Chinese.

9. Over 28 million speakers of Spanish live in the U.S., 21 million of whom live in
the West and South.

10. Thirty-nine percent of the population of California speaks a language other than
English at home.

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LANGUAGE IN THE USA

ONE PEOPLE, ONE LANGUAGE?

“American English,” English as spoken in the USA, is perceived by many to be a

common language. It certainly functions as such for purposes of public discourse. This
perspective also reflects the notion of the United States as a country in which people from
different backgrounds blend into an “American” identity, in a way referred to,
metaphorically, as a ‘melting pot.’ This apparent commonality, however, is ambiguous.
In fact, multiple cultural backgrounds, racial grouping, ethnic identities and regional
origins produce differences in the way that “American English” is spoken and
understood. While it is certainly true that the majority of U.S. citizens speak English, it is
also the case that hundreds of languages in addition to English are spoken within the
country’s borders.

The increasing diversity of languages and cultures in the U.S., along with the increased
visibility of new immigrants (as non-Anglophone, non-Northwestern Europeans), has
focused attention on the status of American English--especially in its standard form--as
the national, although unofficial, language.

Demography and Linguistics

An examination of population characteristics and linguistic composition, along with

projections of the same into the next several decades, reveals a changing cultural
complexity in the U.S. The official population count is 281.4 million (March 2002). Of
that number, about three-fourths (75.1%) are non-Hispanic whites. Within that figure, a
variety of ethnic heritages is represented: Italians, Irish, Germans, Poles, etc. Just over
one quarter of the population is characterized as ‘minority:’ 12.3% Black, 12.5%
Hispanic, 4% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 0.9% American Indian.

In addition to the official count, it is estimated that illegal immigrants in the U.S. number
about 5 million. For the first time (U.S. Census 2000), the latest official counts reflect
multiracial individuals, combinations that were not recognized in earlier versions of the
U.S. Census. However, only about 2.5% of the population characterized itself as
representing 2 or more racial groups.

The two populations with the fastest rate of growth are Asian and Hispanic. In both
populations, the proportions have doubled in the past two decades (1980-2000). These
growth trends, when modeled into population projections for the year 2050, indicated
dramatic changes in the proportion of non-Hispanic whites. The projects suggest that the
percentage of non-Hispanic whites will drop to little more than 50% while the proportion
of all other segments of the population, even Native Americans, will increase. The most
significant increases are projected for the Hispanic and Asian groups.

Factors related to differential growth rates are 1) fertility, 2) life expectancy, and 3) net
immigration rate (=the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants). The

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impact of migration into the U.S. is evidenced by a net immigration of one international
migrant added every 39 seconds (1998 calculations). The fertility rate for Hispanic
women ranks highest for all population groups. The life expectancy data, on the other
hand, reveal the advantage of Asians over all other groups and the marked disadvantage
of Blacks. The largest number of immigrants in the foreseeable future will be Hispanics,
followed by Asians. The combination of high fertility rate and immigration accounts for
the large projected increase in the proportion of Hispanics over the next 50 years.

The only factor affecting population growth that is under the control of U.S. government
policy is immigration rate. All population projections are based on a policy that sets the
number of immigrants at 880,000 per year. It is important to note, however, that a
reduction in the number of immigrants allowed by policy will only slow the demographic
shift. It will not change the trends.

Languages other than English

According to the 2000 Census, over 50,000,000 people age 5 and older speak a language
other than English at home. That number represents 18% of the population as a whole.
After English, Spanish is the most frequently spoken language. Over 28 million people
age 5 or older speak Spanish as their primary home language. The second most
frequently spoken language is Chinese, with 2 million speakers. The next six most
frequently spoken languages each have far fewer speaks, in the one million plus range:
French 1.6 million, German 1.4 million, Tagalog 1.2 million and Vietnamese and Italian
with 1 million each.

Top Ten Languages (in addition to English and Spanish) Spoken in the U.S. (in millions)
(Census 2000)

Chinese 2.0
French 1.6
German 1.4
Tagalog 1.2
Vietnamese 1.0
Italian 1.0
Korean 0.9
Russian 0.7
Polish 0.7
Arabic 0.6

Although a number of Asian and Pacific Island languages appear on the list of the 20
most frequently spoken languages, no American Indian language does. Speakers of
American Indian languages represent a very small segment of those who speak a
language other than English at home and many of these speakers have learned their tribal
language not as a first language, but as a second. (The situation of American Indian
languages will be covered in a later lecture.)

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The United States is home to over 28 million speakers of Spanish. About 21 million of
them reside in the West and South. Only 7.1 million live in the Northeast and Midwest.
As of 2002, there are 37.4 million Hispanic Americans, with 2 out of 3 (66.9%) being
immigrants from Mexico. More than half (55%) of Spanish speakers in the U.S. are
bilingual and speak English “very well.”

The populations of seven states in the U.S. have more than one quarter of their residents
speaking a language other than English at home: California 39%, New Mexico 37%,
Texas 31%, New York 28%, Hawaii 27% and Arizona and New Jersey 26% each. In
addition, almost 12 million Americans live in “linguistically isolated” households. This
means a household in which no one over the age of 14 speaks English with proficiency.

The many varieties of spoken language in the U.S. today do not represent a new
phenomenon. Regional varieties of English and socially based variations in language use
have a long history in the U.S. Moreover, many native English-speaking adults need to
go no further back than two generations to find heritage languages other then English.
What is new in the U.S. is the presence of non-European languages and the greater
reluctance on the part of immigrants to abandon first and ‘home’ languages in order to
assimilate into a linguistic ‘melting pot.’ An awareness of language diversity now
touches the everyday lives of more and more people throughout the country.

ANSWERS TO TRUE/FALSE

1. False. English is the national, but not the official, language of the United States.
2. True.
3. True.
4. True.
5. True.
6. True.
7. True.
8. True.
9. True.
10. True.

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INCLUDEDE REFERENCES:

Johnson, Fern. (2000). “The Linguistic Environment of the United States.” Speaking
Culturally: Language Diversity in the United States. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications. 5-23.

US Census. Language Use and English-Speaking Ability:2000.