The languages of the usa and canada

The largest English speaking area in the

world is that formed by the US and Canada.

The United States is the home of approximately 336 languages (spoken or signed) of which 176 are indigeous to the area. 52 languages formerly spoken in the US territory are now extinct.

The United States does not have an official language; nevertheless, English is the language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements. In some states, English, Hawaiian and Spanish are official. In 2000, the census bureau printed the standard census questionnaires in six languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Tagalog. The English-Only movement seeks to establish English as the only official language of the nation.

Approximately 85% and almost 2/3 of the Canadian population have English as their native language, it is about a quarter of a billion speakers. Many of the inhabitants of the US and Canada, who don't have English as their native language, use it in multitude of different situations. English was inherited from British colonization and it is spoken by the vast majority of the population. It serves as the de facto language: the language in which government business is carried out. According to the 1990 census, 97 per cent of U.S. residents speak English "well" or "very well". Only 0.8 per cent speak no English at all, as compared with 3.6 per cent in 1890. Other languages widely used are Spanish and French.

The Spanish language is the second-most common language in the country, spoken by about 28.1 million people (or 10.7% of the population) in 2000. The United States is the fifth country in the world in Spanish-speaking population, outnumbered only by Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia. Although many Latin American immigrants have various levels of English-proficiency, Hispanics who are second-generation Americans in the United States almost all speak English. A significant number of Spanish speakers live in Miami and New York.

French is the majority language in Quebec. In New England and Louisiana French is spoken either. There are tremendous numbers of speakers of other languages, however few of them have settled so that their languages have also been able to serve as community languages. But there are rural communities in which immigrant languages have been maintained:

E.g.: Amish in Pennsylvania (German), Dukhobors in Saskatchewan (Russian).

Non-immigrant and non-colonial languages are still in daily use in some American environments. About half a million but all in all one million Indian and Alaskian people speak their native language.