The Briefing Room
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: mystery-ak on May 14, 2014, 12:00:42 am
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http://mentalfloss.com/article/56714/most-commonly-spoken-language-each-state-besides-english-and-spanish (http://mentalfloss.com/article/56714/most-commonly-spoken-language-each-state-besides-english-and-spanish)
The Most Commonly Spoken Language in Each State Besides English and Spanish
Jason English
(http://mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/commonly-spoken-languages-besides-spanish.png)
Today's map comes from Ben Blatt of Slate, who used data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. He created several other language maps, too, including each state's top Native American, Scandinavian, and African language.
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Fascinating. Thank you for posting.
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I'm surprised Pennsylvania wasn't German. They're one of the few places where it was naturally cultivated, much like French was in Louisiana. Of course, Philly might drown that out.
I'm also surprised how much German is spread across the Plains... but in many places that may just be because English is SO dominant, and Spanish the next (and distant) runner up, that it's almost impossible to get any significant measurement for third.
Polish in Illinois surprises me, if only because most Polish Americans so rapidly segued into English that it's mostly a novelty. I'd've thought having Chicago would've produced something else.
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French in W.Va.? The only French my fellow mountaineers know is French fries. C'est domage!
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I'm surprised Pennsylvania wasn't German.
Except for what you remember from high school German class, I think the vast majority of Americans with German ancestry, including myself have a very small German vocabulary and many don't speak or understand the language at all, except for important stuff like what German beer and sausage you want to serve for Oktoberfest. Unlike many Americans with a foreign language origin It took only a generation or two for most German Americans to leave their language and even accent behind. We support todays immigrants continued use of their native tongue its a wonder how any would give it up.
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very interesting
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Hmmmm! I would have guessed it was the one being spoken in the picture below!
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/1965023_10153889774070203_2136336845_n.jpg)
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Except for what you remember from high school German class, I think the vast majority of Americans with German ancestry, including myself have a very small German vocabulary and many don't speak or understand the language at all, except for important stuff like what German beer and sausage you want to serve for Oktoberfest. Unlike many Americans with a foreign language origin It took only a generation or two for most German Americans to leave their language and even accent behind. We support todays immigrants continued use of their native tongue its a wonder how any would give it up.
The Wars perhaps? You didn't want to be identifiable as a German while the entire country was fighting them - that would be a fair incentive to use only English.
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The Wars perhaps? You didn't want to be identifiable as a German while the entire country was fighting them - that would be a fair incentive to use only English.
No I'm going back much farther, and we were refering to the the Pennsylvania Dutch (Or correctly Pennsylvania Deutsch meaning German-speaking). Many of these immigrants came here in the early and mid 1700s.