Map of most commonly spoken language by state [besides English and Spanish]

[A.J240]

Why does Spanish dominate except for Northern New England, ND and LA.

[maus]

This is a fascinating article from the gathering of recent census data for foreign language speaking in the US. What I thought was most surprising was that the speakers of Hopi in Delaware and New Hampshire are well represented quite far away for Native Americans considering they are a smaller tribe surrounded by the much larger Navajo out in Arizona.

The number of Tagalog speakers out west is a little surprising for me in representation as well. Urdu also gets more representation as an Indo-Aryan language than I would have previously guessed. The representation of Nepalese in Montana and North Dakota is an other fact to note as well, especially since Nepal itself is relatively is smaller in population overall than that of India or some the populations of other Indo-European speaking countries.

I also figured the number of German speakers would have little representation these days in some select mid-western states, especially since the vast majority of immigrants of German heritage came to the US well before the 20th century. Additionally, I would have thought more of the European languages from earlier immigrants would have been much less counted as speakers: French and Italian in particular. ( citing the third most common languages)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by maus

This is a fascinating article from the gathering of recent census data for foreign language speaking in the US. What I thought was most surprising was that the speakers of Hopi in Delaware and New Hampshire are well represented quite far away for Native Americans considering they are a smaller tribe surrounded by the much larger Navajo out in Arizona.

The number of Tagalog speakers out west is a little surprising for me in representation as well. Urdu also gets more representation as an Indo-Aryan language than I would have previously guessed. The representation of Nepalese in Montana and North Dakota is an other fact to note as well, especially since Nepal itself is relatively is smaller in population overall than that of India or some the populations of other Indo-European speaking countries.

I also figured the number of German speakers would have little representation these days in some select mid-western states, especially since the vast majority of immigrants of German heritage came to the US well before the 20th century. Additionally, I would have thought more of the European languages from earlier immigrants would have been much less counted as speakers particularly: French and Italian.

In Rural Wisconsin, German Reigned For Decades : NPR
My mom was born in Wisconsin in 1921, her parents were born there in 1891 and 1895. One of her grandmothers was born there, the rest in Germany. Mom grew up speaking and even reading German at home. By the time her sister, my aunt, b. 1928, was a teen, the parents mostly spoke German when they didn't want my aunt to know what they were talking about.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by A.J240

Why does Spanish dominate except for Northern New England, ND and LA.

We border a large Spanish speaking country.

[nei]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

We border a large Spanish speaking country.

However, most Spanish speakers in New England (Spanish is #2 in southern New England), New York and New Jersey are not from that large Spanish speaking country. Also true of Florida for different reason. Probably also true of many other eastern US states, but less sure.

[Mantronix4204]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.