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Introduction.
Introduction.
The United States hasn't an official language, but the most spoken is English (254 million native speakers), followed by Spanish and Chinese.
English language origins.
English is a West Germanic Language of the Indo-European language family.
Originally spoken by the early medieval England inhabits.
Named after the Angles
It's vocabulary is influenced by Old Norman French and Latin, as well as by Old Norse. (A North Germanic language).
Who were the Angles?
Who were the Angles?
The Angles were one of the main Germanic people who settled in Great Britain in the Post Roman period.
How it came to the USA?
The english language came to the USA by the first wave of English-speakers settlers arrived in North America in the VII century.
The most spoken languages in the U.S
The most spoken languages in the U.S
1. English
1. English
254 million native speakers.
254 million native speakers.
2. Spanish
2. Spanish
43,200,000 native speakers.
43,200,000 native speakers.
3. Chinese
3. Chinese
Including Cantonese, Mandarin and other varieties: 2,900,000 native speakers.
Including Cantonese, Mandarin and other varieties: 2,900,000 native speakers.
Percentages:
-English 78.1%
-Spanish 13.5%
-Other Indo-European languages 3.7%
-Asian and Pacific languages 3.6%
-Other languages 1.2%
Interesting facts.
The USA is one of the most linguistically diverse country in te world, there are between 350 and 430 languages spoken.
Many states have adopted indigenous languages as official.
California is home to about 15 million people who do not speak English at home.
Spanish is the most popular non-English language in California with around 10 million speakers, and there are also a lot of Asian languages that are well represented in the state.
The accents
The American English is separated accents into five major geographical areas: Southern accent, Midwestern accent, New England or Bostonian accent, New York accent and Canadian accent.
Southern accent
We know this type of accent like Southern Drawl or also as a country accent. It is usually spoken in the meridional states of the United States, from Florida to Texas. It predominates in some rural areas of these region.
Midwestern accent
The accent is spoken mostely in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and parts of Illinois. It is very similar with the English spoken in a few major metropolitan areas of Texas (including Austin) and central Florida.
New England or Bostonian accent
A Boston accent is a local accent of Eastern New England English (specially in Boston) . It is classified as traditionally in the Northeastern New England English including New Hampshire, Maine, and all of eastern Massachusetts, though some of this vocabullary is special of Boston.
New York accent
This type of accent is very common in New York. This accent is very recognizable because of their stereotypes and representation in radio, film, television...
Canadian accent
They're almost the same, most people can't tell Canadians and Americans apart by he accent. (Including Canadians and Americans)
The canadian accent is most similar to the accents of Western and Northern USA.
On the other hand, the eastern USA accent like the one in New York or in Michigan are more similar o Quebec's french accent.
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