Spanish in the United States
Spanish is the second most common language in the United States, after English, being spoken by about 27.8 million people (or 10.5% of the population) in 2000. The United States has the fifth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, after Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Colombia. The influence of English on American Spanish is very important.
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2 The Present Time 3 See also 4 External Links |
History
The Spanish language, first brought by Basque sailors to Newfoundland, has been in North America since the end of the 15th century. In 1565, the Spaniards founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied European city in the territory of the United States. Spanish has been spoken in the country (singularly, in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana) since 1803, when Louisiana was sold to the United States and Spanish settlers in that region, descendants of Canary Islanders, turned into citizens of a new country.
After the Mexican-American War, many of the territories in the north of Mexico were lost to the United States. As a consequence of that conquest, both English and Spanish are official languages in New Mexico, and Spanish has been spoken around northern New Mexico, southern Colorado and the Mexican border since the 17th century.
The rise of Spanish in the United States is also a consequence of the Spanish-American War: today, Puerto Ricans are native U.S. citizens and Spanish is the first language of Puerto Rico. Many Puerto Ricans migrate to New York City, New York, adding to the Spanish-speaking population there. There has also been much immigration from Mexico, Cuba and other Latin American countries in the 20th century.
The Present Time
Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the country, comprising 13.4% of the population (38.6 million people) in 2002. Generally, US Hispanics are bilingual, speaking English as well as Spanish. Although new arrivals have various levels of English proficiency, Hispanics who are second-generation American in the United States almost all speak English, but only about 50 percent still speak Spanish. Compared to other language minorities such as the French or Chinese, more descendants of Spanish speakers conserve the language. Living a Spanish-speaking life is a viable option in many areas due to the constant arrival of immigrants, and the Spanish-language mass media supported by the country's large Hispanic population.
Some critics have referred to the rise of the Spanish language in the USA, especially in the southern areas bordering Mexico, as the "Amexica" effect. This term blends "America" and "Mexico". Similarly, on the East Coast, they speak of "Nuyorican," blending "New York" and "Puerto Rican". Spanglish is the name for the combination of using Spanish and English together to effectively communicate something.
On the other hand, many words have entered standard American English from Spanish. For a detailed list of borrowed words, see American English. Many places in the country, especially in the southwest, have Spanish names:
- Regions: Llano Estacado, Cape Canaveral
- Cities: Fresno, California, Las Vegas, Nevada, Los Angeles, California, Modesto, California, Palo Alto, California, San Francisco, California, Amarillo, Texas, etc.
- Islands: Alcatraz
- Roads: El Camino Real
- States: Colorado, Florida and Nevada