Indigenous Mexican Languages and the Politics of Language Shift in the United States

This essay discusses the role of non-English languages in the United States and how they have been transformed. The rise and fall of the German language and the ascendancy of the Spanish language reveals the nuances of language retention among the country at large and among the foreign-stock population. Reactions to non-English speech have included the “English Only” and “English Official” movements, which oppose any extensive use of non-English languages. Also discussed are aspects of bilingualism in the United States.

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Como dicen los americanos

Spanish in Context ◽

10.1075/sic.11.2.04san ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 221-242 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Israel Sanz-Sánchez

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New Mexico ◽

Language Shift ◽

The United States ◽

Written Language ◽

Mexican Spanish ◽

Lexical Borrowing ◽

New Mexican ◽

Us Southwest ◽

The Us

This study analyzes the patterns of incorporation of English elements in New Mexican Spanish in the decades following the annexation of New Mexico by the United States as reflected in a corpus of private letters written between 1848 and 1936. The quantitative analysis shows that most types of contact features are infrequent during much of this period, but there is an increase in the presence of English elements in the last decades covered by the corpus. It also shows that semantic and lexical borrowing is much more frequent than structural interference or code-switching. These findings are then correlated with the general sociolinguistic environment of post-annexation Hispanic New Mexico, where bilingualism and language shift to English were much more infrequent than elsewhere in the US Southwest. Attention is also paid to features that pertain exclusively to the written language, and their distribution is explained as a function of the degree of exposure of Hispanic New Mexicans to literacy in English and Spanish.

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Language Shift in the United States

10.1515/9783110824001 ◽

1983 ◽

Cited By ~ 116

Author(s):

Calvin Veltman

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Language Shift ◽

The United States

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Introduction: Reversing Language Shift in Indigenous America—Collaborations and Views from the Field

Practicing Anthropology ◽

10.17730/praa.21.2.x2619t9543177tth ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 2-4 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Teresa McCarty ◽

Lucille Watahomigie ◽

Akira Yamamoto

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

North America ◽

Language Shift ◽

The United States ◽

Western Hemisphere ◽

Indigenous Languages ◽

European Contact ◽

The World

Throughout the Western hemisphere—indeed, throughout the world—indigenous languages are being displaced at an alarming rate. While no one knows precisely how many languages were spoken in North America prior to European contact, estimates range from 300 to 600. In what is now the United States and Canada, the number is now reduced to 210. In some respects, this is a story of remarkable resilience and resistance. But numbers alone belie the fragility of these languages and their prospects for survival.

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Language Shift in the United States: Some Demographic Clues

International Migration Review ◽

10.1177/019791837100500202 ◽

1971 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 125-137 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Stanley Lieberson ◽

Timothy J. Curry

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Language Shift ◽

The United States

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