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Description

After having done my Vermont map I decided to do a simple state by state map of all official languages in the United States of America in my Seventh Party System series.

In every state English is mandated to be an official language for the purposes of communication and documentation for the federal government. All laws in every state, including most bilingual ones have their laws written only in English, though a few such as Puerto Rico, Baja California, and Santo Domingo have full Spanish translations for their entire legal code and other states such as Media California and New Mexico are attempting to translate their legal codes into Spanish. Given how English is the language used by the Supreme Court and other federal courts the court systems of all states must have their official documents printed in English, though most multilingual states allow for defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses to give testimony in other official languages and have mandated live translators in all court settings.

Of the secondary official languages, the most widespread by far is Spanish. Spoken by over 20% of Americans as a mother tongue it has co-official status in eight states and one territory. For all these states schools are required to either have bilingual or separate school systems for Hispanophones in addition to allowing children to graduate high school with fluency in either Spanish or English. Even in mainly English speaking states such as Arizona and Texas a majority of the populace is bilingual in English and Spanish with the rate of bilingual Anglophones rising every year.

The second most widely spread official language is French, found in both Vermont and Louisiana. Both of these states have extensive French language Catholic schools however only those in Louisiana receieve state aid, with Vermont having cut their funding in 2003 once the state became majority Anglophone.

One state and three territories, Hawaii, Bioko, Seward, and Kiribati each have their own unique official language, being Hawaiian, Bube, Inuit, and Gilbertese respectively. The two states of Dakota and Sequoyah are the only two states to have Native American languages as official languages, having ten and four different native languages respectively.

The official native languages of Dakota are Ojibwe, Lakota, Dakota, Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Shoshone, Cree, and Nakota. However of these ten only three of them have greater than 5,000 native speakers in the state Ojibwe, Lakota, and Dakota, while the smallest of them, Nakota, only has 150 native speakers.

In contrast the native languages of Sequoyah have a much larger number of native speakers due to Sequoyah having the largest population of First Peoples. The four native languages of Sequoyah are Cherokee, Choctaw, Muskogee, and Chickasaw, one for each of the Five Civilized Tribes except for the Seminole who also speak Muskogee. Of these four languages Choctaw has the least native speakers with less than 85,000 in the state while Cherokee has the most with over 500,000 Sequoyah residents who know the language as their mother tongue. Due to not only the large size of the Cherokee nation, but also their dominance of the state's economy through the Cherokee Corporation there are many other Native and Sequoyah residents of all races who speak Cherokee as their mother tongue. Large numbers of African-Americans among both the elites of Black Wall Street and the Cherokee Freedmen also speak Cherokee as their first language.

In the states of Media California and most recently Columbia there are also multiple Asian and other foreign languages that are now official. In Media California these languages include Tagalog, Mandarin, Arabic, Armenian, Vietnamese, Korean, and Farsi. In Columbia these languages are Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Thus Media California has a total of nine official languages while Columbia has seven official languages.

Several notable exceptions to the list of bilingual states include East Florida and New York. In East Florida the Democratic party, as well as some factions within the Labor and Republican party, continue to resist the introduction of Spanish as an official language. Then in New York the Federalists have remained the main stumbling block, with their official policy being that introducing secondary official languages would be bad for business and infeasible due to the hundreds of different languages spoken in New York City. Nevertheless on a federal level basic services such as voting materials and police phone lines must be offered in counties were either 10,000 residents or 5% of the population speaks a given language and has poor English skills. This has allowed the large immigrant communities in both East Florida and New York to continue to live their basic lives, though lack of funding for English as a Second Language teachers in these states continues to be an issue.

Credit for the basemap goes to Chicxulub

Description

After having done my Vermont map I decided to do a simple state by state map of all official languages in the United States of America in my Seventh Party System series.

In every state English is mandated to be an official language for the purposes of communication and documentation for the federal government. All laws in every state, including most bilingual ones have their laws written only in English, though a few such as Puerto Rico, Baja California, and Santo Domingo have full Spanish translations for their entire legal code and other states such as Media California and New Mexico are attempting to translate their legal codes into Spanish. Given how English is the language used by the Supreme Court and other federal courts the court systems of all states must have their official documents printed in English, though most multilingual states allow for defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses to give testimony in other official languages and have mandated live translators in all court settings.

Of the secondary official languages, the most widespread by far is Spanish. Spoken by over 20% of Americans as a mother tongue it has co-official status in eight states and one territory. For all these states schools are required to either have bilingual or separate school systems for Hispanophones in addition to allowing children to graduate high school with fluency in either Spanish or English. Even in mainly English speaking states such as Arizona and Texas a majority of the populace is bilingual in English and Spanish with the rate of bilingual Anglophones rising every year.

The second most widely spread official language is French, found in both Vermont and Louisiana. Both of these states have extensive French language Catholic schools however only those in Louisiana receieve state aid, with Vermont having cut their funding in 2003 once the state became majority Anglophone.

One state and three territories, Hawaii, Bioko, Seward, and Kiribati each have their own unique official language, being Hawaiian, Bube, Inuit, and Gilbertese respectively. The two states of Dakota and Sequoyah are the only two states to have Native American languages as official languages, having ten and four different native languages respectively.

The official native languages of Dakota are Ojibwe, Lakota, Dakota, Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Shoshone, Cree, and Nakota. However of these ten only three of them have greater than 5,000 native speakers in the state Ojibwe, Lakota, and Dakota, while the smallest of them, Nakota, only has 150 native speakers.

In contrast the native languages of Sequoyah have a much larger number of native speakers due to Sequoyah having the largest population of First Peoples. The four native languages of Sequoyah are Cherokee, Choctaw, Muskogee, and Chickasaw, one for each of the Five Civilized Tribes except for the Seminole who also speak Muskogee. Of these four languages Choctaw has the least native speakers with less than 85,000 in the state while Cherokee has the most with over 500,000 Sequoyah residents who know the language as their mother tongue. Due to not only the large size of the Cherokee nation, but also their dominance of the state's economy through the Cherokee Corporation there are many other Native and Sequoyah residents of all races who speak Cherokee as their mother tongue. Large numbers of African-Americans among both the elites of Black Wall Street and the Cherokee Freedmen also speak Cherokee as their first language.

In the states of Media California and most recently Columbia there are also multiple Asian and other foreign languages that are now official. In Media California these languages include Tagalog, Mandarin, Arabic, Armenian, Vietnamese, Korean, and Farsi. In Columbia these languages are Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Thus Media California has a total of nine official languages while Columbia has seven official languages.

Several notable exceptions to the list of bilingual states include East Florida and New York. In East Florida the Democratic party, as well as some factions within the Labor and Republican party, continue to resist the introduction of Spanish as an official language. Then in New York the Federalists have remained the main stumbling block, with their official policy being that introducing secondary official languages would be bad for business and infeasible due to the hundreds of different languages spoken in New York City. Nevertheless on a federal level basic services such as voting materials and police phone lines must be offered in counties were either 10,000 residents or 5% of the population speaks a given language and has poor English skills. This has allowed the large immigrant communities in both East Florida and New York to continue to live their basic lives, though lack of funding for English as a Second Language teachers in these states continues to be an issue.

Credit for the basemap goes to Chicxulub