United States of America: Language Situation

The contemporary language situation in the United States uniquely embodies competing forces of variety and homogeneity: the former manifested in the rich diversity of native American languages, Creoles, American Sign Language, and hundreds of immigrant languages including English and Spanish; the latter nourished by two centuries of nation-building through, among other means, the promotion of one national language, English. This article reviews the historical development, social role, and linguistic character of indigenized varieties of English and Spanish, the two major languages of the United States, and discusses historical and sociolinguistic issues in the use and maintenance of some of the more widely spoken minority indigenous and immigrant languages.