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The Most Commonly Spoken Foreign Languages in Each State (Besides Spanish)

P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Full study with all states

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/07/07/tagalog-californias-most-commonly-spoken-foreign-language/

A whopping 2.1 percent of Californians speak Tagalog, making the language native to the Philippines the most common foreign dialogue spoken in the state after Spanish.

A new study from 24/7 Wall St. determined the most commonly spoken language in each state, using data from the United States Census Bureau's 2015 American Consumer Survey. The survey excluded Spanish, which is the most commonly spoken language after English in nearly every state.

The 832,024 Californians who speak Tagalog at home are actually speaking the second language of The Philippines as Filipino is the official language. Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a quarter of the population in The Philippines.
Click to expand...

24/7's Most Commonly Spoken Foreign Languages for the 10 largest states by population:

• California — Tagalog
• Texas — Vietnamese
• Florida — French Creole
• New York — Chinese
• Illinois — Polish
• Pennsylvania — Chinese
• Ohio — German
• Georgia — Korean
• North Carolina — French
• Michigan — Arabic

edit: Everyone

Alabama - Vietnamese
Alaska - Aleut-Eskimo Languages
Arizona - Navajo
Arkansas - Chinese
California - Tagalog
Colorado - German
Connecticut - Polish
Delaware - Hindi
Florida - French Creole
Georgia - Korean
Hawaii - Ilocano
Idaho - Arabic
Illinois - Polish
Indiana - German
Iowa - German
Kansas - Vietnamese
Kentucky - German
Louisiana - French
Maine - French
Maryland - Chinese
Massachusetts - Portuguese
Michigan - Arabic
Minnesota - Hmong
Mississippi - Vietnamese
Missouri - German
Montana - German
Nebraska - Arabic
Nevada - Tagalog
New Hampshire - French
New Jersey - Chinese
New Mexico - Navajo
New York - Chinese
North Carolina - French
North Dakota - German
Ohio - German
Oklahoma - Vietnamese
Oregon - Vietnamese
Pennsylvania - Chinese
Rhode Island - Portuguese
South Carolina - German
South Dakota - Dakota
Tennessee - Arabic
Texas - Vietnamese
Utah - Portuguese
Vermont - French
Virginia - Vietnamese
Washington - Tagalog
West Virginia - German
Wisconsin - Hmong
Wyoming - German
 
G

g23

European pre-madonna
Is there a huge foreign French population in North Carolina?

And wth is the article talking about saying Tagalog is the "second" official language of the Philippines. Filipino and Tagalog are the same thing..
 
C

Cvie

Member
g23 said:
Is there a huge foreign French population in North Carolina?

And wth is the article talking about saying Tagalog is the "second" official language of the Philippines. Filipino and Tagalog are the same thing..
Click to expand...

english is an official language there
 
A

Alienfan

Member
Crazy the second most popular language in a lot of states is Tagalog, and I've never even heard of it. Is it pronounced tag a log?
 
D

dakini

Member
Interesting survey, but I don't think it's accurate for my state. They have Arabic listed and while the Arabic speaking community has grown due to refugees from Sudan and Iraq being resettled in the state, the Vietnamese community is much larger.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
I was gonna call bullshit seeing no Spanish, but I see it was excluded.

As a resident of NM, Navajo is not surprisng, there's quite a large population in the western end of the state.
 
S

soqquatto

Member
Alienfan said:
Crazy the second most popular language in a lot of states is Tagalog, and I've never even heard of it. Is it pronounced tag a log?
Click to expand...

it's not 'crazy', it's just you not knowing a language name. millions of people know something and you don't. happens even to the best of us!
 
D

danthefan

Member
The hell at all the German?

I know historically some states had huge numbers of Germans settle there, is this just a relic of that? People still speaking it generations on?
 
P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
This Slate article is from 2014 but pretty similar and has some maps for those who hate words.

onR1mU5.jpg


And I was interested in seeing which states would not be Spanish if Spanish was included.

qA5GO3s.jpg
 
C

CaviarMeths

Member
1upsuper said:
Some of you guys have never heard of Tagalog outside of girl scout cookies? Uhh
Click to expand...

To be fair, I live in an area with a fairly significant Filipino population and the only reason why I know the language is called Tagalog is because my friend's sister is married to a Filipino, so there's a personal connection there. People can be aware of a group of people without knowing what their language is called. I mean the article itself lists "Chinese" as a spoken language when it most likely should be Mandarin.
 
P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
CaviarMeths said:
"Spoken language"
"Chinese"

No.
Click to expand...

From the slate article:

One of the most interesting data sets for aspiring mapmakers is the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Among other things, that survey includes a detailed look at the languages spoken in American homes. All the maps below are based on the responses to this survey. However, an ACS participant does not select his language from a list of predeteremined options; he fills in a blank box with his self-selected answer. For instance, some people answered the ACS with “Chinese,” while others gave specific dialects such as “Mandarin” or “Cantonese”. These were all treated as different languages in the ACS data and when constructing these maps. (See the raw data here.) New York is marked “Chinese” because more people responded with “Chinese” than any other language other than English or Spanish. If all Chinese languages (or languages under the umbrella of a larger language family) had been grouped together, the answers for many states would change.
Click to expand...
 
andythinkpad

andythinkpad

Member
CaviarMeths said:
Ah I see, that makes sense.
Click to expand...

A lot of mandarin speakers don't know they speak "Mandarin." I know because I used to be a bilingual customer rep. When you ask them do you want to be transferred to a Mandarin rep or Cantonese rep, alot of them will keep saying "Chinese Chinese."
 
P

pa22word

Member
danthefan said:
The hell at all the German?

I know historically some states had huge numbers of Germans settle there, is this just a relic of that? People still speaking it generations on?
Click to expand...

German is technically the largest ethnic group in the US. Basically everyone from the midwest or anywhere near it is likely to have some German in them.

My mother speaks quite a bit of German due to her grandparents both being from Germany.
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
pa22word said:
German is technically the largest ethnic group in the US. Basically everyone from the midwest or anywhere near it is likely to have some German in them.

My mother speaks quite a bit of German due to her grandparents both being from Germany.
Click to expand...

Larger than British? I thought British roots were hugely prevalent, albeit obfuscated as people tried to distance themselves following Independence?
 
P

pa22word

Member
Geoff said:
Larger than British? I thought British roots were hugely prevalent, albeit obfuscated as people tried to distance themselves following Independence?
Click to expand...

It's the same for Germans too with the two world wars. There are quite a few cities and towns with new names following the wars, not to mention people who Anglicized their names.
 
Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
It's interesting how in this survey the different types of Filipino languages are differentiated, whereas the Chinese ones are not.
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
pa22word said:
It's the same for Germans too with the two world wars. There are quite a few cities and towns with new names following the wars, not to mention people who Anglicized their names.
Click to expand...

Aye - just had a quick google 'cause I remember looking at this before so...

German is the largest self-selected ethnic group, however changes to the way the census works lead to huge numbers of people identifying themselves as 'American' rather than any particular heritage. Those people are thought to be people who previously identified themselves as having British or English ancestry when cross referenced with previous censuses (censi?) Therefore, whilst a cursory examination of the census produces the answer of 'German' (and this has been widely reported) more rigorous research suggests that English/British heritage is still dominant.

Also, you are absolutely correct to say that many Germans anglicized their names, however because that happened relativity recently, their descendants are still often cognisant of their true heritage, where is the descendants of the people who emphasised (or even made up) their Irish/other not English heritage after independence often have no idea of their true ancestry, due to the passage of time. But this is difficult to quantify and English would still be the dominant ethnicity even without this factor, as per the previous paragraph.
 
D

Dynomutt

Member
DrSlek said:
Uhhh...
Click to expand...

Navojo yeah lol. I might be wrong but the French Creole they are referring to is not the "Bayou" Creole your thinking of but actually Kreyol Francaise or Kreyol Ayisyen. Especially since they indicated FL which has a good concentration of Haitians. Assuming Essentially Haitian Creole. The word Creole alone can refer to a peoples, type of cooking/food, or a mix of languages.

I would be hard pressed if they meant actual "Bayou" Creole not to say it is not possible. Especially when Louisiana has just French listed.
 
Sunster

Sunster

Member
Surprised at Florida. I've never once heard French Creole here. It must be all concentrated in a specific area. I would have thought an Asian language.

Edit: Oh right, Miami has a Little Haiti so they must all be around the southern tip of the state.
 
A

Aiustis

Member
Oh yeah German. Half of everyone I know seems to have taken it in highschool. There's a German language school here and I know a least 6 people that went there and are fluent.

Amish people
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
danthefan said:
The hell at all the German?

I know historically some states had huge numbers of Germans settle there, is this just a relic of that? People still speaking it generations on?
Click to expand...

The Amish and Mennonites predominantly speak German, and there are some smaller communities throughout the Midwest that have strong German heritage. They're probably a small portion of the population overall, but they add up (especially when Spanish is excluded from the results).
 
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