French Language In The United States
The French language is spoken as a minority language in the United States. According to year 2000 census figures, 1.6 million Americans over the age of five speak the language at home, making French the fourth most-spoken language in the nation behind English, Spanish, and Chinese (when both the Cantonese and Mandarin dialects are combined). Three major varieties of French developed in the United States: Louisiana French, spoken in Louisiana; New England French (a local variant of Canadian French spoken in New England); and the nearly extinct Missouri French, historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois. More recently, French has also been carried to various parts of the nation via immigration from Francophone regions. Today, French is the second most-spoken language in four states: Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Read more about French Language In The United States: French Ancestry, Dialects and Varieties, Newer Francophone Immigrants, Francophone Tourists and Retirees, Language Study, Francophone Communities, Counties and Parishes With The Highest Proportion of French-speakers, Seasonal Migrations, French Newspapers in The United States, French Radio Stations in The United States, French Schools in The United States
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“Prior to the meeting, there was a prayer. In general, in the United States there was always praying.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The French are a tremendously verbal race: they kill you with their assurances, their repetitions, their reasons, their platitudes, their formulae, their propositions, their solutions.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“They who in folly or mere greed
Enslaved religion, markets, laws,
Borrow our language now and bid
Us to speak up in freedom’s cause.”
—Cecil Day Lewis (1904–1972)
“I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Nullification ... means insurrection and war; and the other states have a right to put it down.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)