An old joke says that tri-lingual means to speak three languages, bi-lingual means to speak two languages, and mono-lingual means you are an American. But English is not the only language spoken in the USA: Ethnologue lists 162 living languages in the US.
Just take a look at the Modern Language Association’s Language Map of the US. It lists the number of speakers of the top 30 languages, from 28 million Spanish speakers and 2 million Chinese speakers to 118,000 Hungarian speakers, and displays the geographical distribution of each language by county or zip code, as you choose. Language Map
What does it mean?
The MLA Language Map is intended for use by students, teachers, and anyone interested in learning about the linguistic and cultural composition of the United States.
The MLA Language Map uses data from the 2000 United States census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages and three groups of less commonly spoken languages in the United States.
The census data are based on responses to the question, "Does this person speak a language other than English at home?"
The Language Map illustrates the concentration of language speakers in zip codes and counties. The Language Map Data Center provides data from Census 2000 about over three hundred languages spoken in the United States, including actual numbers and percentages of speakers.
Data from the 2005 American Community Survey about the thirty languages most commonly spoken in the United States provide a snapshot of recent changes in American language communities.
Why Post it on PhilFAQS?
Well, in the four years I have been living in the Philippines I find that one of the things Filipinos, as a rule, are least interested in seems to be their own country. Sadly.
There are thousands of smart programmers, web designers and engineers, language majors, linguists, sociologist, anthropologists, et al, out there, many unemployed or under employed.
All the data that is needed to construct a similar map for the Philippines is already being collected on a timely basis by the Philippine Census people .. they come to my house every two years or so.
I hear all the time that Tagalong is (or is not) as widely spoken as some people say, that Bisaya is not the second most common language, Ilocano is (or vice-versa), “Dear Philly, I am moving to Podunk City, Podunk Province, what language is most common there?, and the list goes on.
Here’s you chance guys and gals … who wants to step up and build a map useful to your country and the rest of the world as well? (write me privately if you want to, via my “Contact” page above, I can provide some limited server support, etc.)
Popularity: 5% [?]



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