America's Rarest Languages
America's Rarest Languages
Whether a rare language in the US is your mother tongue, or you speak English as your first language and learned one of these rare languages later in life, they're an important insight into American history and how we came to be where we are today.
Let's examine some of America's rarest languages, whether they're considered vulnerable, endangered, or safe, and how many still speak these lost mother tongues.
Louisiana French
Louisiana French is a dialect of French spoken by the descendants of those who were deported from Eastern Canada during the Deportation of the Acadians in 1755, wherein the British forcibly removed around 10,000 Acadians from their homes and shipped them to Louisiana. Louisiana French (and the French-influenced cuisine) flourished in their new home in Louisiana, where there are now between 150,000 and 200,000 native speakers. The language is considered safe by UNESCO.
Cherokee Language
The Cherokee people of Oklahoma speak the Cherokee language. The majority of Cherokee is fluently spoken by tribal elders, of whom about eight pass away each month. Meanwhile, the tribe reports that just five speakers under 50 speak the language. Belonging to the Iroquoian family of languages, different data points to between 1,500 and 2,100 speakers of Oklahoma Cherokee.
Central Alaskan Yupik
The Central Alaskan Yupik language is spoken in southern and southwestern Alaska. It belongs to the Yupik and Eskimo-Aleut family of languages, and its speakers are one of the largest groups of Native Alaskans in the United States. As census data indicates, in 2013, it was estimated that just shy of 20,000 native speakers were left out of the 34,000 Yupik Alaskans.
Keresan
Keresan is a language spoken by the Keres Pueblo peoples of New Mexico. Although UNESCO considers itendangered, it is among the most widely spoken isolated languages (with no discernable genetic link to other languages) in the United States, with over 13,000 native speakers as of 2013. It was also featured in the Coca-Cola commercial "America, The Beautiful" during the 2014 Super Bowl.
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