Introduction

Our names are Kelli Ourada, Morgan Lindgren and Elizabeth Erks.  We are writing this blog with the purpose of discussing languages all across the Americas!  We will start with the most Northern of the countries and work our way to the south.  We will dedicate about one blog to each country that is found in North America and South America. 

For each country we will discuss the official languages as well as other languages spoken around the certain country.  In this information, there will be statistics added about the approximate number of people that speak certain languages throughout the country.  We will also touch on the history of the languages in that country and how they have evolved over time.  We will talk about how a person from the country would adapt to learning other languages and how Spanish speakers would adapt to learning the language of that country.  If we find any other interesting or pertinent information regarding the country and the languages spoken there, we will add that and that will conclude each countries blog.

Throughout the America’s there are languages that have a European descent and there are languages that are spoken by the indigenous people.  Some languages are even a mixture of the two.  Throughout the Americas as a whole, Spanish is the most widely spoken language as it is spoken by around 320 million people found in both of the continents, North and South America.  English is a close second with around 300 million people speaking it.  This includes many countries as well throughout both of the continents.  Coming in third place, Portuguese is spoken by around 185 million people and from there the number of speakers drops significantly. 

Over time the most important second language to learn in the Americas has shifted. At one point a few years ago, the most important second language was German and has moved to French and Japanese.  Today some would say that the most important second language to learn in the Americas is Spanish.  North of Mexico there is approximately 296 indigenous languages spoken now or in the past.  Along with spoken languages, around the Americas there are different Sign Languages found as well.  These include four just in Canada alone. 

We look forward to sharing our information about the languages in the Americas with you!