Margarita Vera LING 250 Cynthia Hagstrom 1 May 2014 Diasporic Languages of California: French When compared to other countries, the United States may be considered as a relatively new country. In the 1800’s, there were many waves of immigration from countries in Europe. Many immigrated due to better economic opportunities and other groups sought religious freedom. Along with those waves, the immigrants’ languages were also brought and spread. One of the languages among them is French. French descends from Latin, which descends from Italic, and belongs to the Indo-European language family. Although this language comes from France, the heritage language is commonly spoken today throughout the US, with many speakers residing within California. Ultimately, I based my decision to research this diasporic language on the sources I found, the US Census, a book by Adrian Battye and the Modern Language Association. I found it interesting how, in California, we find French speakers concentrated in major cities. Although not as widespread as Spanish, French has a fair amount of speakers and there is plenty of information on this language. As stated, waves of immigrants began entering the US starting in the 1800’s for better financial opportunities. A reason for this was that the country lacked work, and the US lacked employees. This is what brought French into California. Today, many French speakers reside in the major cities of Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles. In the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, immigrants were lured by employment in docks and the notable “Gold Rush.” In 1853, a French-language newspaper based in San Francisco estimated that there were around 32,000 French immigrants who sought gold. Today, we sti... ... middle of paper ... ...nd the US. Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles is an example of a private school which strives to make students bilingual in French and English. French is taught in most high school and in every university of California. French is a widespread language in the US and can be found easily in California. Much material can be found in French, including government material and even instructions from a handbook. Although the French population has always been relatively small, it has had a great impact on California culture. For example, French is taught in high schools and college and there are even private schools dedicated to teaching French. It is such a popular language that most of us have even heard a few of the phrases like ‘bonjour,’ ‘je t’aime,’ and ‘voila.’ This subject-verb-object language has influenced government and culture in California and the US in general.
In the years from 1860 through 1890, the prospect of a better life attracted nearly ten million immigrants who settled in cities around the United States. The growing number of industries produced demands for thousands of new workers and immigrants were seeking more economic opportunities. Most immigrants settled near each other’s own nationality and/or original village when in America.
Latin was the main language for the Roman empire and was used all across the land. In document 1 it revealed that,”Latin is the basis for the languages of French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian… Even the German and English languages have derived worlds from Latin.” This evidence shows that all these widely spoken languages are all from Latin which means that if it weren’t for the creation of Latin these languages wouldn’t be the way they are and as popular as they are. Just like how Latin affected the way languages are spoken in Europe, these languages also spread to the U.S. as well with some languages gaining more speakers due to the spread. In the article,”The Most Spoken Languages In America” by Jessica Dillinger, around 230 million people speak english and out of the top twelve languages spoken in the U.S. half are romance languages. The latin language has changed how people speak and what to speak in the U.S. since about 70% of the population speak english. Also since all the Romance languages are from Latin it’s easier to learn other languages when you know one already. The way people talk and the way people try to communicate in the U.S. is, ironically the effect of the the one language that no one
Immigration has existed around the world for centuries, decades, and included hundreds of cultures. Tired of poverty, a lack of opportunities, unequal treatment, political corruption, and lacking any choice, many decided to emigrate from their country of birth to seek new opportunities and a new and better life in another country, to settle a future for their families, to work hard and earn a place in life. As the nation of the opportunities, land of the dreams, and because of its foundation of a better, more equal world for all, the United States of America has been a point of hope for many of those people. A lot of nationals around the world have ended their research for a place to call home in the United States of America. By analyzing primary sources and the secondary sources to back up the information, one could find out about what Chinese, Italians, Swedish, and Vietnamese immigrants have experienced in the United States in different time periods from 1865 to 1990.
• "French Language in Quebec and is it changing?." - Online Party of Canada. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. .
Ryon effectively analyses the various texts by identifying that local knowledge shows evidence of a fight against language loss meanwhile, academic writings reveal the opposite. Ryon’s use of local knowledge in her article puts the ideas of her argument into practice by including unofficial forms of knowledge as evidence to support her argument. To make this statement even more clear and bold, Ryon should have included testimonies from local knowledge as evidence in the earlier three sections of her argument. It would have been beneficial to hear anecdotes from the French in Louisiana regarding their reaction to the ideas put forward by expert knowledge. In the first part of her essay, Ryon makes an assumption that the ideas put forward by expert discourse, primarily those that question the promotion of the language, is the reason why the “Louisinification” movement has not progressed very much since its introduction (p. 283). Ryon does not include anecdotes from the group involved in the creation of this movement to support this assumption; perhaps there is a lack of resources and not a lack of legitimization. There are also assumptions made on the reasons why the Cajun have chosen to assimilate to the dominant language stating that learning English for the Cajuns is a way for them,
This assignment encouraged me to inquire into the historic significance the French immigrants had upon the United States. I would like to develop this aspect starting with the early French settlements and terminate by discussing their contributions to the United States.
The Civil Rights era fostered a rejuvenation of the movement toward bilingual education. Amid with the desire of the nation to eliminate discrimination, the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 came into being. Certainly this act was at least in part the result of a growing num...
America’s first wave of immigration began in 1840 through 1860 and lead to many demographic changes. Population increased due to natural reproduction and immigration. Many immigrants relocated to America seeking economic growth and opportunity or to escape religious persecution and political tensions. The Irish and the Germans were the first immigrants to migrate to America during the first wave of immigration. Each group had different reasons for settlement, but both faced discrimination from the Nativists.
After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Soon after the first wave, many more Chinese immigrants began to arrive into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived wanted to go home at some point, and therefore there was no push for naturalization...
Many people immigrate to the United States from different countries to begin a better life. Once in the American territory, the first step for success is to learn the English language. Richard Rodriguez, the writer of "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" describes the language decisions he faced as a child: "Outside the house was public society; inside the house was private" (16). The English language is the primary language in the United States, and it must be learned to be able to communicate with the public world. The language that we speak at home is considered to be private because it is only used in the presence of the people we feel comfortable with, our family. Families immigrate to the United States from Mexico to find and give their children a better opportunity to succeed. The children of immigrants who have been raised or born in the United States were able to adapt much faster to the English language. The Spanish language, in the case of Mexicans, is part of our origin that most of us inherit from our ancestors although in the United States many, including me, seem to add a new language, which gives us better opportunities.
The earliest English-only movement dates back to 1807, when Louisiana adopted English as its official language in its constitution. In 1980, Dade County, Flori...
A large number of people in the Hispanic community whether Hispanics are not able to get the English literacy skills that they need not because they want to keep born in Latin America or the United States, speak Spanish primarily. This is basically because in present day time, Hispanics are more likely to pass Spanish to their kids now than they have done in the past. (Ortiz, P.149) This is seen as a social problem, especially because of the fact that there is an increasing demand that English should only be taught in public school and it should also be spoken within the Spanish community. Even though Hispanics do speak a lot of Spanish most of the time, they still do learn English also, especially the young. But, because of the large flow of immigrants, the use of Spanish is used more often because they are constantly encountering immigrants who speak no English. (Ortiz, P. 150) Before hand there has been said to have been lower achievements when Hispanics make frequent use of the Spanish la...
Immigration to America began when Christopher Columbus discovered the new land now called the American continent. Immigration increased in the 17th century when people came from Europe, Africa, and Asia to the new land. There were many colonies, such as the British and Dutch. When people came they go to their people and find jobs as farmers. The first immigrants were in the east coast around 1607 to 1775 after the number of immigrants increased. In 1790 - 1850 there were few immigrants who came to America, but in 1850 to 1930 the number of immigrations increased (Dolan 4).
Language shift, or language attrition, was a feature to a Darwinian evolution in which less complex and adaptable languages, like Creole, died and the more advanced and fittest languages, like English, survived (Carlisle, 2010). Modern linguistics challenges that it is not accurate to focus on the attrition of a language based on its structure, without looking at the social factors involved. There is very little to no development of Louisiana Creole and the reason for this is because of the restricted access to the language, through education and/or everyday interactions (Carlisle, 2010). As of today, there is no evidence of children growing up that speak Louisiana Creole French as their first language. It’s unlikely to find a fluent speaker below the age of 60. The 60-year-old-and-over generation learned the language when they were young, but after having to renounce the language in school, they only taught their children English. They came to appreciate the cultural impact of their abandonment of Louisiana Creole French in the 1960s. They then began to speak the language to their grandchildren (Audisio and Burke, 1988). For those few speakers below the age of 60, “they would be called ‘near-passive bilinguals.’ They may know many words and expressions but cannot construct or manipulate full sentences” (Brown, 1993). Current speakers speak English as well as or even better than
During the last 10-15 years of the Progressive Era, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States— a number equal to the total number of immigrants that arrived in the previous 40 years. In 1910, three-fourths of New York City's population was made up of either immigrants or first generation Americans. Unlike earlier immigrants, the majority of the newcomers during this time came from non-English speaking European countries. Immigrants mostly traveled in from...