The most widely spoken language in North America is English, followed in prevalence by Spanish, and French a distant third place. These three languages were brought to North America as a result of the colonization of basically the entire continent by settlers from Europe.
Spanish is the dominant language in Mexico and all of Central America apart from Belize, as well as the largest Caribbean islands of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico (where English is spoken as well); it is also widely spoken in the United States.[14]
Russian was once widely spoken in Alaska as it was the language of administration, commerce, and the settlers there that often intermarried with the locals (they numbered no more than a thousand), creating a sizable biracial population. The language began to decline after the United States purchased the land from the Russian Empire. Nonetheless, the language, called "Old Russian" by its speakers, is still spoken today in parts of Alaska like Ninilchik and Kodiak by descendants of Russian colonists and RussifiedAlaskan Natives and is known for its archaic Russian vocabulary and indigenous influences, though the vast majority of speakers are elderly, so that this unique Russian dialect is heavily endangered.[16] In addition, a Russian creole/mixed language known as Medny Aleut language was once spoken in some of the Aleutian Islands. Only a few elderly people still speak it. There has also been sizable recent immigration from Russia in the past few decades, leading to a new generation of Russian-speaking Alaskans. Other Slavic languages brought to the continent by North American settlers include the Canadian Ukrainian and Texas Silesian dialects.[17][18]
Other introduced languages include Danish in Greenland,[19] where it is spoken by nearly everyone (mostly as a second language) due to centuries of colonization by Denmark. Danish was once the language of administration of the US Virgin Islands before the purchase by the United States. Dutch in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, where it is spoken alongside the Portuguese Creole language in Papiamento.[20] In modern times North America has immigrant speakers of many languages from around the world. For details see Languages of Canada, Languages of the United States, and Languages of Mexico. Some historic languages include Gholan Language and Quechua.
Yiddish, another Germanic language with Aramaic and Hebrew words and slavic influence, is spoken by Jewish Hassidic and Orthodox communities and in some families from Jewish extraction in many parts of America and in the US, and Canada יידיש
^Parks, Douglas R.; Robert L. Rankin (2001). "The Siouan languages". In R. J. DeMallie (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians: Plains. Vol. 13, Part 1. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 94–114. ISBN0-16-050400-7.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). museum.gov.ns.ca. Archived from the original(PDF) on 28 August 2006. Retrieved 12 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)