Languages of Illinois

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The official language of Illinois is

Indian Removal
.

Official language

English is Illinois's official language. Illinois was one of the first states in the United States to pass an official language law, though its first official language was not English but "American". In 1923, Representative Washington J. McCormick of Montana had failed to pass a bill in the United States Congress declaring "American" to be the official language of the United States. Following the bill's failure, Senator Frank Ryan introduced a similar bill to the Illinois General Assembly.[1] The bill passed with the support of Irish and Jewish politicians in Chicago, who, by rejecting the term "English", wanted to show their opposition to British policies in Ireland and Palestine, respectively.[2] In 1969, another act of the General Assembly replaced "American" with "English."[3] Meanwhile, the term "American language" survives in some legislation from the period.[4] Unlike official language laws in many other states, the statute in Illinois is purely symbolic, having the same status as laws naming state symbols like the state bird and state fossil.[5]

Dialects of English

The English of Illinois varies from

African American Vernacular English
is also spoken in parts of the state.

Other languages

As of 2010, 78.26% (9,315,206) of Illinois residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a

mother language other than English.[8] Among those who speak a language other than English at home, most (57.3%) reported in 2010 that they also speak English "very well." 20.7% spoke English "well," 15.9% spoke it "not well," and only 6.2% "not at all".[9]

Top 10 Non-English Languages Spoken in Illinois
Language Percentage of population
(as of 2010)[8]
Spanish 12.74%
Polish 1.64%
Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin) 0.67%
Tagalog 0.65%
German and Korean (tied) 0.45%
Arabic
 0.38%
Urdu and Russian
(tied)		 0.35%
Italian 0.34%
Gujarati 0.32%
Hindi
(tied)		 0.30%

In the colonial period, the

Indian Removal, culminating in the Black Hawk War of 1832 and the 1833 Treaty of Chicago
.

Illinois Campaign of 1778, but Illinois was still a bilingual territory for several more years before the flood of Anglo-American settlers overwhelmed the old communities.[11] By the time of statehood in 1818, French was in decline for matters of politics and government.[12] Colonial French died out in Illinois but survived as Missouri French in some communities across the Mississippi River.[13] The 2010 census reported 34,938 French speakers in Illinois, 0.29% of the population.[8]

References

  1. Champaign-Urbana Courier
    . p. 10. Retrieved March 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    Department of English. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  3. ^ Davis, Robert (September 24, 1969). "News Briefs: Its Legal—We Speak English". Chicago Tribune. sec. 1, p. 3. Retrieved March 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ For example, 225 ILCS 705/27.01
  5. ISBN 0-8058-4054-0
    . Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  6. ^ Friedman, Lauren (2012). "A Northern Cities Shift Retreat in the St. Louis Corridor" (PDF). 36th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  7. ^ Frazer, Timothy C. (2007). "Tongue ties: The linguistic map of western Illinois". Illinois Heritage. 10 (3). Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society: 12–15. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  8. ^ a b c "Illinois". Modern Language Association. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  9. ^ Ryan, Camille (August 2013). "Language Use in the United States: American Community Survey Reports" (PDF). Census.gov. United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  10. ^ "The Illinois Identity: Language". MuseumLink Illinois. Illinois State Museum. 2000. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  11. Chicago Historical Society. p. 50. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2017-05-16. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  12. ^ Boggess, 135
  13. ^ O'Connor, Rorye (15 November 2012). "French still thrives in the Illinois territory". Mt. Vernon Register-News. Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
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