Mother Tongues in America by William B. Bailey

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 26, 1914

Mother Tongues in America

By William B. Bailey

THERE will soon be issued by the Bureau of the Census statistics concerning the mother tongue, or native language, of the foreign white stock of the United States. Up to the present time the information concerning the racial distribution of our foreign-born population has referred only to the country of birth. In 1910 a question was asked all our white population of foreign birth or parentage concerning their mother tongue. These figures, therefore, possess a peculiar significance in that they offer us for the first time a fairly accurate picture of the ethnic composition of our foreign white stock. Of the total population of this country in 1910, 32,243,382, or a trifle more than one third, were whites of foreign parentage. The eight major mother tongue stocks accounting for 87.5 per cent of the total, are as follows:—

The Mother Tongues of Our Foreign White Population

Mother Tongue	Number	Per Cent Distribution
English	10,037,420	31.1
German	8,817,271	27.3
Italian	2,151,422	6.7
Polish	1,707,640	5.3
Yiddish and Hebrew	1,676,762	5.2
Swedish	1,445,869	4.5
French	1,357,169	4.2
Norwegian	1,009,854	3.1
Totals	28,203,407	87.5
Other mother tongues	4,039,975	12.5
All mother tongues	32,243,382	100.0

It is interesting to note that English or German was the ancestral language of nearly three fifths of the foreign white stock of this country. The proportion of our foreign stock who claim English as the mother tongue is very much larger than the proportion of those who came from England, since many from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Canada, and other countries spoke English before coming to this country. Thus, of the foreign-born white population in this country, 25.2 per cent claim English as the mother tongue, and yet only 6.6 per cent came from England.

There are about three hundred and seventy-five thousand more persons claiming Germany as their home than German as the mother tongue. There are, of course, some from Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary whose language was German, but these were more than offset by the large number of Poles from Germany. Those claiming Polish and Yiddish or Hebrew for mother tongue occupy an anomalous position. Although constituting perhaps an ethnic group, they are without a national existence.

The most remarkable case is furnished by Russia. Of the immigrants to this country from Russia, 52.3 per cent were Hebrew, and only 2.5 per cent Russian. The remainder are largely Polish, Ruthenian, and Lettish. The number reporting their mother tongue as Yiddish or Hebrew is probably somewhat too small, as many whose ancestral language is Hebrew have reported German, English, Polish, or some other language as their mother tongue. From Canada about two thirds report English and one third French as the mother tongue. It is rather remarkable that while over four per cent of the foreign white stock in this country report French as the mother tongue, less than one per cent came from France. The large number from Canada, Switzerland, and Belgium who reported French as the mother tongue accounts for this.

When we consider the large immigration from southeastern Europe in recent years, it is encouraging to note that English is still the predominant language among our foreign white stock.—William B. Bailey, assistant professor of political economy, Yale University, in the Independent.