Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-12-04
CENSUS, BUREAU FINDS THAT
MANY MOTHER TONGUES ARE
SPOKEN IN UNITED STATES.
ENGLISH HAS BIG LEAD
in SPOKEN LANGUAGES
Gernanie Comes Second and Has Big
Lead Over Other Foreign Countries
Majority Of immigrants From Rus.
sia Hebrew Extraetion-Mors Ger.
mans From France Than French.
Especial Correspondence

Washington Dec. 4.-The good peo-
pie who were assembled at the con-
struction of the Tower of Babel In
ancient times and who developed a
great diversity of speech didn't have
much on the population Of the United
States. The census bureau has put
out some figures dealing with this sub
ject which show there are more mother
tongues assembled in this country than
most folks ever thought Of.
For the first time, the census bu-
reau has compiled figures relating to
the ethnic composition Of the white
population of the United States insofar
as indicated by the native language OF
the different elements. This term is
taken to mean the language Of Gus
tomary speech in the homes Of the
immigrants before immigration and
not the language Of their ancestors,
which in some cases Is entirely differ
ent.
English Tongue Leads.
The English mother tongue is by all
odds the one most largely represented
in the foreign white stock Of the
United States. The number. 10,o37. APO,
Is considerably greater than that Of
German mother tongue, tho the latter
contributes over q fourth Of the total
foreign white stock Of the United
States. Italian, Polish and Yiddish
come next In rank but none OF them
number as much as one-fourth Of the
German. To these three mother
tongues. intermediate in rank but con-
siderable in numbers, may be added
the Swedish, French and Norwegian.
all belonging to northwestern Europe,
except part Of the French. No other
mother tongue than the eight Just
enumerated, the English, German, Ital-
ian. Polish Yiddish. Swedish. French
and Norwegian. furnishes as much az
per cent Of the total foreign white
stock Of the United States or numbers
as much as 1000, 900.
Germans in Second PIaes.
The total foreign born white stock
numbers 32,243.3s2. OF this number.
2S,203. 407 is made up Of people whose
mother tongue are either English, Ctr
man. Italian, Polish. Yiddish and He
brew. Swedish, French and Norwegian.
The German mother tongue il repre-
scented by s,S17,271. This Is second 10
the English. The Italian Is third with
2.151.422. The English and German
together represent over half the moth
er tongues of the foreign born in the
United States.
No end Of interesting facts are az
gresated az the result Of the study Of
the mother tongues. One Of these IL
that the immigrants from Austria are
far more Slavic than Germanic. Rus
sian immigration Is shown to be far
more Hebrew than Russian or Slavic,
due, OF course, to Russian persecution.
In the hmmigra ton from France, the
German mother tongue has gained
slightly on the French.
Many Mother Tongues.
It IL shown by the statistics that
the foreign-born population has no
iess than thirty-three principal moth
er tongues, to say nothing Of the fact
that . number Of other tongues are
used In scattering cases. Tho pr1ncd-
pal divisions are English, Germanio.
Scandinavian, Latin and Greek, Slavic
and Lettfc and miscellaneous.
The Germanic languages include
German. Dutch and Tristan. and Flem-
ish.
Under the Scandinavian, arc the
Swedish. Norwegian and Danish.
Under Latin and Greek, are Italian,
French. Spanish, Portuguese. Rouman-
ian and Greek.
Under Slavic ana Lettic are Polish,
Bohemian and Moravian. Slovak, Rus
sian. Ruthenian, Slovenian, Crotian,
Dalmatian. Servian. Montenegrin, Bull
garian. Lithuanian, and Lettish and
Slavic not specified.
The census bureau groups under
the Yldd1sh and Hebrew,
Magyar, Finnish, Armenian, Syrian
and Arabic. Turkish, Albanian and all
others