Languages of the Americas: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese eBook

This is a Languages of the Americas: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese eBook written by Paul Rallion.

Before 1492, when the Europeans came to America, or the “New World,” thousands of indigenous languages were spoken in the Americas.

Four language families remain relatively strong: Quechua (9 million speakers), Guarani (5 million speakers), Aymara (2.2 million speakers), and Nahuatl (Aztec, 1.5 million speakers).

There are four countries in the Americas whose official language is none of the four listed in this book (with its Capital): Greenland (Nuuk): West Greenlandic, Aruba (Oranjestad): Papiamento and Dutch, Curaçao (Willemstad): Papiamento, Surinam (Paramaribo): Dutch.

The focus of this book is on the major languages spoken in the Americas today: Spanish (400 million speakers), English (247 million speakers), French (8 million speakers), and Portuguese (204 million speakers).

As children, learning our primary language takes no apparent effort. Although a newborn will learn any language their parents speak to them in, the time for an adult to learn a foreign language varies. There are many children who are lucky to learn more than one language as they grow up. That was my case, being born in El Salvador, a Spanish-speaking country, where my dad relocated from France.

This book began as an effort to help my daughter and myself increase our vocabulary in French, my paternal language. I made an online note, which I shared with her. As I added more words in French along with its meaning in English (my third language), it occurred to me to add its meaning in Portuguese (my fourth language, which I have studied since 1990), and its meaning in Spanish, my maternal language. As I added more content, it occurred to me to put together this book: Languages of the Americas: Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese.