Slate’s infographic mapping magic illustrates what we knew already — across most of the United Estates, Spanish is almost always the most commonly-spoken language besides English.
But after English and Spanish, what’s Numero Tres? Here in California, it’s Tagalog, first language of a quarter of all Filipinos and the second language of most. Pinoys, ruled by both Spain and the U.S., are the honorary (?) Latinos of Asia.
Tagalog? If you’ve got cooties, or play with a yo-yo, or live in the boondocks, you’re speaking Tagalog.
There are also unexpected results in Texas and Florida and New York and Illinois and…. Here’s the spoken language third place map:
We’re especially taken by the Russian in Oregon, the Vietnamese in Texas and Oklahoma, the Hmong in Hminnesota, Frenchies everywhere and people all over who hablar Deutsch. Who knew?
You can read Slate’s story here, where they drill down even further. It’s where we got these maps.