Challenge: Multilingual America

Have the Irish speak celtic rather than English.


To be honest, the thought of a Gaelic-speaking United States is very intriguing to me.

To put things in perspective, per capita, there are more Spanish speakers in the United States of America than there are Gaelic speakers in the Republic of Ireland.
 
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OTL America is Multilingual

In English (pretty much every other language, and to a lesser extent, Brazilian and Iberian Portuguese), "America" refers specifically to the United States of America and anything having to do with it. It is rare and practically unheard of in English to refer to say, a Argentine or Guyanan as an American, as again, this term is reserved for the United States in the English language.

Whereas in Spanish (Latin American Spanish, not Castilian Spanish) "America" refers to both North and South America. It can get confusing for Spanish speakers from South America and Central America learning English, and understandably so. On a related note, most Castilian Spanish speakers in Iberia use "America" to refer to the United States. It's mainly Spanish speakers in Central America and South America who use "America" to refer to both of the American continents.

Hope this clears things up.

Or, if you were refering to the United States all along, then yes, there are a wide variety of languages spoken in the United States of America. But, this thread is asking how could the United States be more multilingual than it already is.
 
OTL America is Multilingual :D

Yes, but roughly 86% of the population speaks English as their native language, and about 10% Spanish. That's only two languages, and, critically, most of the non-native English speakers are first generation immigrants.

Personally I think you have to change things pre-1776 to get at what the OP's looking for.
 
Have the Irish speak celtic rather than English.

The Irish language is Gaeilge, or "Gaelic" if you Anglicise it.

It was still widely spoken in Ireland until the 18th century when the English penal laws attempted to end Irish culture. Towards the end of the 19th Century the language was saved by nationalists who started the Gaelic cultural revival.

So in order to increase Gaelige being spoke in the US all you have to do is relax the penal law back in Ireland but still have the famine happen in order to have the mass exodus of Ireland.
 
K, that much is understandable. However, could that be shifted somehow - for example, the dominant non-English mother tongue being a form of Min Nan?
Minnan speakers tended to go to places like Taiwan or Southeast Asia. Cantonese speakers traveled farther, but I'm not entirely sure why. They made up most of the population in Chinese communities outside of Asia.
 
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