Editing Languages of the United States (section)

===Chinese (3.4 million speakers)===
{{Main|Chinese language in the United States}}
The population of Chinese speakers in the United States was increasing rapidly in the 20th century because the number of Chinese immigrants has increased at a rate of more than 50% since 1940.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/languagesinameri00dick|url-access=registration|quote=chinese.|title=Languages in America: A Pluralist View|last=Dicker|first=Susan J.|date=January 1, 2003|publisher=Multilingual Matters|isbn=9781853596513|language=en}}</ref> Some 2.8 million Americans speak some [[Varieties of Chinese|variety of Chinese]], which combined are counted by the federal census as the third most-spoken language in the country. Until the late 20th century, [[Yue dialects]], including [[Cantonese]] and [[Taishanese]], were the most common dialects among immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, especially in [[California]]. Since the opening of the [[China|People's Republic of China]], [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]], the official language in the PRC and [[Taiwan|Republic of China]] (Taiwan), has become increasingly prevalent.<ref name="Lai">{{Citation | last = Lai | first = H. Mark | title = Becoming Chinese American or Taiwanese American: A History of Communities and Institutions | publisher = AltaMira Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-7591-0458-7}}</ref> Many Americans of all ethnic backgrounds are also learning Mandarin and, to a far lesser extent, Cantonese.<ref name="Lai"/>

In [[New York City]] in 2002, Mandarin was spoken as a native language among only 10% of Chinese speakers but was predicted to replace Cantonese as the [[lingua franca]] among Chinese speakers.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = García | first1 = Ofelia | last2 = Fishman |first2 = Joshua A. | title = The Multilingual Apple: Languages in New York City | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | year = 2002 | isbn = 978-3-11-017281-2}}</ref>

[[Chinese-Americans in the California Gold Rush]] and their descendants spoke a variety of the [[Cantonese language]] influenced by American English and American societal concepts foreign to Cantonese speakers in Modern China, either through direct English translations such as "Alpine" borrowed from ([[Alpine County, California]]), or neologisms such as "Yellow Eagle" ([[Dollar coin (United States)|Gold dollar]]), "Emancipated Woman" (Feminist), and "Telephone". It also maintains older [[Qing Dynasty]] Cantonese vocabulary that has fallen out of use in Cantonese spoken in Modern China.<ref name="chinesehistoricalsociety">{{cite book |title=Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1988|author=Chinese Historical Society|year=1988|publisher=Chinese Historical Society|location=United States of America|pages=115}}</ref>