Editing Missouri (section)

===Language===
[[File:US-Population-Center-Illinois-and-Missouri.png|left|thumb|The population center for the United States has been in Missouri since 1980.  As of 2020, it is near [[Interstate 44 in Missouri]] as it approaches [[Springfield, Missouri|Springfield]].]]

The vast majority of people in Missouri speak English. Approximately 5.1% of the population reported speaking a language other than English at home. The Spanish language is spoken in small Latino communities in the St. Louis and Kansas City Metro areas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cambio.missouri.edu/Library/Publications/2006-08CambioDeColoresAbstractsBookWEB.pdf|title=Latinos in Missouri|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525203034/http://www.cambio.missouri.edu/Library/Publications/2006-08CambioDeColoresAbstractsBookWEB.pdf|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Missouri is home to an endangered dialect of the French language known as [[Missouri French]]. Speakers of the dialect, who call themselves ''[[Creole peoples|Créoles]]'', are descendants of the French pioneers who settled the area then known as the [[Illinois Country]] beginning in the late 17th century. It developed in isolation from French speakers in Canada and [[Louisiana]], becoming quite distinct from the varieties of [[Canadian French]] and [[Louisiana French]]. Once widely spoken throughout the area, Missouri French is now nearly extinct, with only a few elderly speakers able to use it.<ref name= Ammon>{{cite book|title= Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties|last1= Ammon|first1= Ulrich|year= 1989|publisher= Walter de Gruyter|isbn= 978-0-89925-356-5|pages= 306–8|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=geh261xgI8sC|access-date= September 3, 2010|archive-date= December 20, 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121220231510/http://books.google.com/books?id=geh261xgI8sC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0|url-status= live}}; International Sociological Association.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Carrière|first1= J-M|year= 1939|title= Creole Dialect of Missouri |journal=American Speech |volume= 14 |issue= 2|pages= 109–19|jstor= 451217|doi=10.2307/451217}}</ref>