Editing Dominican Republic (section)

===Languages===
{{Main|Dominican Spanish}}

The population of the Dominican Republic is mostly [[Spanish language|Spanish]]-speaking, with the only people who do not speak Spanish fluently being some immigrants. The local [[Variation (linguistics)|variant]] of Spanish is called [[Dominican Spanish]], which closely resembles other Spanish [[vernacular]]s in the Caribbean and has similarities to [[Canarian Spanish]]. In addition, it has influences from African languages and borrowed words from [[Indigenous languages of the Americas#South America and the Caribbean|indigenous Caribbean languages]] particular to the island of Hispaniola.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Henríquez Ureña|first1=Pedro|author-link1=Pedro Henríquez Ureña|title=El Español en Santo Domingo|date=1940|publisher=Instituto de Filología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires|location=Buenos Aires|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLTyydkMtrIC&q=El%20%22Espa%C3%B1ol%20Dominicano%22&pg=PA9 | title=Diccionario de dominicanismos |publisher=Librería La Trinitaria |author=Deive, Carlos Esteban |year=2002 |location=Santo Domingo |pages=9–16 | isbn=978-9993439073 |access-date=October 2, 2020 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111010041/https://books.google.com/books?id=tLTyydkMtrIC&q=El%20%22Espa%C3%B1ol%20Dominicano%22&pg=PA9#v=snippet&q=El%20%22Espa%C3%B1ol%20Dominicano%22&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Schools are based on a Spanish educational model; English and French are mandatory foreign languages in both private and public schools,<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.see.gob.do/documentosminerd/Desarrollo%20Curricular/guia-didac-inicial.pdf|title=Guía Didáctica. Inicial|volume=I|publisher=Ministry of Education, Dominican Republic|date=2010|isbn=978-99934-43-26-1|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110803222706/http://www.see.gob.do/documentosminerd/Desarrollo%20Curricular/guia-didac-inicial.pdf|archive-date=August 3, 2011}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2022}} although the quality of foreign languages teaching is poor.<ref>{{cite web|first=Bethania|last=Apolinar|url=http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2015/08/02/382666/ensenanza-del-ingles-es-pobre-en-escuelas|title=Enseñanza del inglés es "pobre" en escuelas|trans-title=Teaching of English is "poor" in schools|language=es|publisher=Listin Diario|location=Santo Domingo|date=August 2, 2015|access-date=August 24, 2016|archive-date=June 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630062446/http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2015/08/02/382666/ensenanza-del-ingles-es-pobre-en-escuelas|url-status=live}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2022}}

[[Haitian Creole]] is the largest minority language in the Dominican Republic and is spoken by [[Haitians|Haitian]] immigrants and their descendants.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgtSqB9oqDIC&pg=PA389 |title=Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education |editor1-last=Baker |editor1-first=Colin |editor2-last=Prys Jones |editor2-first=Sylvia |page=389 |year=1998 |publisher=Multilingual Matters |isbn=978-1-85359-362-8 |access-date=November 20, 2015 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111010146/https://books.google.com/books?id=YgtSqB9oqDIC&pg=PA389#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> There is a community of a few thousand people whose ancestors spoke [[Samaná English]] in the [[Samaná Peninsula]]. They are the descendants of formerly enslaved African Americans who arrived in the nineteenth century, but only a few elders speak the language today.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/248798261/La-Historia-de-Los-Inmigrantes-Afro-Americanos-y-Sus-Iglesias-en-Samana-Segun-El-Reverendo-Nehemiah-Willmore | title=La Historia de Los Inmigrantes Afro-Americanos Y Sus Iglesias En Samaná Según El Reverendo Nehemiah Willmore. | author=Davis, Martha Ellen | journal=Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación | year=2011 | volume=36 | issue=129 | pages=237–45 | author-link=Martha Ellen Davis (ethnomusicologist) | access-date=November 22, 2015 | archive-date=November 23, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123032641/https://www.scribd.com/doc/248798261/La-Historia-de-Los-Inmigrantes-Afro-Americanos-y-Sus-Iglesias-en-Samana-Segun-El-Reverendo-Nehemiah-Willmore | url-status=live }}</ref> Tourism, American pop culture, the influence of [[Dominican Americans]], and the country's economic ties with the United States motivate other Dominicans to learn English. The Dominican Republic is ranked 2nd in Latin America and 23rd in the World on English [[Language proficiency|proficiency]] as a second language.<ref>[https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/which-countries-are-best-at-english-as-a-second-language-4d24c8c8-6cf6-4067-a753-4c82b4bc865b/ Which countries are best at English as a second language?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808153745/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/which-countries-are-best-at-english-as-a-second-language-4d24c8c8-6cf6-4067-a753-4c82b4bc865b/ |date=August 8, 2017 }}, [[World Economic Forum]]. Retrieved on July 10, 2017.</ref><ref>[http://www.ef.com/wwpt/epi/regions/latin-america/dominican-republic/ EF English Proficiency Index – Dominican Republic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170601204553/http://www.ef.com/wwpt/epi/regions/latin-america/dominican-republic/ |date=June 1, 2017 }}, [[EF Education First]]. Retrieved on July 10, 2017.</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+[[Mother tongue]] of the Dominican population, 1950 Census<ref name="ONE_HistoriaMetodologia">{{cite book|title=Historia, Metodología y Organización de los Censos en República Dominicana: 1920–1993|publisher=Oficinal Nacional de Estadística|last1=Nicasio Rodríguez|first1=Irma|author2=Jesús de la Rosa|location=Santo Domingo|pages=44, 131|language=es|date=1998}}</ref>
|-
! Language !! Total % !! Urban % !! Rural %
|- style="text-align:center;" || |
|[[Spanish language|Spanish]]|| style="text-align:center;" | 98.00 || style="text-align:center;" | 97.82 || style="text-align:center;" | 98.06
|-
|[[French language|French]]|| style="text-align:center;" | 1.19 || style="text-align:center;" | 0.39|| style="text-align:center;" | 1.44
|-
|[[English language|English]]|| style="text-align:center;" | 0.57 || style="text-align:center;" | 0.96|| style="text-align:center;" | 0.45
|-
|[[Arabic language|Arabic]]|| style="text-align:center;" | 0.09 || style="text-align:center;" | 0.35|| style="text-align:center;" | 0.01
|-
|[[Italian language|Italian]]|| style="text-align:center;" | 0.03 || style="text-align:center;" | 0.10|| style="text-align:center;" | 0.006
|-
| Other language || style="text-align:center;" | 0.12 || style="text-align:center;" | 0.35|| style="text-align:center;" | 0.04
|}