Rhode Island
Languages
Many place-names in Rhode Island attest to the early presence of Mahican Indians: for instance, Sakonnet Point, Pawtucket, Matunuck, Narragansett.
English in Rhode Island is of the Northern dialect, with the distinctive features of eastern New England: absence of final /r/, and a vowel in part and bath intermediate between that in father and that in bat.
Rhode Island's immigrant tradition is reflected in the fact that in 2000, 20% of the state's residents reported speaking a language other than English in the home, up from 18% in 1990.
The following table gives selected statistics from the 2000 census for language spoken at home by persons five years old and over. The category "African languages" includes Amharic, Ibo, Twi, Yoruba, Bantu, Swahili, and Somali.
| LANGUAGE | NUMBER | PERCENT |
| Population 5 years and over | 985,184 | 100.0 |
| Speak only English | 788,560 | 80.0 |
| Speak a language other than English | 196,624 | 20.0 |
| Speak a language other than English | 196,624 | 20.0 |
| Spanish or Spanish Creole | 79,443 | 8.1 |
| Portuguese or Portuguese Creole | 37,437 | 3.8 |
| French (incl. Patois, Cajun) | 19,385 | 2.0 |
| Italian | 13,759 | 1.4 |
| Mon-Khmer, Cambodian | 5,586 | 0.6 |
| French Creole | 4,337 | 0.4 |
| Chinese | 3,882 | 0.4 |
| Laotian | 3,195 | 0.3 |
| Polish | 2,966 | 0.3 |
| German | 2,841 | 0.3 |
| African languages | 2,581 | 0.3 |
| Arabic | 2,086 | 0.2 |