The Americas, or America,^[1][2] (Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population: América, Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that grew from the Latin descended Galician-Potuguese language that was spoken in the mediaeval Kingdom of Galicia; whose territory is now divided between northern Portugal, Galicia and Asturias. It also absorbed influences from the Latin and Arabic languages spoken in the areas: América, French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in: Amérique, Dutch Dutch ( Nederlands ) is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language and over 5 million people as a second language. Most native speakers live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, with smaller groups of speakers in parts of France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. It is closely related to other: Amerika) are lands in the Western hemisphere The Western Hemisphere, also Western hemisphere or western hemisphere, is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian , the other half being the eastern hemisphere. It is also used to specifically refer to the Americas (or the New World) and adjacent waters, while excluding other territories that lie, also known as the New World The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans[note], who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa . The term "New World" should not be confused with "modern, comprising the continents A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents – they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia of North America North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean; South America lies to the southeast and South America South America is the southern continent of America, situated in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest with their associated islands An island or isle (/ˈaɪl/) is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, /ˈaɪ.ət/. A grouping of geographically or geologically related and regions Region is most commonly a geographical term that is used in various ways among the different branches of geography. In general, a region may be seen as a collection of smaller units or as one part of a larger whole (as in "the New England region of the United States"). Regions can be defined by physical characteristics, human. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language.^[3][2] The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 13.5% of the human population (about 900 million people).

Contents 1 History 1.1 Formation 1.2 Settlement 1.3 Pre-Columbian era 1.4 European colonization of the Americas 1.5 Naming 2 Geography 2.1 Extent 2.2 Topography 2.3 Hydrology 3 Demography 3.1 Population 3.2 Largest urban centers 3.3 Ethnology 3.4 Religion 3.5 Languages 4 Terminology 4.1 America/Americas 4.2 American 4.2.1 English usage 4.2.2 Spanish usage 4.2.3 Portuguese usage 4.2.4 French usage 4.2.5 Dutch usage 4.2.6 Russian usage 5 Countries and territories 5.1 Sovereign states 5.2 Overseas regions, dependencies, colonies 6 Multinational organizations in the Americas 7 See also 8 Footnotes 9 References 10 External links

History

Main article: History of the Americas The history of the Americas is the collective history of North and South America, including Central America and the Caribbean. It begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an Ice Age. These groups are generally believed to have been isolated from peoples of the "Old World" until the coming of Europeans in

Formation

South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and accreted terranes that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today Gondwanaland Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, is the name given to a southern precursor supercontinent. Its final geological suturing occurred between ca. 570 and 510 million years ago (Ma), joining East Gondwana to West Gondwana. It later separated from Laurasia 180-200 million years ago during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed about 50 around 135 million years ago A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving around the Sun. For an observer on Earth, this corresponds to the period it takes the Sun to complete one course throughout the zodiac along the ecliptic (Ma A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving around the Sun. For an observer on Earth, this corresponds to the period it takes the Sun to complete one course throughout the zodiac along the ecliptic), forming its own continent.^[4] Starting around 15 Ma A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving around the Sun. For an observer on Earth, this corresponds to the period it takes the Sun to complete one course throughout the zodiac along the ecliptic, the collision of the Caribbean Plate The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America and the Pacific Plate The north-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge. In the middle of the eastern side is a transform boundary with the North American Plate along the San Andreas Fault, and a boundary with the Cocos resulted in the emergence of a series of volcanoes along the border that created a number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central America Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is considered to be part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, excluding the southern portions of Panama filled in with material eroded off North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By 3 Ma, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It was formed some 3 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal. Like many isthmuses, it is a, thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas.^[5]

Settlement

For more details on theories of Paleo-Indian migration, see Models of migration to the New World There have been several models of migration to the New World proposed by various academic communities. The question of how, when and why humans (Paleo-Indians) first entered the Americas is of intense interest to archaeologists and anthropologists, and has been a subject of heated debate for centuries. Current understanding of human migration into.

The specifics of Paleo-Indian The Lithic peoples or Paleo-Indians, are the earliest known humans of the Americas. The period's name derives from the appearance of "lithic flaked" stone tools migration to and throughout the Americas, including the exact dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion.^[6] The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles north to south at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages. It was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light due to the southwesterly winds from the Pacific Ocean having lost their moisture over the between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 40,000–17,000 years ago, when sea levels were significantly lowered due to the Quaternary glaciation Quaternary glaciation, also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, the current ice age or simply the ice age, refers to the period of the last few million years in which permanent ice sheets were established in Antarctica and perhaps Greenland, and fluctuating ice sheets have occurred elsewhere (for example, the Laurentide ice sheet). The major.^[6][7] These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12,000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek πλεῖστος (pleistos "most") and καινός (kainos "new") megafauna In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are "giant", "very large" or "large" animals. Their original and most common definition is 100 lb, often rounded in the metric system to 40 or 45 kg. This thus includes many species not popularly thought of as overly large, such as white-tailed deer and red kangaroo, as well as humans along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered hundreds of thousands of square miles, including most of Canada and a large portion of the northern United States, between c. 95,000 and c. 20,000 years before the present day. Its southern margin included the modern sites of New York City and Chicago, and then followed quite and Cordilleran ice sheets.^[8] Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats A boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is something small enough to be carried aboard another, they migrated down the Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest is a region in western North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. Always included are the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Southeast Alaska, Idaho, western Montana and northern California are often included coast to South America South America is the southern continent of America, situated in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest.^[9] Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a sea level rise Current sea level rise has occurred at a mean rate of 1.8 mm per year for the past century, and more recently, during the satellite era of sea level measurement, at rates estimated near 2.8 ± 0.4 to 3.1 ± 0.7 mm per year . Current sea level rise is due significantly to global warming, which will increase sea level over the coming century and of hundreds of meters following the last ice age.^[10]

Archaeologists contend that Paleo-Indians migration out of Beringia (eastern Alaska Alaska is one of two U.S. states not bordered by another state; Hawaii the other. Alaska has more ocean coastline than all of the other U.S. states combined. It is one of two non-contiguous states in North America; Hawaii the other. About 500 miles of Canadian territory separate Alaska from Washington State. Alaska is thus an exclave of the United), ranges from 40,000 to around 16,500 years ago.^[11][12][13] This time range is a hot source of debate and will be for years to come. The few agreements achieved to date are the origin from Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the last glacial period The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, or more specifically what is known as the late glacial maximum The Late Glacial Maximum is defined primarily by climates in the northern hemisphere warming substantially, causing a process of accelerated deglaciation following the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 25,000-13,000 years before the present). It is at this time that human populations, previously forced into refuge areas as a result of Last Glacial Maximum, around 16,000–13,000 years before present.^[13][14]

The Inuit The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Denmark, Russia and the United States. The Inuit language is grouped under Eskimo-Aleut languages. An Inuk is an Inuit man or person migrated into the Arctic The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland section of North America in another wave of migration, arriving around 1000 CE.^[15] Around the same time as the Inuit migrated into North America, Viking settlers The Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America began arriving in Greenland b. ^ Greenland, the Faeroes and Iceland were formally Norwegian possessions until 1814 despite 400 years of Danish monarchy beforehand in 982 and Vinland There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings did reach North America, approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus. In 1960 archaeological evidence of the only known Norse settlement in North America was found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland, in what is now the Canadian shortly thereafter.^[16] The Viking settlers quickly abandoned Vinland, and disappeared from Greenland by 1500.^[17]

Pre-Columbian era

Main article: Pre-Columbian era The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period Mississippian site in Arkansas, Parkin Site Parkin Archeological State Park, also known as Parkin Indian Mound, is an archeological site and state park in Parkin, Cross County, Arkansas. Around 1350–1650 CE an aboriginal palisaded village existed at the site, at the confluence of the St. Francis and Tyronza Rivers. Artifacts from this site are on display at the site museum. The Parkin, circa 1539. Illustration by Herb Roe.

The pre-Columbian era The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period incorporates all period subdivisions The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of North America, Central America , South America and the Caribbean. This includes the study of pre-historic/Pre-Columbian and historic indigenous American peoples in the history and prehistory of the Americas The history of the Americas is the collective history of North and South America, including Central America and the Caribbean. It begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an Ice Age. These groups are generally believed to have been isolated from peoples of the "Old World" until the coming of Europeans in before the appearance of significant European Europe is one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean and influences on the American The Americas, or America, are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area ( continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioural modernity and before the advent of agriculture. The terms "Late Stone Age" and & to European colonization during the Early Modern period.

Pre-Columbian is used especially often in the context of the great indigenous civilizations of the Americas, such as those of Mesoamerica (the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacano, the Zapotec, the Mixtec, the Aztec, and the Maya) and the Andes (Inca, Moche, Chibcha, Cañaris).

Many pre-Columbian civilizations established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and are known only through archaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya, had their own written records. However, most Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, and much was destroyed in Christian pyres. Only a few hidden documents remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.^[18]

According to both indigenous American and European accounts and documents, American civilizations at the time of European encounter possessed many impressive accomplishments. For instance, the Aztecs built one of the most impressive cities in the world, Tenochtitlan, the ancient site of Mexico City, with an estimated population of 200,000. American civilizations also displayed impressive accomplishments in astronomy and mathematics.^[19]

European colonization of the Americas

Main article: European colonization of the Americas

Large-scale European colonization of the Americas began shortly after the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and Africans killed many of the inhabitants of North America and South America,^[20][21] with a general population crash of Native Americans occurring in the mid-sixteenth century, often well ahead of European contact.^[22] Native peoples and European colonizers came into widespread conflict, resulting in what David Stannard has called a genocide of the indigenous populations.^[23] Early European immigrants were often part of state-sponsored attempts to found colonies in the Americas. Migration continued as people moved to the Americas fleeing religious persecution or seeking economic opportunities. Millions of individuals were forcibly transported to the Americas as slaves, prisoners or indentured servants.

Naming

World map of Waldseemüller, which first named America (in the map over Paraguay), Germany, 1507

The earliest known use of the name America for this particular landmass dates from April 25, 1507. It appears first on a small globe map with twelve time zones, and then a large wall map created by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in France. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, states, "I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part, after Americus who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, Amerige, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia got their names from women". Americus Vespucius is the Latinized version of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, and America is the feminine form of Americus.^[24][25] Amerigo itself is an Italian form of the medieval Latin Emericus (see also Saint Emeric of Hungary), which through the German form Heinrich (in English, Henry) derived from the Germanic name Haimirich.^[26]

Vespucci's role in the naming issue, like his exploratory activity, is unclear. Some sources say that he was unaware of the widespread use of his name to refer to the new landmass. Waldseemüller may have been misled by the Soderini Letter, claimed by some to be a forgery, which implies that it was discovered first by Amerigo Vespucci. Christopher Columbus, who had first brought the region's existence to the attention of Renaissance era voyagers, had died in 1506 (believing, to the end, that he had discovered and colonized the Indies he had set out looking for) and could not protest Waldseemüller's decision.^[27]

Map of America by Jonghe, c. 1770

Geography

Further information: Geography of North America and Geography of South America

Extent

The northernmost point of the Americas is Kaffeklubben Island, which is the northernmost point of land on Earth.^[28] The southernmost point is the islands of Southern Thule, although they are sometimes considered part of Antarctica.^[29] The easternmost point is Nordostrundingen. The westernmost point is Attu Island.

The mainland of the Americas is the longest north-to-south landmass on Earth. At its longest, it stretches roughly 14,000 kilometres, (just under 8700 miles) from the Boothia Peninsula in northern Canada to Cape Froward in Chilean Patagonia. The westernmost point of the mainland of the Americas is the end of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska, while Ponta do Seixas in northeastern Brazil forms the mainland's easternmost extremity.^[30]

Topography

Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, located in Argentina

The western geography of the Americas is dominated by the American cordillera, with the Andes running along the west coast of South America^[31] and the Rocky Mountains and other Western Cordillera ranges running along the western side of North America.^[32] The 2300 km long (1429 mile long) Appalachian Mountains run along the east coast of North America from Alabama to Newfoundland.^[33] North of the Appalachians, the Arctic Cordillera runs along the eastern coast of Canada.^[34]

Between its coastal mountain ranges, North America has vast flat areas. The Interior Plains spread over much of the continent with low relief.^[35] The Canadian Shield covers almost 5 million km² of North America and is generally quite flat.^[36] Similarly, the north-east of South America is covered by the flat Amazon Basin.^[37] The Brazilian Highlands on the east coast are fairly smooth but show some variations in landform, while further south the Gran Chaco and Pampas are broad lowlands.^[38]

Hydrology

With coastal mountains and interior plains, the Americas have several large river basins that drain the continents. The largest river basin in South America is that of the Amazon, which has the highest volume flow of any river on Earth.^[39] The largest river basin in North America is that of the Mississippi, covering the second largest watershed on the planet.^[40] The second largest watershed of South America is that of the Paraná River, which covers about 2.5 million km².^[41]

Demography

Population

São Paulo, Brazil Mexico City, Mexico New York City, United States

The total population of the Americas is about 859,000,000 people and is divided as follows:

• North America: 2001 with 495 million and in 2002 with 501 million (includes Central America and Hawaii)
• South America: 2001 with 352 million and in 2002 with 357 million

See also:

• UN population data by latest available Census: 2007
• List of countries in the Americas by population

Largest urban centers

See also: Largest cities in the Americas and List of metropolitan areas in the Americas by population

The most populous cities in the Americas are Mexico City, capital of Mexico; New York City, located on the east coast of the United States of America; and São Paulo, capital of the Brazilian state of the same name. Which of these urban centers is considered the most populous depends on the criteria used in determining their populations.

City	Country	City Proper	Rank	Urban Area	Rank	Metropolitan Area	Rank
São Paulo	Brazil	11,037,593	1st	19,505,000	2nd	18,850,000	3rd
Mexico City	Mexico	8,841,916	2nd	18,585,000	3rd	20,450,000	1st
New York City	United States	8,363,710	3rd	21,295,000	1st	19,750,000	2nd

Ethnology

The population of the Americas is made up of the descendants of seven large ethnic groups and their combinations.

• The Indigenous peoples of the Americas, being Amerindians, Inuit, and Aleuts.
• Those of European ancestry, mainly Spanish, British, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Polish, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian people.
• Mestizos, those of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry.
• Those of Black African ancestry, mainly of West African descent.
• Mulattoes, people of mixed Black African and European ancestry.
• Zambos (Spanish) or Cafusos (Portuguese), those of mixed Black African and Amerindian ancestry.
• Asians, that is, those of Eastern, South, and Southeast Asian ancestry.
• Those from the Middle East (Middle Easterners).

The majority of the population live in Latin America, named for its predominant cultures whose roots lie in Latin Europe (including the two dominant languages, Spanish and Portuguese, both neolatin), more specifically in the Iberian nations of Portugal and Spain (hence the use of the term Ibero-America as a synonym). Latin America is typically contrasted with Anglo-America (where English, a Germanic language, is prevalent) which comprises Canada (with the exception of francophone Canada rooted in Latin Europe (France): see Québec and Acadia) and the United States. Both are located in North America and present predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Germanic roots.

Religion

The most prevalent faiths in the Americas are as follows:

• Christianity (North America: 85 percent; South America: 93 percent)^[42]
  • Roman Catholicism (practiced by 89 percent of the Mexican population;^[43][44] approximately 74 percent of the population of Brazil, whose Roman Catholic population of 182 million is the greatest of any nation's;^[45] approximately 24 percent of the United States population;^[46] and more than 40 percent of all of Canadians^[47])
  • Protestantism (practiced mostly in United States, where half of the population are Protestant, and Canada, with slightly more than a quarter of the population; there is a growing contingent of Evangelical and Pentecostal movements in predominantly Catholic Latin America^[48])
  • Eastern Orthodoxy (found mostly in the United States and Canada—1 percent of the US citizenry; this Christian group is growing faster than many other Christian groups in Canada and now represents roughly 3 percent of the Canadian population)^{[citation needed]}
  • Non-denominational Christians and other Christians (some 1,000 different Christian denominations and sects practiced in the Americas)
• Irreligion (includes atheists and agnostics, as well as those who profess some form of spirituality but do not identify themselves as members of any organized religion)
• Islam (practiced by 2 percent of Canadians [580,000 persons],^[49] 0.6 to 2 percent of the U.S. population [1,820,000^[46] to 5,000,000+^[50] persons], and 0.2% of Mexicans [250,000 persons];^[51] together, Muslims constitute over 2.5 percent of the North American population—North American cities with high concentrations of Muslims include Toronto, Los Angeles, New York City, Vancouver, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.—and 0.3 percent of all Latin Americans—Argentina has the largest Muslim population in Latin America with up to 600,000 persons, or 1.9 percent of the population^[52])
• Judaism (practiced by 2 percent of North Americans—approximately 2.5 percent of the U.S. population and 1.2 percent of Canadians^[53]—and 0.23 percent of Latin Americans—Argentina has the largest Jewish population in Latin America with 200,000 members^[54])

Other faiths include Sikhism; Buddhism; Hinduism; Bahá'í; a wide variety of indigenous religions, many of which can be categorized as animistic; and many African and African-derived religions. Syncretic faiths can also be found throughout the continent.

Languages

Main articles: Indigenous languages of the Americas, Languages of North America, and Languages of South America Languages spoken in the Americas

Various languages are spoken in the Americas. Some are of European origin, others are spoken by indigenous peoples or are the mixture of various idioms like the different creoles.

The dominant language of Latin America is Spanish, though the largest nation in Latin America, Brazil, speaks Portuguese. Small enclaves of French-, Dutch- and English-speaking regions also exist in Latin America, notably in French Guiana, Suriname and Belize respectively, and Haitian Creole, of French origin, is dominant in the nation of Haiti. Native languages are more prominent in Latin America than in Anglo-America, with Nahuatl, Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní as the most common. Various other native languages are spoken with less frequency across both Anglo-America and Latin America. Creole languages other than Haitian Creole are also spoken in parts of Latin America.

The dominant language of Anglo-America, as the name suggests, is English. French is also official in Canada, where it is the predominant language in Québec and an official language in New Brunswick along with English. It is also an important language in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Spanish has kept an ongoing presence in the Southwestern United States, which formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, especially in California and New Mexico, where a distinct variety of Spanish spoken since the 17th century has survived. It has more recently become widely spoken in other parts of the United States due to heavy immigration from Latin America. High levels of immigration in general have brought great linguistic diversity to Anglo-America, with over 300 languages known to be spoken in the United States alone, but most languages are spoken only in small enclaves and by relatively small immigrant groups.

The nations of Guyana, Suriname, and Belize are generally considered not to fall into either Anglo-America or Latin America due to lingual differences with Latin America, geographic differences with Anglo-America, and cultural and historical differences with both regions; English is the primary language of Guyana and Belize, and Dutch is the official and written language of Suriname.

• Spanish: spoken by approximately 310 million in many nations throughout the continent.
• English: spoken by approximately 300 million people in the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Belize, Guyana, the Falklands and many islands of the Caribbean.
• Portuguese: spoken by approximately 185 million in South America, mostly Brazil ^[55]
• French: spoken by approximately 12 million in Canada (majority 7 million in Québec—see also Québec French—and Acadian communities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia); the Caribbean (Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique); French Guiana; the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon; and Acadiana (a Francophone area in southern Louisiana, United States).
• Quechua: native language spoken by 10–13 million speakers in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile, and northwest Argentina.^[56]
• Haitian Creole: creole language, based in French and various African languages, spoken by 6 million in Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora in Canada and the United States.^[57]
• Guaraní (avañe'ẽ): native language spoken by approximately 6 million people in Paraguay, and regions of Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil.
• Chinese languages are spoken by at least 5 million people living mostly in the United States, Canada, Peru and Panama.
• Italian: spoken by approximately 4 million people, mostly New England / Mid-Atlantic in the United States, southern Ontario and Quebec in Canada, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, and also includes pidgin dialects of Italian such as Talian (Brazil), and Chipilo (Mexico).
• German: Some 2.2 million. Spoken by 1.1 million people in the United States plus another million in parts of Latin America, such as Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay.
• Aymara: native language spoken by about 2.2 million speakers in the Andes, in Bolivia, Peru and Chile.^[58][59]
• Quiché and other Maya languages: native languages spoken by about 1.9 million speakers in Guatemala and southern Mexico.
• Nahuatl: native language of central Mexico with 1.5 million speakers. Also was the language of the Aztec People of Mexico.
• Antillean Creole: spoken by approximately 1.2 million in the Eastern Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Saint Lucia) and French Guiana.
• Javanese is a major language in Suriname
• Tagalog has been present in the continent since the Spanish empire. It is now spoken by 1.5 million people mostly living in the United States and Canada.
• Vietnamese is spoken by 1 million recent immigrants to the United States.
• Various Indian languages such as Hindi and Punjabi are spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and have large populations in the United States and Canada.
• Korean has recently become a major language in the United States with about 1 million speakers.
• Japanese was once a major minority language in the United States but has recently dwindled in terms of population. Also found in Brazil and Peru.
• Hmong is an indigenous language in Southeast Asia, whose largest number of speakers outside Asia is in the United States
• American Sign Language: An estimated 100,000–500,000 people within the Deaf Community use ASL as their primary language in the United States and Canada.^[60]
• Mapudungun (or Mapuche): native language spoken by approximately 440,000 people in Chile and Argentina.
• Navajo: native language spoken by about 178,000 speakers in the Southwest U.S. on the Navajo Nation (Indian reservation).^[61] The tribe's isolation until the early 1900s provided a language used in a military code in World War II.
• Dutch: spoken in the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, and Suriname by about 210,000 speakers.
• Miskito: Spoken by up over 180,000 Miskitos. They are Indigenous people who inhabit the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and the easternmost region of Honduras.
• Pennsylvania Dutch: Some descendants of the Pennsylvania Dutch in the Northeast U.S. speak a local form of the German language which dates back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They number about 85,000.
• Inuktitut and other Inuit/Eskimo languages: native language spoken by about 75,000 across the North American Arctic and to some extent in the subarctic in Labrador.
• Danish and Greenlandic (Inuit) are the official languages of Greenland; most of the population speak both of the languages (approximately 50,000 people). A minority of Danish migrants with no Inuit ancestry speak Danish as their first, or only, language.
• Cree: Cree is the name for a group of closely related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 50,000 speakers across Canada.
• Nicaraguan Creole: Spoken in Nicaragua by up to 30,000 people. It is spoken primarily by persons of African, Amerindian, and European descent on the Caribbean Coast.
• Garífuna (or Garinagu) - native language spoken by the Garífuna people who inhabits parts of the caribbean coast of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The vast majority of them live in Honduras.
• Welsh: In Argentina, two towns of Trelew and Rawson were settled by Welsh immigrants in the late nineteenth century and the Welsh language remains spoken by about 25,000, including the towns' older residents.
• Cherokee: native language spoken in a small corner of Oklahoma, U.S. by about 19,000 speakers. The use of this language has rebounded in the late twentieth century. It is known to possess its own alphabet, the Cherokee syllabary.
• Gullah: a creole language based on English with strong influences from West and Central African languages spoken by the Gullah people, an African American population living on the coastal region of the U.S. states of South Carolina and Georgia.
• Sranan Tongo, also known as Taki Taki, is the most used spoken language of Suriname. It is not usually used in its written form. It is a creole language based on Spanish, English, Dutch, Hindustani, and various other languages.

Most of the non-native languages have, to different degrees, evolved differently from the mother country, but are usually still mutually intelligible. Some have combined, however, which has even resulted in completely new languages, such as Papiamento, which is a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch (representing the respective colonizers), native Arawak, various African languages, and, more recently, English. Because of immigration, there are many communities where other languages are spoken from all parts of the world, especially in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Canada, four very important destinations for immigrants.

Montreal, North America's largest Francophone metropolis

Terminology

Further information: Americas (terminology)

Subdivisions of the Americas
Map	Legend
	North America (NA) South America (SA) May be included in either NA or SA
	North America (NA) May be included in NA Central America Caribbean South America
	North America (NA) May be included in NA Northern America Middle America (MA) Caribbean (may be included in MA) South America (SA) May be included in MA or SA
	Anglo-America (A-A) May be included in A-A Latin America (LA) May be included in LA

The Spanish American colonies at their maximum extent (after the Peace of Paris, 1783)

America/Americas

In many parts of the world, America in the singular is commonly used as a name for the United States of America; however, (the) Americas (plural with s and generally with the definite article) invariably refers to the lands and regions of the Western hemisphere. Usage of America to also refer to this collectivity remains fairly common;^[62] for example, the International Olympic Committee reckons America as one of the five inhabited continents, which is depicted in the Olympic logo.^[63]

While many in the United States of America and other countries generally refer to the country as America and US residents/citizens as Americans,^[64] many people elsewhere in the Americas resent what they perceive as misappropriation^[65] of the term in this context and, thus, this usage is frequently avoided.^[66][67][68] In Canada, their southern neighbor is seldom referred to as "America", with the United States, the U.S., or (informally) the States used instead.^[67] English dictionaries and compendiums differ regarding usage and rendition.^[69][70][71]

American

Main article: American (word)

English usage

Whether usage of America or the Americas is preferred, American is a self-referential term for many people living in the Americas. However, much of the English-speaking world uses the word to refer solely to a citizen, resident, or national of the United States of America.

In addition, many Canadians resent being referred to as Americans because of mistaken assumptions that they are U.S. citizens or an inability—particularly of people overseas—to distinguish Canadian English and American English accents.^[67]

Spanish usage

In Spanish, América is the name of a region considered a single continent composed of the subcontinents of Sudamérica and Norteamérica, the land bridge of Centroamérica, and the islands of the Antillas. Americano/a in Spanish refers to a person from América in a similar way that europeo or europea refers to a person from Europa. The terms sudamericano/a, centroamericano/a, antillano/a and norteamericano/a can be used to more specifically refer to the location where a person may live.

Citizens of the United States of America are normally referred to by the term estadounidense (rough literal translation: "United-Statesian") instead of americano or americana, and the country's name itself is often translated as Estados Unidos de Norteamérica. Also, the term norteamericano may refer to a citizen of the United States. This term is primarily used to refer to citizens of the United States, rarely those of other North American countries.^[72]

Portuguese usage

In Portuguese, the word americano refers to the whole of the Americas. But, in Brazil and Portugal, it is widely used to refer to the citizens of the United States. The least ambiguous term, estadunidense (used in Brazil), something like "United Statesian" or "estadounidense" in Spanish), and "ianque"—the Portuguese version of "Yankee"—are rarely used. América, however, is rarely used as synonym to the country, and almost never in print and in more formal environments, where the US is called either Estados Unidos da América (i.e. United States of America) or simply Estados Unidos (i.e. United States). There is some difference between the usage of these words in Portugal and in Brazil, with the Portuguese being more prone to apply the term América to the country.

French usage

In French, as in English, the word américain can be confusing as it can be used to refer either to the United States, or to the American continents.

The noun Amérique sometimes refers to the whole as one continent, and sometimes two continents, southern and northern; the United States is generally referred to as les États-Unis d'Amérique, les États-Unis, or les USA. However, the usage of Amérique to refer to the United States, while technically not correct, does still have some currency in France.

The adjective américain is most often used for things relating to the United States; however, it may also be used for things relating to the American continents. Books by United States authors translated from English are often described as "traduit de l'américain".

Things relating to the United States can be referred to without ambiguity by the words états-unien, étasunien, or étatsunien, although their usage is rare.

Dutch usage

In Dutch, the word Amerika mostly refers to the United States. Although the United States is equally often referred to as de Verenigde Staten or de VS, Amerika relatively rarely refers to the Americas, but it is the only commonly used Dutch word for the Americas. This often leads to ambiguity and to stress that something concerns the Americas as a whole, Dutch uses a combination, namely Noord- en Zuid Amerika (North and South America).

Latin America is generally referred to as Latijns Amerika or, less frequently, Zuid Amerika (South America).

The adjective amerikaans is most often used for things or people relating to the United States. There are no alternative words to distinguish between things relating to the United States or to the Americas. Dutch uses the local alternative for things relating to elsewhere in the Americas, such as Argentijns for Argentinian etc.

Russian usage

In the 19th century in Russia the word "America" was used for a traditional continent such as Europe and Asia. In the 20th century these traditional continents are known as "parts of the world". Now the term "continent" means any of six large continuous landmasses (Eurasia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Australia). Now the word Ameriсa refers to the United States more often than to America as a "part of the world". There is no term equivalent to "Americas" in Russian.

Countries and territories

See also: List of countries and territories in the Americas Map showing the dates of independence of the countries of the Americas. Black shows areas not independent.

Sovereign states

There are 35 sovereign states in the Americas, 23 in North America and 12 in South America:

Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Bahamas Barbados Belize Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba

Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua

Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela

Overseas regions, dependencies, colonies

The following is a list of overseas regions, dependencies and other polities in the Americas that do not fall into the category "sovereign states". They are grouped under the states that control them.

Denmark Greenland France Guadeloupe French Guiana Martinique Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon

United Kingdom Anguilla Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Montserrat South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Turks and Caicos Islands

Netherlands Aruba Netherlands Antilles United States Navassa Island Puerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands

Multinational organizations in the Americas

Alliance for Progress American Capital of Culture Andean Community of Nations Association of Caribbean States Bank of the South Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas Caribbean Community CARICOM Single Market and Economy Central American Common Market Central American Parliament Contadora Group Free Trade Area of the Americas Latin American Free Trade Agreement

Latin American Parliament or (Parlatino) Mercosur or Mercosul North American Free Trade Agreement North Atlantic Treaty Organization Organization of American States Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Organization of Ibero-American States Regional Security System Rio Group School of the Americas Summit of the Americas Union of South American Nations

See also

Look up americas in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Amerrique Mountains British North America Columbia Conquistadors Decolonization of the Americas Ethnic groups in Central America List of conflicts in the Americas List of countries in the Americas by population French America La Merika

Former American countries Mesoamerica Middle America (Americas) Monarchies in the Americas New Spain New Sweden Northern America Paleo-Indians Panamericanism Southern Cone

Footnotes

1. ^ america - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved on January 27, 2008.
2. ^ ^{a b} america. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/america (accessed: January 27, 2008).
3. ^ "America." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of Americus, the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512). A claim is also made for the name of Richard Ameryk, sheriff of Bristol and patron of John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), the 16c Anglo-Italian explorer of North America. The name America first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16c, a name of the western hemisphere, often in the plural Americas and more or less synonymous with the New World. Since the 18c, a name of the United States of America. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..."
4. ^ Brian C. Story (28 September 1995). "The role of mantle plumes in continental breakup: case histories from Gondwanaland". Nature 377: 301–309. doi:10.1038/377301a0.
5. ^ "Land bridge: How did the formation of a sliver of land result in major changes in biodiversity". Public Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/andes/bridge.html.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Atlas of the Human Journey-The Genographic Project". National Geographic Society.. 1996-2008. https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
7. ^ Fitzhugh, Drs. William; Goddard, Ives; Ousley, Steve; Owsley, Doug; Stanford., Dennis. "Paleoamerican". Smithsonian Institution Anthropology Outreach Office. http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/origin.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-15.
8. ^ "The peopling of the Americas: Genetic ancestry influences health". Scientific American. http://www.physorg.com/news169474130.html. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
9. ^ "Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America". American Antiquity, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan., 1979), p2. http://archaeology.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=archaeology&cdn=education&tm=25&f=00&tt=13&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.jstor.org/stable/279189. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
10. ^ "68 Responses to “Sea will rise ‘to levels of last Ice Age’”". Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University. http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/01/sea-will-rise-to-levels-of-last-ice-age/. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
11. ^ "Introduction". Government of Canada. Parks Canada. 2009. http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/docs/r/pfa-fap/sec1.aspx. Retrieved 2010-01-09. "Canada's oldest known home is a cave in Yukon occupied not 12,000 years ago like the U.S. sites, but at least 20,000 years ago"
12. ^ "Pleistocene Archaeology of the Old Crow Flats". Vuntut National Park of Canada. 2008. http://yukon.taiga.net/vuntutrda/archaeol/info.htm. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "However, despite the lack of this conclusive and widespread evidence, there are suggestions of human occupation in the northern Yukon about 24,000 years ago, and hints of the presence of humans in the Old Crow Basin as far back as about 40,000 years ago."
13. ^ ^{a b} "Jorney of mankind". Brad Shaw Foundation. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
14. ^ "A single and early migration for the peopling of the Americas supported by mitochondrial DNA sequence data". The National Academy of Sciences of the US. National Academy of Sciences. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=20009. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
15. ^ "Canadian Inuit History". Canadian Museum of Civilization. http://www.civilization.ca/educat/oracle/modules/dmorrison/page01_e.html.
16. ^ "Vinland". Canadian Museum of Civilization. http://www.civilization.ca/educat/oracle/modules/rmcghee/page01_e.html.
17. ^ "The Norse settlers in Greenland - A short history". Greenland Guide - The Official Travel Index. http://www.greenland-guide.gl/leif2000/history.htm.
18. ^ Mann, Charles C. (2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4006-3. OCLC 56632601.
19. ^ Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (1987). Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic: 1229-1492. New studies in medieval history series. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Education. ISBN 0-333-40382-7. OCLC 20055667.
20. ^ Russell Thornton (1997). "Aboriginal North American Population and Rates of Decline, c.a. A.D. 1500–1900" ( – ^{Scholar search}). Current Anthropology 38 (2): 310–315. doi:10.1086/204615. http://www.jstor.org/view/00113204/dm991519/99p0234k/0?currentResult=00113204%2bdm991519%2b99p0234k%2b0%2c7F&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26gw%3Djtx%26jtxsi%3D1%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3DNative%2BAmerican%2BDisease%26wc%3Don.
21. ^ Alfred W. Crosby (April 1976). "Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal Depopulation in America". David and Mary Quarterly 33 (2): 289–299. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597%28197604%293%3A33%3A2%3C289%3AVSEAAF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X.
22. ^ Henry F. Dobyns (1993). "Disease Transfer at Contact". Annual Review of Anthropology 22 (22): 273–291. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.22.100193.001421. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-6570%281993%292%3A22%3C273%3ADTAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R.
23. ^ Staff. A review of American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (by David Stannard), on the website of the Oxford University Press (the publishers)
24. ^ Cartographer put 'America' on the map 500 years ago - USATODAY.com
25. ^ "The Naming of America". Umc.sunysb.edu. http://www.umc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
26. ^ "Amerigo - meaning of Amerigo name". Thinkbabynames.com. http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Amerigo. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
27. ^ "UK | Magazine | The map that changed the world". BBC News. 2009-10-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8328878.stm. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
28. ^ Charles Burress (June 17, 2004). "Romancing the north Berkeley explorer may have stepped on ancient Thule". San Francisco Chronicle. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/17/BAG4J779M31.DTL&type=science.
29. ^ "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica - Travel". http://www.coolantarctica.com/Travel/south_georgia_south_sandwich_islands.htm.
30. ^ "America". The World Book Encyclopedia. 1. World Book, Inc. 2006. pp. 407. ISBN 0716601060.
31. ^ "Andes Mountain Range". http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/andes.htm.
32. ^ "Rocky Mountains". http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/wm146.htm.
33. ^ "Appalachian Mountains". Ohio History Central. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2067.
34. ^ "Arctic Cordillera". http://www.evergreen.ca/nativeplants/learn-more/arctic-cordillera.php.
35. ^ "Interior Plains Region". http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/VolcanicPast/Notes/interior_plains_region.html.
36. ^ "Natural History of Quebec". http://redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/Natural%20History/nat_hist.html.
37. ^ "Strategy". Amazon Conservation Association. http://www.amazonconservation.org/home/strategy.html.
38. ^ "South America images". http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/southAmerica.htm.
39. ^ "Greatest Places: Notes: Amazonia". http://www.greatestplaces.org/notes/amazon.htm.
40. ^ "Mississippi River". http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/ms137.htm.
41. ^ "Great Rivers Partnership - Paraguay-Parana". http://www.nature.org/wherewework/greatrivers/samerica/.
42. ^ CBC Montreal - Religion
43. ^ "Mexico - MSN Encarta Encyclopedia - Mexico". Mexico - MSN Encarta Encyclopedia - Mexico. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576758_4/Mexico.html.
44. ^ "Religión" (PDF). Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2000. INEGI. 2000. http://www.inegi.gob.mx/prod_serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/censos/poblacion/2000/definitivos/Nal/tabulados/00re01.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
45. ^ International Religious Freedom Report, U.S. Department of State. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
46. ^ ^{a b} CIA - The World Factbook - United States
47. ^ The Daily, Tuesday, May 13, 2003. Census of Population: Income of individuals, families and households; religion
48. ^ The World Today - Catholics faced with rise in Protestantism
49. ^ Population by religion, by province and territory (2001 Census)
50. ^ Understanding Islam by Susan Headden of U.S. News & World Report. April 7, 2008.
51. ^ Islam and Christianity: Islam in Mexico
52. ^ "Argentina". International Religious Freedom Report. U.S. Department of State. 2006. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71446.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
53. ^ Canadian Jewry Today: Portrait of a Community in the Process of Change - Ira Robinson
54. ^ First Planeload of Jews Fleeing Argentina Arrives in Israel
55. ^ "Portuguese Facts". http://www.portugueselanguage.net/portuguese/facts.asp.
56. ^ "Now Bolivia Can Do Windows". http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/08/71664.
57. ^ Bambi B. Schieffelin; Rachelle Charlier Doucet (February 1994). "The "Real" Haitian Creole: Ideology, Metalinguistics, and Orthographic Choice". American Ethnologist 21 (1): 176–200. doi:10.1525/ae.1994.21.1.02a00090. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094-0496%28199402%2921%3A1%3C176%3AT%22HCIM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D.
58. ^ Chile National Census 2002, figures cited in Bilingüismo y el registro matemático aymara
59. ^ Chile profile, Ethnologue. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
60. ^ Mike Gasser. "A3 Languages cited in this book". http://www.indiana.edu/~hlw/Appendices/languages.html.
61. ^ "American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month: November 2003". United States' Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features/001492.html.
62. ^ Reader's Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder. 1993. (ISBN 0-276-42101-9) New York, USA: Reader's Digest Association; p. 45.
63. ^ The Olympic symbols. International Olympic Committee. 2002. Lausanne: Olympic Museum and Studies Centre. The five rings of the Olympic flag represent the five inhabited, participating continents: (Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania).
64. ^ Burchfield, R. W. 2004. Fowler's Modern English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-861021-1) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; p. 48.
65. ^ "Uso abusivo", numeral 4 http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltGUIBusDPD?lema=Estados%20Unidos
66. ^ "American." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X); McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 35.
67. ^ ^{a b c} "America." Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J., ed., 1997. Toronto: Oxford University Press; p. 36.
68. ^ "America." Microsoft Encarta Dictionary. 2007. Microsoft. Archived 2009-10-31.
69. ^ America - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
70. ^ America - Definitions from Dictionary.com
71. ^ "America - Definition of America at". Yourdictionary.com. 2010-07-20. http://www.yourdictionary.com/america. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
72. ^ Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas:Norteamérica

References

• "Americas". The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online. 2006. New York: Columbia University Press.
• "Americas". Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed. 1986. (ISBN 0-85229-434-4) Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
• Burchfield, R. W. 2004. Fowler's Modern English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-861021-1) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J. 1997. Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Toronto: Oxford University Press.
• Kane, Katie Nits Make Lice: Drogheda, Sand Creek, and the Poetics of Colonial Extermination Cultural Critique, No. 42 (Spring, 1999), pp. 81–103 doi:10.2307/1354592
• Pearsall, Judy and Trumble, Bill., ed. 2002. Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 2nd ed. (rev.) (ISBN 0-19-860652-4) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Churchill, Ward A Little Matter of Genocide 1997 City Lights Books ISBN 0-87286-323-9
• What's the difference between North, Latin, Central, Middle, South, Spanish and Anglo America? Geography at about.com.

External links

• The naming of America: fragments we've shored against ourselves by Jonathan Cohen
• Organization of American States
• Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Countries and territories of the Americas Sovereign states Antigua and Barbuda · Argentina · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Bolivia · Brazil · Canada · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Guyana · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · St. Kitts and Nevis · St. Lucia · St. Vincent and the Grenadines · Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago · United States · Uruguay · Venezuela Dependencies and other territories Denmark Greenland France French Guiana · Guadeloupe · Martinique · St. Barthélemy · St. Martin · St. Pierre and Miquelon Netherlands Aruba · Netherlands Antilles United Kingdom Anguilla · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Falkland Islands · Montserrat · South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands · Turks and Caicos Islands United States Navassa Island · Puerto Rico · U.S. Virgin Islands

Regions of the world Africa Northern · Sub-Sahara (Central · Southern · Western · Eastern) Oceania Australasia (Australia) · Melanesia · Micronesia · Polynesia Americas North (Northern • Middle • Central • Caribbean) · South · Anglo · Latin Polar Arctic · Antarctic Asia Central · Eastern (Northeastern) · Northern · Southeastern · Southern · Western (Middle East) Oceans World · Arctic · Atlantic · Indian · Pacific · Southern Europe Central · Eastern · Northern · Southeastern · Southern · Western Seas List of seas Related · ·

Continents Africa Antarctica Asia Australia Europe North America South America Afro-Eurasia Americas Eurasia Oceania Geological supercontinents Gondwana · Laurasia · Pangaea · Pannotia · Rodinia · Columbia · Kenorland · Nena · Ur · Vaalbara Historical continents Arctica · Asiamerica · Atlantica · Avalonia · Baltica · Cimmeria · Congo craton · Euramerica · Kalaharia · Kazakhstania · Laurentia · North China · Siberia · South China · Ur · East Antarctica Submerged continents Kerguelen Plateau · Zealandia Possible future supercontinents Pangaea Ultima · Amasia Mythical and theorized continents Atlantis · Lemuria · Meropis · Mu · Terra Australis See also

Categories: Americas | Supercontinents

 

 

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