What Language Did George Washington Speak? (Revealed!)

George Washington was born in Virginia, USA in 1732 and died in 1799. He is best known for being one of the Founding Fathers and the first President of the United States of America. It can be asserted with absolute certainty that George Washington spoke English as his Native Language.

America adopted the English language following British colonization.

This process of colonization began in 1585 when British settlers set up a colony in Roanoke on the East Coast of America.

Ultimately this failed and it wasn’t until 1607 that the first successful colony was set up in Jamestown, Virginia.

While this started the spread of the English language to the Americas, it was strengthened by the migration of further settlers in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

English is today’s most spoken language in the world with between 1.5-2 billion speakers globally.

Around 373 million of these speak the language as their first language.

This puts it as a more spoken language than Mandarin Chinese which, despite having far more native speakers with 920 million, only has 1.1 billion speakers globally.

In This Article

How Many Languages Did George Washington Speak?

George Washington could only speak one language, English.

When speaking to Dutch and French colonists as well as Native Americans, he used a translator.

He is one of 26 U.S. Presidents who did not speak a second language.

Which U.S President Spoke the Most Languages?

John Quincy Adams, who served from 1825 to 1829, spoke the greatest number of languages of any American President.

In addition to English, he spoke a further eight languages: Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Russian.

Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States who served from 1801-1809, could communicate in an impressive 6 languages along with his native English.

These languages include Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic.

The trio of James Madison, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt each spoke three foreign languages in addition to English.

What Dialect Did George Washington Speak?

Given that America was still under British rule and thus heavily influenced by English speakers from Britain, George Washington likely spoke with an English accent.

He was born in Virginia and his parents were part of the gentry class which leads some to believe he spoke with an Upper-Class Virginian Accent.

How different this would have been from an English accent in his lifetime is unknown.

The rise of what we now know to be “American English” didn’t begin until around 1750 by which time Washington had already entered adulthood.

Unfortunately, since there are no recordings of Washington it will never be known how he truly spoke.

What is American English?

American English, sometimes known as United States English or U.S. English, refers to the set of varieties in the English language native to America.

These varieties come in the forms of pronunciations, spellings, vocabulary and so on.

As such, English is considered a pluricentric language – a language with several codified interacting forms.

Other examples of pluricentric languages are German, French and Persian.

The language arose from extensive dialect mixing when British colonists arrived in America.

As such, there is no historical or present day evidence that linguists can use to point to a single “mainstream” American accent.

What is an Example of American English?

When viewing examples of American English, it is best to cross-examine it with examples from British-English.

For basic vocabulary, many of the words used in American English are different to those used in British English and have even become so prevalent in today’s lexicon that they have spread to other parts of the world.

For instance, “flat” exists in British English whereas “apartment” is the dominant term in American English.

In Britain people say “appetizer” and in America they say “starter”.

British English uses “nappy” while American English uses “diaper”.

When it comes to spelling, there are many instances when American English differs from British English.

“Grey” in Britain is spelled as “Gray” in America.

The word “Axe” is written as “Ax” in America and the word “centre” features as “center” in American English.

It is also common to see words ending in -ise or -yse in British English to change to -ize or -yze in American English.

Examples of this include “revolutionise” to “revolutionize” and “analyse” to “analyze”.

What Languages are Spoken in America Today?

America has a population of around 332 million people, roughly 78.5% of which are English speaking.

The next major language spoken in America is Spanish at just over 13%.

The only other language spoken by over 1% of the population is Chinese, though this figure is made up of Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and all other varieties.

The other 7% to 7.5% of the population speak almost 350 languages, including numerous indigenous or Native American Languages.

How Many Native American Languages are There?

There are approximately 175 Native American languages spoken by between 300,000 to 350,000 people today.

This means on average there are 1,714 to 2,000 speakers per language though in reality this data is heavily skewed.

The Navajo language is the most spoken Native American language with 170,000 native speakers while many have only a couple of hundred speakers or, in some cases, not even ten, speakers.

Without restoration efforts, it is likely the remaining languages will suffer a dramatic decline.

It has been estimated that the current total of 175 indigenous languages will reduce to at most 20 by 2050.

Extensive efforts are being made to save indigenous languages and while it is unlikely they will ever return to their former prominence, the hope is that they can be preserved and passed on for generations to come.

George Washington only spoke English during his lifetime.

It is likely he spoke with an English accent on account of his heritage and the British influence on America at the time.

“American English” rose to prominence during Washington’s lifetime and is spoken by 78.5% of the population today.

As for indigenous languages, they are Critically Endangered and without serious restoration efforts, their numbers could dwindle to as few as 20 by 2050.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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