Native American languages in the context of "Lake Mendota"

The ogonek, also informally referred to as the tail, is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel grapheme in the Latin alphabets of Polish, Kashubian, Övdalian, and Lithuanian; and directly under a vowel in several Native American languages.

An ogonek can also be attached to the bottom of a vowel in Old Norse or Old Icelandic to show length or vowel affection. For example, in Old Norse, ǫ represents the Old Norwegian vowel [ɔ], which in Old Icelandic merges with ø ‹ö› and in modern Scandinavian languages is represented by the letter å.

Cree (/kriː/ KREE; also known as Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 86,475 people across Canada in 2021, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. The only region where Cree has any official status is in the Northwest Territories, alongside eight other aboriginal languages. There, Cree is spoken mainly in Fort Smith and Hay River.

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States, after English. Approximately 45 million people aged five or older speak Spanish at home, representing about 14% of the U.S. population. Broader estimates place the total number of Spanish speakers—including native speakers, heritage speakers, and second-language speakers—at around 59 million, or roughly 18% of the population. The North American Academy of the Spanish Language (Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española) serves as the official institution dedicated to the promotion and regulation of the Spanish language in the United States.

In the United States, the number of Hispanophones exceeds the combined total of speakers of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Hawaiian, the Indo-Aryan languages, the various varieties of Chinese, Arabic and the Native American languages. The U.S. also has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, after Mexico. According to the 2024 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, 44.9 million people aged five or older speak Spanish at home — more than twice as many as in 1990. Spanish is also the most studied language in the United States after English, with approximately 8 million students enrolled in Spanish courses at various educational levels. The use and importance of Spanish in the United States has increased significantly as Hispanics are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the country. While the proportion of Hispanics who use Spanish in major urban areas has declined, the absolute number of Spanish speakers nationwide, as well as the use of Spanish at home, continues to grow annually.

Native American cultures across the 574 current federally recognized tribes in the United States, can vary considerably by language, beliefs, customs, practices, laws, art forms, traditional clothing, and other facets of culture. Yet along with this diversity, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribal nations.

European colonization of the Americas had a major impact on Native American cultures through what is known as the Columbian exchange. Also known as the Columbian interchange, this was the spread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries, following Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage. The Columbian exchange generally had a destructive impact on Native American cultures through disease, and a 'clash of cultures', whereby European values of private property, smaller family structures, and labor led to conflict, appropriation of traditional communal lands and slavery.