For most of its history, America was precisely the “polyglot boardinghouse” Teddy Roosevelt once worried it wouldbecome. That history has turned out very well not just for America, but for English—the most successful language in thehistory of the world.31with American power, English has spread around the globe. At home, wave after wave ofimmigrants to America have not only learned English but32the languages their parents brought with them.Today the typical pattern is that the arriving generation speaks little English, or learns it33 ; the first children born inAmerica are34 , but English-dominant, and their children hardly speak the35language. This is as true of Hispanicsas it is of speakers of smaller languages.