What words, names of places, or customs do Americans use that come from somewhere other than English culture?

Answer 1

They're everywhere. Look around you. Place names, words in every day language. Depending on the area of the country you will find words from many different languages and cultures. Can you be more specific?

Answer 2

We have a lot of influence from Mexico and Spanish culture (lots of words, place names, etc). Many of our states' names are from Native American words (this goes for cities too).

I live in a city that was named for a French king (Louisville) and down near New Orleans, they have a LOT that was influenced by the French (and Arcadians - giving us Cajuns).

There are also strong German and Irish influences. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day (Irish), Halloween (Irish/Celtic), etc.

Cinco de Mayo is also becoming a big celebration day (from the Mexican holiday).

In California, they have some influence from Asian cultures.

Hope that helps. :)

Answer 3

A large number of place names belong to the Native American/Indian culture... the Shawagunk Mountains in NY for example... and there are Dutch based names all over NYC... Brooklyn is a Dutch word...

Your question is so all encompassing it is much too huge to answer...

Answer 4

Your question is too big...

Let's just say the primitive Frankish Platt-Deutsch or Low-German language of Anglo-Saxons was modified by medieval French, a Latinate language, and additions of words picked later on by students of Latin and Greek. English still lacks words for emotions, thoughts and values--which is why our citizens are so bad at being in touch with feelings, categories of thought and values.

For every Anglo-Saxon word, there's usually a more elegant Latin-Greek word. This gives us a "double-font" or two language banks to drawn from; and this is great for poetry and prose by not useful otherwise.

For instance, we have buildings and edifices, squares, and plazas, business and commerce, moving staircases and escalators, plays and theatrical works, painters and artists, teachers and professors, horse riding and equestrian events.

Places are drawn from four main sources here--Indian names badly reported, Spanish and a few French place names, imitations of English names and other sources such as fancy or plain terms. Georgia, Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virgina, Louisiana all contain a noble or royal names; Sioux Falls, Miami, Minnesota, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio and Oneida, Seattle and Missouri are Indian words;
Cincinnati, Troy, Alexandria, Syracuse, Athens, Indianapolis and Phoenix, Philadelphia are based on ancient-times names.
We have Washington, Austin, Houston, Santa Ana, Tarzana, Lewiston, Madison, Monroe and others based on individuals or ancient nouns.
Spanish names include Los Angeles, New Mexico, Laredo, Colorado, Palo Alto, Alamagordo, Los Alamitos,
San Francisco, San Diego, and many more from Spanish sources.
Other terms are borrowed from all over the world; here are six sources:
1. Chinese/Oriental--fan, chop(sticks), pagoda, kai zen,
sumo wrestling, maj jong, jade, futon, tatami mat,
kimono
2.Italian--pizza, piano, concert, coliseum, cursive script,
pasta, viniculture
3. Arabia--pillow, divan, Arabic numerals, Cordovan
leather, paper, prayer rug
4. Central and Eastern European--dumplings, Beef
Stroganoff, pita bread, samovar, troika, potato-leek soup
5. France--apache dance, ballet, restaurant, tower,
school (ecole), university, beret, gown, ball
6. Africa--dashiki, kraal, bongo drums, voodoo, witch
doctor, Kenyan coffee

Other than names such as Glen Cove, North Fork, Springfield, Council Bluffs, Clearwater and Hot Springs, most of our names are based on English/Scottish variations.
So you can see, we are real shoppers when it comes to linguistic variety.
And we're still making up and borrowing terms such as television, highway, perfume, column, via, wok, chili, salsa,saute, cinema and astronaut from foreign language and overseas sources all the time. Everything from hula hoop to bedroom slippers, traffic to apron is borrowed unless it's Platt-Deutsch in origin, one way or another.

Answer 5

Far to many to list here, just look in a dictionary and look at the word's origin.

Answer 6

Too many to be listed.