1

Blues

Image: Ahmed Rizkhaan

Originating in the Deep South during the late 19th century, blues evolved from African American work songs, spirituals, and field hollers. More often than not, it channeled pain and the harsh realities of life in a segregated America. Formally, its 12-bar blues structure and expressive guitar playing influenced countless other genres, from rock and roll to jazz.

2

Jazz

Image: Carol Highsmith's America

Born in New Orleans in the early 20th century, jazz blended African rhythms, blues, and brass band traditions. It was a revolutionary genre defined by improvisation and syncopation. Great figures like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington helped jazz spread worldwide, becoming a symbol of American creativity.

3

Rock and Roll

Image: Ana Grave

Emerging in the 1950s, rock and roll combined elements of blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues to create a high-energy, powerful sound . It soon became the voice of a new, rebellious generation. Pioneers like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard became universally beloved legends, forever altering the course of popular music.

4

Country

Image: Ben White

Originating in the southern United States, country music evolved from folk ballads and fiddle tunes brought by European immigrants. Initially, the genre focused on stories about blue-collar American life but later expanded to include love ballads and dance tunes. Today, it remains one of the most popular genres in the U.S.

5

Bluegrass

Image: Priscilla Du Preez

A fast-paced, acoustic offshoot of country, bluegrass emerged in the 1940s thanks to Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. Drawing from Irish and Scottish folk traditions, it prominently features stringed instruments like the banjo, mandolin, and fiddle. A true heartland gem, bluegrass continues to thrive on festival circuits worldwide.

6

Rhythm and Blues

Image: Matthijs Smit

Rhythm and Blues, or R&B, evolved from blues and jazz in the 1940s, featuring soulful vocals and a strong, "insistent" backbeat. Though its boundaries have been historically difficult to define, it laid the foundation for rock, soul, and funk while remaining a powerhouse in American music for generations.

7

Gospel

Image: Iyinoluwa Onaeko

Rooted in African American church traditions, gospel music emerged in the early 20th century, blending spirituals with blues and jazz influences. Artists like Mahalia Jackson and The Staple Singers were among the first to bring gospel beyond church walls, paving the way for future soul and rock musicians.

8

Soul

Image: Kobe Subramaniam

A direct descendant of gospel and R&B, soul music took center stage in the 1960s with its mix of emotional vocals and deep grooves. Legends like Aretha Franklin and James Brown defined the genre, influencing everything from funk to modern pop.

9

Funk

Image: Krisztián Reischl

Emerging in the 1960s, funk placed a strong emphasis on groove and rhythm, featuring heavy basslines and syncopated beats made for dancing. Pioneers like James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Sly & The Family Stone helped popularize the genre, whose infectious rhythms later influenced disco, hip-hop, and even rock.

10

Disco

Image: Honey Fangs

Rising in the 1970s, disco blended soul, funk, and Latin influences into a beat-driven, club-friendly sound. More than just a music genre, it became a cultural movement centered on dance, freedom, and glamour. At its peak, artists like Donna Summer and the Bee Gees dominated the airwaves.

1

Fresh fish

Image: Chris Chow

If you were new to the army , you were "fresh fish." Veterans spotted them a mile away, wide-eyed, uniforms still smelling like the depot, and not yet hardened by camp life. They got teased, trained, and sometimes tricked. Of course, every seasoned soldier once wore the "fresh fish" badge, so the teasing came with a knowing grin.

2

Grab a root

Image: Lars Blankers

Dinner time in camp could mean beans, hardtack, or, if you were lucky, a potato. Asking someone to "grab a root" was soldier shorthand for "let’s eat." Potatoes were cheap, filling, and easy to cook over a campfire.

3

Sawbones

Image: Piron Guillaume

Medical science in the 1860s wasn’t exactly what we call gentle. Army surgeons were nicknamed "sawbones," partly for their skill with amputations, a normal procedure during wartime. It wasn’t always fair, since many doctors were dedicated and resourceful, but the name stuck.

4

Graybacks

Image: Scott Umstattd

Ask a soldier about "graybacks" and you might get two very different answers. One was lice, the pest that thrived in crowded camps. The other was a nickname Union troops used for Confederate soldiers . Either way, it wasn’t a compliment.

5

Bonnie Blue Flag

This was the hit song of the Confederacy , praising the states that left the Union. The "Bonnie Blue Flag" itself showed a single white star on a blue field, the first banner of the Confederacy. The song’s lively chorus made it a favorite at rallies, campfires, and any place soldiers needed a boost of spirit.

6

Furlough

Image: Stijn Swinnen

A furlough was a soldier’s golden ticket home , even if only for a short while. The paperwork described the soldier’s looks, regiment, and exact return date, plus a stern warning about being labeled a deserter if he didn’t show up on time.

7

Housewife

Image: Annie Spratt

Every soldier carried a "housewife," though it wasn’t a person; it was a sewing kit . Packed with needles, thread, and spare buttons, it kept uniforms in one piece. With supply lines stretched thin, a quick stitch could mean the difference between looking like a soldier or a scarecrow.

8

Insult

Image: Aleksey Kashmar

On a Civil War battlefield, an "insult" wasn’t words, it was a sudden attack on a fortified position. The idea was to strike before the defenders could react. Success could turn the tide of a fight, but failure usually meant heavy losses. It was risky and brutal.

9

Kepi

Image: Jen Theodore

The kepi was the go-to cap for Union soldiers, with a flat circular top and short visor . It was light, practical, and easy to make, so it became part of the classic Civil War look. Confederate soldiers sometimes wore them too, but it was a Union signature item.

10

Ordnance

Image: Rick Lobs

If it was in any way designed to make the enemy’s day worse, it was "ordnance." This covered everything from muskets to cannonballs . Armies guarded their ordnance like gold, since running low meant fighting at a disadvantage.

11

Skirmish

Image: Carol Highsmith's America

Not every fight was a massive battle. A "skirmish" was a smaller clash , often between scouting parties or outposts. Quick, unpredictable, and sometimes over in minutes, skirmishes kept soldiers on edge and commanders guessing what the enemy was really up to.

1

Spanish

The fact that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S. comes as no surprise if we consider that at least 18 of the current 50 states were once part of the Spanish Empire. This, combined with migration from other Hispanic territories, means that around 40 million people speak Spanish at home in the U.S., nearly 13% of the population.

Native Spanish speakers in the U.S. have developed their distinct dialectal variants, such as New Mexican Spanish in the states of New Mexico and Colorado, Puerto Rican Spanish , or Spanglish .

2

French

French is, after Spanish, the most taught foreign language in schools. But did you know that more than a million Americans speak French at home ? Historical events such as the Louisiana Purchase or the French and Indian War in Canada meant that native French speakers migrated to the U.S. or became American when French-speaking territories were incorporated.

Nowadays, the French language presents three main dialectal groups in the U.S. , mainly located in Louisiana and the New England region. So, if you were planning a holiday in NOLA or Lewiston, you might want to brush up on your ouis , bonjours , and mercis .

3

Navajo

Compared with other languages on this list, the Navajo speaker population might seem small, with around 170,000 native speakers . However, it is the most widely spoken Native American language , with most of its speakers located in the Southwestern U.S.

Navajo is famous for its use as a code during World War II . Its complex grammar and the fact that, at the time, it wasn’t a written language, significantly reduced the chances of enemy forces deciphering transmissions, and even native Navajo speakers wouldn’t have been able to understand the code used.

4

Chinese

When we think about Chinese immigration into the U.S., we sometimes forget that China is a multicultural, multiethnic country, and that not all Chinese immigrants spoke the same language or came from the same region.

It is reported that more than 3 million people in the U.S. speak a Chinese language at home, with Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hokkien accounting for the majority of those speakers.

5

German

Although more than a million Americans speak German at home , nearly half of them would have issues communicating with a German person. This is because there are several variants of German spoken in the U.S., such as the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Plautdietsch, or the Alsatian , mainly spoken by Amish or Mennonite communities, or the Yiddish , widely spoken in Jewish communities.

Standard German is the second most spoken language in North Dakota , while Texas German , a U.S. variant, is still spoken in the state of Texas by the descendants of 19th-century German settlers.

6

Hawaiian

Hawaiian is recognized as one of the official languages of the state of Hawaii , but is classified as an endangered language . It is estimated that only 2000 of its 30,000 speakers learned it as a first language. In the late 19th Century, Hawaiian was banned from schools , which significantly reduced the number of speakers, but conservation efforts over the past decades have proven successful in revitalizing the language .

Hawaiian Pidgin , an English-based creole language , is also spoken by more than half a million Hawaiians and has been influenced by languages such as Portuguese, Cantonese, Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean .

7

Italian

Italians are one of the most notorious U.S. communities of immigrant descent, with their way of speaking being one of the main traits associated with Italian-Americans . But nowadays, of the more than 15 million Italian-Americans, only 700,000 are fluent in standard Italian .

Many Americans of Italian descent speak a pidgin (a simplified language that results from the contact of two groups) that mixes English, standard Italian, and regional Italian dialects , with words like mootsarell’ (from mozzarella ), gabagool’ (from capocollo ), or latte (from caffelatte ). Something to think about next time someone orders a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks.

8

Vietnamese

You might not know this, but despite Vietnamese immigration being relatively recent compared to other Southeast Asian communities, Vietnamese is the sixth most spoken language in the U.S . This is a result of a conscious effort by the Vietnamese community to maintain the language and pass it down to new generations.

Before the start of the Vietnam War, it was estimated that only 3,000 people of Vietnamese descent lived in the U.S. Currently, around 2.3 million individuals identify as Vietnamese-American, 1.5 million of them being fluent speakers of the language .

9

American Sign Language (ASL)

When we say ‘languages other than English’, most of the time we are not thinking of sign languages . For many people, sign language is a variant of a spoken language, but sign languages have their own grammar, syntax, and rules that make them full-fledged languages.

It is estimated that American Sign Language (distinct and separate from the sign languages of some other anglophone countries) has between 250,000 to half a million native speakers , with thousands more as second-language users.

10

Arabic

The presence of the Arabic language in the U.S. dates back hundreds of years, with records of Arabic speakers from the 17th Century . Arab-Americans are estimated to be more than 3 million, of diverse backgrounds, with ties to at least 22 Arabic-speaking countries .

Following historic events in the past decades, many Arab-Americans have stopped using the language or teaching it to their children to avoid prejudice or stigma . Nonetheless, Arabic is still one of the most spoken languages at home for U.S. citizens , with more than a million users.