IDN.us registrations in Spanish, French, & Chinese

[burnsinternet]

English is the de facto language of American government; Spanish is the second most common. English, Spanish, French, and Hawaiian are officially recognized by various states.

In the United States, 42.7 million people were of Hispanic heritage according to the 2005 census. Some 32 million people, or 12% of the whole population aged 5 years or older speak Spanish at home. The Spanish language has a long history in the United States (many states from the south used to be part of Mexico) and has recently been revitalised by heavy immigration from Spanish-speaking Latin America. Spanish, moreover, is also the most widely taught foreign language in the United States. Though the United States has no formally designated "official languages", Spanish is formally recognized at the state level, alongside English, in the U.S. state of New Mexico, where it is spoken by almost 30% of the population. In total, the U.S. contains the world's fifth-largest Spanish speaking population.

Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third or fourth most-spoken language in the United States, after English, Spanish, and possibly Chinese (if Chinese languages such as Mandarin and Cantonese are grouped together), and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to a unique dialect, Cajun French.

The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian: ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i) is an Austronesian language that takes its name from Hawai'i, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the State of Hawaii, one of the United States. King Kamehameha III established the first Hawaiian-language constitutions in 1839 and 1840.

IDN.us is long overdue! I hope this is on the ccTLD agenda.

[phio]

Excellent Points Burns... Actually many states were controlled by Spain (including California) for a long time. Mexico had control of California for appx 25 years. But the influence of Mexico in California has been tremendous during the past 20 years. The population that is bilingual in constantly increasing here. Many children remain speaking and writing in spanish here. Also there are pockets of chinese (huge population) in the Monterrey Park area, and a good sized population of Koreans in Korea town. All the signs in those areas are pretty much only Korean and Chinese characters. California has become complete 'melting pot' in the true sense of the word. And since for many years microsoft has offered 'virtual keyboards' Many people continue to type using there own native language for communication with friends both at home and abroad.

[burnsinternet]

I used to live in LA County. I was surprised to find that, here in Atlanta, there are large areas of Atlanta metro with Spanish-only, Chinese-only, and Korean-only signs, stores, etc. A smaller version of LA, to be sure, but very similar. The same situation exists in many US cities. You know as well as I do that, in many areas, no one speaks English.

Given that we have no 'official' language, IDN.us seems to be a legitimate cause. To me, anyway.

Fun facts:

In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War, the California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe, and the words "California Republic") was flown in an attempt to control Northern California. The attempt to form this republic came to a sudden end, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay and began the military occupation of California by the United States. Northern California capitulated in less than a month to the US forces.

Following a series of defensive battles in Southern California, including; The Siege of Los Angeles, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho, the Battle of San Pascual, the Battle of Rio San Gabriel and the Battle of La Mesa, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing American control in California.

Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the United States; the western territory of Alta California, was to become the U.S. state of California, and the Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah Territories, while the lower region of California, Baja California, remained in the possession of Mexico.

[Pete]

Canada has english and french as official languages, yet there are no plans for IDN.ca.

[mdw]

Great post Burns, I think it's a compelling cause. America the great melting pot is a microcosm of the world at large, more so than any other country. And since there are pockets of pretty much every kind of population from Laotian to Croatian here it makes perfect sense. I think the need for IDN.us is vastly underestimated.

In South Florida of course there are areas where sizeable populations of Spanish-speaking Cubans, Nicaraguans, Colombians, and especially these days Venezuelans live. Also substantial groups of Brazillians, Vietnamese, Swedes and more. Atlanta seems to have a fairly large Pakistani population too, right? Let the landrush begin!

And Pete, yes Quebec businesses might really appreciate french .ca domains, eh? I know Vancouver has a fantastic mix of Asian populations and savvy domainers - IDN.ca would absolutely be a huge hit there.

[burnsinternet]

I am actually surprised that no noise from Canada can be heard. Once IDNs are more mainstream, they will raise voices.

IDN.us is probably a dream, but I have always thought they should allow Spanish at the very least (and French for Louisiana).

[clipper]

I don't think there's much need for ascii.us, let alone idn.us.

That may change if and when IDN.com or .net takes off, but why clutter the marketplace at this point? It would really only serve to reduce what little liquidity there is in the market and pad the pockets of nic.us.

[burnsinternet]

No worse than .ws or .cc I think. The monetary rewards to nic.us should be the reason to go IDN. IDN.ccTLD should happen everywhere, not just Asia. These should become as common as ascii domains. Just my opinion, not a forecast.