English, but if you happen to be a speaker of Tewa or Keresan, you'll have opportunities to practice at the American Indian pueblos of the region. (Of course, if you're a speaker of those languages, chances are you're a member of one of the pueblos already!) There are many native speakers of Spanish, although the fraction is lower than in some other parts of the state. With several universities in the region with international faculties and student bodies, speakers of other major languages can be found to help the traveler who is not fluent in English or Spanish.
As in the north central region, it's recommended that, if you see a place name apparently of Spanish origin, you try to pronounce it as Spanish. "Anglicized" pronunciation of Spanish words (and, particularly, surnames) may be normal in some parts of the United States, but it's not here. It runs a real risk of antagonizing the person you're talking to, who may speak Spanish at home as his/her ancestors have for 400 years, and may consider failure to make an attempt at Spanish pronunciation discourteous. Pronunciation tips in the WikiTravel Spanish phrasebook are useful here; the most common things to watch for are words with "ñ" (e.g. the popular Garduño's restaurant chain), double "l" (e.g. the very common Gallegos surname), and double "r" (e.g. Rio Arriba County, which incidentally is a particularly good place in which to have your Spanish pronunciations in shape).
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Central New Mexico
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Central New Mexico - updated Jun 2024
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Central New Mexico Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
