For some reason, inkscape v 1.1 downloaded from the website opens in Thai or Vietnamese or some other language that looks like those, neither of which I can read. My 2014 MacBook Pro 10.13.6 running Chrome Version 91.0.4472.101 (Official Build) (x86_64) has system preferences set for English and United States. 

I have searched the forum, the FAQ, asked google and no luck. If this has happened before, does anyone have a solution?

Thanks so much.

This is strange indeed. I´d suggest to delete Inkscape from the Programms folder - download again from here: https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.1/

Install again.

Not that it helps, but its not Thai or a similar language. I can see why you would think that, but if you zoom into the image you'll see that the text is made up of numbers, with some lines (like a very weird fraction). That leads me to suspect it's not simply a case of the wrong language setting, but something more fundamental going on. I'd follow Polygon's advice to begin with, and report back with the results.

I highly recommend to use Appcleaner.app for deleting software - a free tool that finds associated installation files. Hopefully you didn´t mess with System Fonts. ;-)

I´m not sure what Chrome version has to do with it.

I've seen this issue reported a few times already (always on Mac).

We have an issue for it at https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/2808

Unfortunately I think nobody figured out the root cause yet, but at least there seem to exist workarounds...

I never had issues having different versions of Inkscape installed and running (not at the same time though) with older macOS - especially with HighSierra.

BigSur isn´t forgiving any longer - once I deleted everything about 3 versions of Inkscape and installed just the latest - all beginn to function normal again.