12 The Linguist Vol/64 No/3
ciol.org.uk/thelinguist
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Jim O'Driscoll argues that the decision to make English the US's
official language is the wrong solution to a non-existent problem
S
ince he became president of the USA
again this January, Donald Trump has
been signing lots of Executive Orders.
These are decrees he is allowed to issue
without first getting the approval of the
country's legislature (Congress). One of these
(Executive Order 14224) designates English
as the US's official language. This is the first
time in the country's 250-year history that any
language has been accorded such a status.
What, you may ask, does this mean? English
is already the main language of the US. Why
did Trump bother? Was he just trying to
bring the country into line with the rest of the
world? Most countries have official languages
specified in their constitutions or laws. But
neither the US's original constitution nor its
subsequent 27 amendments make any
mention of a particular language or languages.
Why this omission? Perhaps it is partly the
Anglo-American tendency to view languages
as 'natural' things, interference in which could
be regarded as an infringement on liberty.
(Britain and Australia also have no designated
official languages.) But more likely it is due to
the country's history. When its Founding
Fathers got together to draft a constitution
for their new country, the English language
was the most practical choice for their
proceedings and documents. But it certainly
wasn't the only language around.
100 years previously, Manhattan Island
alone had been home to users of more than
20 different languages. In the colonies of New
York and Pennsylvania, copies of the draft
constitution were also distributed in German
and Dutch, so as to ensure full participation in
discussion of its details. English was also the
language of the oppressor whose yoke they
were throwing off (Britain), so to give it any
kind of official status, still less a preeminent
one, would have seemed wrong.
The US's immigrant history during the
ensuing 19th and 20th centuries continued to
militate against fixing on an official language.
To do so would have been both divisive and
impractical. In fact, several of the new states
that joined the Union in that period published
their own constitutions in more than one
language. Some comprised territories in which
Spanish, not to mention Native American
languages, had been spoken long before
anybody had heard a word of English there.
In the present century, the country
continues to be vibrantly multilingual. There
are still more than 100 Native American
languages in use. New York City is now home
to speakers of an estimated 800 languages.
More than a fifth of the population currently
uses languages other than English at home.
However, there is a feeling among many
that all this multilingualism is divisive and
inefficient. For several decades now, a number
of organisations, chief among them US
English, have been lobbying for English to be
made the sole official language of the Union.
Until 1 March this year, their efforts had been
successful only at state level, with 32 of the 50
states designating English as official. Trump's
Order means they have now largely achieved
their aim (although, ideally, they want an
amendment to the federal constitution).
Making it official
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