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English-only movement

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English-only movement, called also Official English movement by its supporters, refers to a political movement for the use only of English language in public occasions through the establishing of English as the explicitly only official language in the United States. There have been various unrelated incarnations of the movement throughout United States history.

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[edit] English and reasons behind "English-only movement"

President Theodore Roosevelt stated, "We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."<ref>Roosevelt Quote from CNN Lou Dobbs</ref>

U.S. English, an advocate group for "Official English" summarizes their belief that "the passage of English as the official language will help to expand opportunities for immigrants to learn and speak English, the single greatest empowering tool that immigrants must have to succeed."<ref> us-english.org "Background of organization"</ref>

[edit] Earlier English-only movements

In 1803, as a result of the Louisiana Purchase, the United States acquired French-speaking populations in Louisiana. After the Mexican-American War, the United States acquired about 75,000 Spanish speakers in addition to several indigenous language-speaking populations.

An 1847 law authorized Anglo-French instruction in public schools in Louisiana. In 1849, the California constitution recognized Spanish language rights.

French language rights were abolished after the American Civil War. In 1868, the Indian Peace Commission recommended English-only schooling for the Native Americans. In 1878–79, the California constitution was rewritten: "All laws of the State of California, and all official writings, and the executive, legislative, and judicial proceedings shall be conducted, preserved, and published in no other than the English language."

In the late 1880s, Wisconsin and Illinois passed English-only instruction laws for both public and parochial schools.

In 1896, while still under British influence, English became the sole medium of public schooling for Hawaiian children. After the Spanish-American War, English was declared "the official language of the school room" in Puerto Rico. In the same way, English was declared the official language in the Philippines, after the Philippine-American War.

During World War I, there was a widespread campaign against the use of the German language in the U.S. including removing books in the German language from libraries.<ref>Martin, James J (1988). An American Adventure in Bookburning in the Style of 1918. Ralph Myles Publisher.</ref>

[edit] The modern English-only movement

[edit] Criticism

The modern English-only movement has met with rejection from the Linguistic Society of America, which passed a resolution in 1986–87 opposing "'English only' measures on the grounds that they are based on misconceptions about the role of a common language in establishing political unity, and that they are inconsistent with basic American traditions of linguistic tolerance."<ref>http://www.lsadc.org/info/lsa-res-english.cfm</ref> And linguist Geoffrey Pullum in an essay entitled "Here come the linguistic fascists" charges English First with "hatred and suspicion of aliens and immigrants" and points out that English is far from under threat in the United States, saying "making English the official language of the United States of America is about as urgently called for as making hotdogs the official food at baseball games."<ref>Pullum, Geoffrey K. (1987). "Here come the linguistic fascists.". Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 5: 603–9. Reprinted in (1991) The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 111–19. ISBN 0-226-68534-9. </ref>

Samuel Francis criticized the modern movement on the grounds that official English laws are, in his words, "ineffective symbolic measures".<ref>Francis, Samuel T. (2002). America Extinguished.</ref>

The English Only movement has been criticized for being xenophobic, such as eliminating people that speak foreign languages and imposing penalties for those that speak a foreign language in public.<ref>White Supremacy On My Mind: Learning To Undermine Racism. Infoshop.org.</ref>

[edit] Current law

Image:USA states english official language.PNG Currently, although all the official documents in the U.S. are written in English, the United States federal government does not specify explicitly an official language, but there are official languages in these states:

  • None:
    • In addition to the states not otherwise mentioned:
    • Alaska's 1998 Official English amendment was overturned by the Alaska State Supreme Court in 2002.
    • Arizona's 1988 Official English amendment was overturned by the Arizona State Supreme Court in April, 1998. It was reinstated by voters in November, 2006.
    • West Virginia passed a law in 2005 but it was rescinded due to a technical flaw.

Also, English and Spanish are official in Puerto Rico. English and Chamorro are the official languages of Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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