Pointless English Only Amendments Pass Senate

As part of the immigration debate, the US Senate has passed not one but two amendments regarding the status of the English language in the United States. The first, offered by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) declares English to be the “national language.” The other, from Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), says English is America's “common unifying language.” Fair enough, but neither amendment actually means anything.

Almost unique among modern nation-states, the United States of America doesn't have an official language and never has. The claim that German was almost made such (losing by one vote) is a misrepresentation of history – Congress rejected a call to print laws in German as well as English "for the accommodation of such German citizens of the United States, as do not understand the English language." (American State Papers ser. 10, v. 1:114). The history of immigration into the US has been the history of the first generation having only limited command of English, the second (usually the first born in the US) acquiring an almost accent-less bilingualism and the third generation losing the mother tongue in favor of English.

The idea that the English language is endangered in the US, and North America, is laughable. More than a quarter of a billion people in that quadrant of the globe use English in their homes. That is more than the number of French, Portuguese and Italian speakers on the entire planet combined. The worry that 11 million illegal aliens (not all of whom are from Latin America) threaten the linguistic dominance of the legal population only shows how irrational the discussion is.

Nonetheless, the Senate has seen fit to make this stand in an election year. One might think this a brave position if there were any legal implications that went with these amendments, but there are none. Neither overturns any protection of those who are less-than-confident in their command of English made by executive mandate, federal or local legislation. The Voter Rights Act, for instance, is unaffected, so the California ballot will still come in English, Spanish and Chinese.

President Bush has sided with the pro-English-is-special crowd, which is funny since he doesn't handle the language that well. Actually, one looks forward to having English declared the official language of the US. Then millions of Yanks would have to leave to study abroad in countries where it is spoken properly, possibly learning something about other societies in the process. And being able to read William Faulkner would count as foreign language proficiency.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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