US OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Designating An Official Language Of The United States



Designating An Official Language Of The United States

Introduction

In the USA, no language was ever adopted at the federal level, even if the language used by the government is the English. However, English is the official language in 28 of 50 states. In addition, the State of Hawaii has chosen a second official language ( Hawaiian ) and several U.S. territories have adopted a second official language (the Spanish in Puerto Rico , the Chamorro in Guam , the Samoan in American Samoa ). Some parishes (counties) of Louisiana are "facilities" for francophone's, and there are municipalities and counties in the United States to "facilities" for Hispanics, however, none of the fifty states have adopted the French or Spanish as a second language (Adams, Strother, 2001).

Discussion

Designating an official language of the United States

So some might ask: "For what reason, the United States of America, who are (in your opinion) English-speaking country, putting up with this state of affairs (which includes not only Spanish but also many other languages), of which we can even be unknown? "The answer is simple:" The authorities have never accepted American English as the state or official language” (Adams, Strother, 2001). Moreover, despite numerous attempts of various organizations to do so, for example, in 1870, a person named John Adams, a continental United States Congress proposed to adopt English as the official language of the United States of America. This proposal was the verdict of "anti-democratic and a threat to individual liberty." The debate about whether English is needed as a single state of the American language last for many years, but the answer to this question has not been found. Despite this, in 27 states (out of 50) English has been adopted as an official (Adams, Strother, 2001).

This situation is associated primarily with the history of this state. You should not lose sight of the fact that since 1776 the United States is multicultural. Even then, no one found it strange that a commonly used were about twenty different languages. And for the right to dominance in the country competing foreign languages: the English, German, Spanish and French (Adams, Strother, 2001). Today in the United States communicate by 322 languages, 24 of which are current in all states and the District of Columbia. The greatest number of languages ??is in use in California - 207, and the smallest in Wyoming - 56. So for whatever reason, Congress did not declare the state of any one language? And all because the United States of America- a nation of immigrants and the above findings support this fact. That's why giving official status to one language gravely damaged the rights of full citizens who do not know the full English. To maintain such citizens was written, "Civil Rights Act of 1964” (Baepler, Paul, 2003). Although 27 states English is an official language, but, nevertheless, they also have to comply with the provisions of this Act, on which all important documents ...