Americans only! Would you vote to make English the official language in America?

Question

I can't find the video of Mike saying this, but during the Democratic debates, he was the ONLY person with the guts to vote for English being the official language of the USA. The rest were cowards. Mikey, from Alaska, reminds me so much of Tulsi Gabbard. They both were "blue dogs." Mikey knew he couldn't win, because he marched to the beat of his own drummer. Mikey said that gas isn't $3.00 per gallon. It's more like $120.00 per gallon when you factor in the wars.

Before you say that English IS the official language in America, you might want to do a 10 second Google search. In 50 years, it will be put to a vote. Spanish will be the official language in America. Take it to the bank.

Surely · Accepted Answer

Of course I would! Imagine how much money we could save when we wouldn’t have to print instructions in 33 different languages! Also the trees!

Dongie · Accepted Answer

Yes.

abc3643 · Answer

From an efficiency standpoint, making English be the official language of the United States seems like the smart thing to do because there is no need to print translations. (*)

However, from the logical sense, it doesn't because, English, like all languages, evolves. So, suppose there was a constitutional amendment to make English the official language of the United States and 650 years go by. The "English" spoken in 600 years will resemble little to the English of today.

Here's an example of what I am talking about:

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https://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/hel/cant-pro.html

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that seson on a day,
In southwerk at the tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye,
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward caunterbury wolden ryde.
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
And wel we weren esed atte beste.
And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
And made forward erly for to ryse,
To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse.
But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,
Er that I ferther in this tale pace,
Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
To telle yow al the condicioun
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
And eek in what array that they were inne;
And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.

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Can you read that? Maybe with great difficulty, but probably not.
What language is it? It's written in English. Yes, English! The above text is the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales written in the 14th Century (1300s). We call that form of English "Middle English". What will the people of the 2700s call our form of English?

My point is that there is a danger in legally making a language be "official" because if text must be written in the official (and eventually obsolete) language, then people will not connect with it.

For instance, in the above text, Canterbury is spelled "caunterbury". Had English been made official in the 1300s, then "caunterbury" would still be the official spelling and not the modern Canterbury which everyone says and spells.

This is the very same reason why the Catholic Church, after "Vatican II" (The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican) in 1965, made the mass be in the vernacular (local language) and no longer in Latin, the official language the Church had used since Roman times.

====

Language is what connects people and making English be the official language may seem like a smart idea because, in a sense, it forces assimilation, but that's not necessary because the children of immigrants will always learn the language of the country they live in. Children of immigrants today will learn English simply by attending school and being inundated in the culture anyway. So assimilation happens anyway. This is always so no matter where... or when... you are.

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(*) Soon, it will all be irrelevant anyway. Computerized language translators such as Google Translate will get better and better and, with many things moving to the Internet instead of being on paper, having translations into any language of any government form, will cost pretty much nothing. And, furthermore, it engages the population better.

====

The last thing I will say about this topic is that, frankly, I am ambivalent. I wouldn't care if English was made the official language or not, but I don't think it's necessary and is certainly a low-priority issue than oceans of other issues confronting us. If English not being the official language of the United States is upsetting you this much, then you must be the luckiest person who ever lived to have this be the worst of your problems.

Lliam · Answer

I think English  should  be the official language of the U. S. I'm totally fine with people perpetuating their native languages, but they should be able to read and speak English to, for example, get a driver's license or vote.

WindAtMyBack · Answer

I would. But I don't think it's a real big deal. A lot of other countries don't have an official language. English isn't even the official language of the UK.

English is the de facto language of the US. English is also required to become a naturalized citizen.

By the way, English is the official or de facto language of 58 countries. Interestingly, Africa has almost twice as many countries with English as their language as any other continent.

tfan1 · Answer

Hell yes! If you go to live in a different country, you have to lean the language primarily spoken there. It should be the same here. Majority is English speaking not Spanish.

English is the most common language spoken in the United States with approximately 239 million speakers. Spanish is spoken by approximately 35 million people.

Daniela1982 · Answer

Hmmm, I thought it already was, seeing as the Constitution was written by Ex Pats from Jolly Old England. I guess they didn't learn the first time.

slatyb · Answer

No, we don't need an official language. For the first 150 years this was a polyglot nation, with newspapers published in many languages.

SaoirseS · Answer

No I wouldn’t. It’s unnecessary.

WhiteBoyChill · Answer

No, I’d vote to make it Italian

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