In this thread we talk about the current bill in the US congress to make English the national language. If you want to talk about national languges in general, for instance wether there should be one, multiple, or none, thats cool too.
Wait, wasn't it already the nation language? Or did it just have a de facto status?
De facto status. An interesting fact, after America gained independence, there were proposals to make such languages as Hebrew, Greek, French, and German the national language, although I don't think any of these ever had a chance of passing.
En esta rosca hablamos sobre el proyecto de ley en el congreso de los Estados Unidos hacer Inglés el idioma nacional. Si quieren discutir sobre idiomas nacionales in general, por ejemplo si debería uno, múltiple, o nada, ese también es guay. Siento que mi Español es cutre, lo he sido para solo dos años.
Wait, aren't some cities already dual-language?
Los Angeles for example has text in both English and Spanish in the phone booths.
English should be the National Language, possibly have a universal language as a secondary (Esperanto anyone?)
The US has never had a national language, while the rest of the world's countries do. Seeing as how we're at the top of the heap, I don't think we should change that. Besides, English sucks. Too many bullshit rules to learn.
English has too many rules? Have you ever tried to learn any other languages? English has some of the easiest and loosest grammar I've seen.
If you're going to complain about the English language, you should complain about something that is actually a problem, such as the non-sensical pronounciation, or ridiculously overwrought vocabulary.
English is an amalgamation of several languages and even though that makes it have a lot of strange rules it also gives it the greatest amount of vocabulary. You can describe a multitude of things in many eloquent ways. It's a very intellectual language.
But yes I agree with you, I don't see a reason to change our current lack of a national language. I see it more as a sense of pride that we're the "Melting Pot" of the world and theoretically accept anyone regardless of heritage or language.
I agree. What the government has done until now was let states decide if they (on a state by state basis) should have recognized languages. Some states have English as their recognized state language, a few have english and spanish.
I would like English to be the Official language so that welfare forms couldn't be printed in Spanish. Instant payoff.
>>English has some of the easiest and loosest grammar I've seen.
I don't think that's fair of you to claim. Many people play fast and loose with grammar, but that doesn't make it correct. Many people can't make subject-verb agreements work, even if this is their native language. You may be able to understand someone who speaks that way, but it can still be awkward and unnatural, and it certainly isn't grammatical.
One of the reasons there's not a national language is probably due to a LOT of political and scientific phrases coming from Latin (e.g. "de facto" itself). A bill to make a national language would have to account for all Latin phrases used.
Yay for Arizona making English the official language!
Fairly early on in the country's history there was a bill to make German the national language...
Does the fact that the US have no official lingo mean that the congress could publish laws in Russian as the official version??
America go english only? ROTFL. Not happening. What is more likely is us going officially bilingual. We're already a de facto bilingual society in some parts of the US(Southwest, California, Florida, Greeater NYC).
Funny, I always thought English was our language as well
Well, unless you want the USA to turn into another Austria-Hungary and split, then you should actively encourage assimilation, culturally and linguistically.
Bit of a clumsy analogy, actually. Austria-Hungary was formed as a German dominated Empire, and ruled over heterogenous populations with different languages, cultures, and aspirations.
For most of US history, the American people spread over the Great Plains quietly. By that time, the native populations were already severely depleted by disease and internectine warfare, so our settlers basically cultivated the land they neglected. Austria-Hungary was basically just the Hapsburgs ruling over already civilized, urban populations. It was a situation bound to cause upheaval.
actually, you people should know we were about two votes away from having latin spoken as the main language and our country's name switched to Columbia...