English-only movement

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An English-only movement refers to a political movement for establishing the English language as the only official language in the United States. There have been various unrelated incarnations of the movement throughout United States history.

Contents 1 The earliest English-only movement 2 The modern English-only movement 3 Criticism 4 Current law 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The earliest English-only movement

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 American Indians. 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.

The modern English-only movement

• 1980: Dade County, Florida, voters approved an "anti-bilingual ordinance."
• 1981: English was declared the official language in the state of Virginia.
• 1983: Dr. John Tanton founded, along with S. I. Hayakawa, political lobbying organization U.S. English. (In 1979, Dr. Tanton had founded the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an immigration reductionist group.)
• 1986
  • Tanton wrote a memo containing derogatory remarks about Hispanics, which appeared in the press, leading to the resignations from U.S. English of board member Walter Cronkite and executive director Linda Chavez.
  • Larry Pratt founded English First, while Lou Zaeske established the American Ethnic Coalition.
• 1994: Tanton and other former U.S. English associates founded ProEnglish specifically to defend Arizona's English-only law.

Criticism

The modern English-only movement has met with general rejection from linguists. The Linguistic Society of America 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>Template:Cite journal Reprinted in Template:Cite book </ref>.

Current law

Currently, the United States federal government specifies no official language, but there are official languages in these states:

• English alone:
  • Alabama (1990)
  • Arkansas (1987)
  • California (1986)
  • Colorado (1988)
  • Florida (1988)
  • Georgia (1996)
  • Illinois (1969)
  • Indiana (1984)
  • Iowa (2002)
  • Kentucky (1984)
  • Massachusetts (1975)
  • Mississippi (1987)
  • Missouri (1998)
  • Montana (1995)
  • Nebraska (1920)
  • New Hampshire (1995)
  • North Carolina (1987)
  • North Dakota (1987)
  • South Carolina (1987)
  • South Dakota (1995)
  • Tennessee (1984)
  • Utah (2000)
  • Virginia (1996)
  • West Virginia (2005)
  • Wyoming (1996)

• English and Hawaiian:
  • Hawaii (1978)
• English and French:
  • Louisiana
• English and Spanish:
  • New Mexico

• "English Plus" resolutions:
  • New Mexico (1989)
  • Oregon (1989)
  • Rhode Island (1992)
  • Washington (1989)

• 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.

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

See also

• Bilingual education
• Languages in the United States
• Spanish in the United States
• English as a second language

References

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External links

• U.S. English (advocates for English Only)
• Anatomy of the English-Only Movement, by James Crawford
• Lingo Jingo: English Only and the New Nativism, by Geoffrey Nunberg
• Iowa Passes "English Only" Measure (2/27/02)
• English-Only Movement: Its Consequences on the Education of Language Minority Children
• Language Legislation in the U.S.A.