English as the National Language of the USA?
English as the National Language of the USA?

Summary/Abstract: English is not the official language of the United States of America, despite wide-spread belief to the contrary. The 56 signers of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 were all of British ancestry and for them, all native speakers of English, declaring English to be the country's national language would have seemed unnecessary. From a 1790 census of some 4 million inhabitants the country's population has soared to over 265 million in 1996, a number that includes millions of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. Immigration, legal and illegal, continues to bring to the USA large numbers of people whose native language is not English. The cost of providing remedial and other services for immigrants has evoked a rise in »nativism«, such that many of the country's 50 states have passed legislation mandating English as the official language and now legislation is before the U. S. Congress to declare English as the required language for all government transactions. The author supports such legislation in order to clarify ambiguous situations but he also supports bilingual education for a limited period so as to provide a transition for immigrant children from their native language to English.

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