Yeah, English has so much momentum that by the third generation, everyone speaks it well after immigration. What does happen is that English-speakers pick up many Spanish words, making our already huge vocubulary even bigger!
The USA does not have an official language.
[hijack]
While English and French are the official languages of Canada, where I live in Alberta more people speak German than French.
Although, English is by far the most common.
And that’s the beauty of the language? See a word you don’t have? Steal it!
English is the language that mugs other languages, goes through their pockets, and takes whatever words look nice and shiny.
I think that’s my favorite line about the English language.
OTOH, Congress and the Federal Courts DO have English as the official language of record – with translations provided if some document brought into the record is in a foreign language or a witness is not an English-speaker. Basically because of continuity with the already-extant English-based legal system at the country’s foundation (BTW this makes the US District Court for Puerto Rico an absolute hoot.) Anyway, when it is obvious what is the common language of the general culture, there is no need for an “official language”.
Louisiana and Puerto Rico got their “dual official” languages due to the preexisting non-Anglo culture and Body of Laws (Civil Law, instead of Common Law) being so large/well-established that it made it questionable whether they could be effectively integrated with English-speaking institutions of American government and business w/o that acommodation. (And even then, in 1991 an administration in San Juan tried making Spanish the sole-official language in PR. Was eventually repealed and reverted to the statu-quo in Jan. 1993)
One of the problems with “official languages” is that some people may argue that there need be absolutely NO accommodation whatsoever for ANYTHING happening not in the official language.
It is a nice ‘feature’ of English that it allows this ‘borrowing’. As well as of course having a multitude of variants yet we can all pretty well understand all the variants, once we know one.
English may not be the official language of the usa, but they are trying to make it so. As a matter of fact, 26 states have some sort of english as an official language law, according to the net.
The Germans and Czechs who settled here in Central Texas in the 1840s held on to their native tongues for a surprisingly long time. In many smaller towns of Central Texas, you still see churches with names like “First English Lutheran”- a reflection of the fact that, until just a generation or two ago, a large percentage of the Lutheran churches still had their services in German.
Actually, that habit of ‘borrowing’ extends to most American cultural systems. Food, music, language, arts, what-have-you…
If it impresses us we’ll steal it and make our own version.
I know that Indiana does (and I can even track down the part of state Code). I think that Illinois for a while formally rejected English as a state language and insisted that the state language was “American”.
I seem to remember hearing a story on the radio (if I had to guess, I’d say it was something on NPR, but couldn’t be more specific than that) wherein a young man immigrates from Mexico to Texas, is adopted by a family and learns his new family’s language. One day he goes in to town for whatever reason and is shocked to discover he speaks Spanish and German, so he still can’t talk to the general populace.
Kind of a pointless post, but I felt like sharing. I don’t remember when this was set, or even if it was supposed to be a true story…sorry
Buncha stuff:
Spanish was spoken in the area of the Mexican Cession for several hundred years before it became part of the U.S. Many people from California to Kansas are parts of local “old families” of Hispanic descent, there before Anglo settlers came. (One member of this board is in that category.)
IIRC, New Mexico considers Spanish as coequal with English for purposes of the legal system and government administration, partially because of this.
French heritage is not confined to Quebec and Louisiana – Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and the north of New Hampshire and Maine have significant French communities, which were largely dual-language Francophone/Anglophone well into the 20th Century.
There are, or were, a number of enclaves throughout much of the United States and Canada where an ethnic group settled and retained its native language along with English.
I’m totally unaware of the legal status of Native American languages, but I know that there remain a large number of speakers of them in various places, including Oklahoma, Arizona, Alaska, and northern Canada generally, from Nouvelle Quebec west to the Yukon.
And, of course, Mexico and Central America are not a monolithic Spanish unit – Native American tongues retain major footholds in much of the area, and Belize and the Atlantic coast of Honduras are English-speaking for the most part.
To what extent is this officialness supported in practice? Can I walk into any state government office there – for example, a driver licencing bureau – and expect to be served in French? Does the state’s legislative assembly conduct its business in both languages, and are translations always provided, as with the Canadian parliament?
Don’t forget Ontario. There are many francophones/bilinguals there, although you have to factor in the high population and the proximity to Quebec and “Acadie”.
There is what you might call a “movement” to preserve the French language outside of Quebec. Out of each new generation of young non-Quebecer francophones, about 30% switch to English as their first language – often unconsciously. Factors such as the media and peer pressure can turn kids off French early on, but the switch often bcomes final in adulthood. To “keep your French” outside of Quebec requires a concious effort : while English culture is everywhere and unavoidable, French culture has to be sought out, especially if you work in an anglophone environment . Not necessarily a difficult task, but some people are just lazy. And so, the poor soul succumbs to “assimilation”, the most dreaded fate of proud francos.
Yep, assimilation. It seems to be happening more since Quebec started that whole Separatist thing. Before that, we were all “French Canadians”. Now, we’re either Quebecois or Acadien, Franco-Terre-Neuvien, Franco-Ontarien, Franco-Manitobain, Fransaskois, etc., etc. These little minority groups have lost touch with Quebec, and now struggle to survive on their own. People are like, What the hell is Franco-Ontarian “culture”? I didn’t know we had a culture. Now what are we supposed to do? Oh well, guess I’ll just assimilate…
Anyway, so, the movement. There are lots of organisations and events to promote francophone “pride”. One example of a cool group is la FESFO, whose goal is to help F.-O. teenagers “participate in the development of their community”. This year, in Sudbury, la FESFO will hold the 10th annual Jeux Franco-Ontariens, which is a gathering of “delegations” from Ontario’s French high schools. You can participate as a volunteer or in one of the “volets” (visual arts, sports, busking, improv, trivia), or be a member of the FESFO General Assembly to elect a new president and such. But the point of les Jeux is to bring every corner of French Ontario into one city for four days for people to make connections and, most importantly, rekindle their love of French.
As you might expect, some of this whole anti-assimilation thing borders on propaganda. In French schools, one of the most important rules is to Always Speak French. (A rule that is generally broken when no teachers are within earshot.) Is it such a big deal to Always Speak English in English schools? I think teachers would applaud the embracing of diversity. Sheesh!
This post is getting ridiculously long. If I keep writing in English for such long periods of time, I will surely “lose my French”. :smack:
link: FESFO web site
The interesting thing is that on census forms in the U.S. when people are asked for their ethnic ancestry, English comes in third. There are more people of Irish ancestry than of English and more of German ancestry than of Irish.
Or at least, there are more people who tell the Census Bureau they’re of Irish or German ancestry than of English. Interestingly, I’m of Irish, German, and English ancestry, but if asked that question, probably would put down “Irish”.
I’m English, Scottish and Irish. I’d say English, since that’s the closest (my great-grandfather was born in England) generation.
Here in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, English is the most common lanuage, but French, Italian, Finnish (yes, Finnish) and Ukranian languages are often heard. Such diversity is very nice.