Official Language

The founding fathers of the United States of America did not selected English or any other language as the official language. It was not felt necessary by the representatives at that time to ask them whether or not it should be made part of the law. There were attempts made by the senators afterwards from many states to standardize the English language in the US for both practical and lexicographic purposes. However, there was not any movement till 1981 to declare English the official language of the USA. So far, only 27 states have been able to adopt English as their official language. (Baron, pp.212-219)

It registered its first national success in 1996 when the US House of Representatives declared English as the official language. This success although had a short life as the bill failed due to the Senate inaction. The second national success came when the Senate passed the English Language Amendment to the latest Immigration Reform Bill which made English as America's 'national language'. However, because of the opposition of Democratic Party to make English an official language and the Republican Party's reluctance to officially associate with English language means that the movement has a long way to navigate. Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary document not only complimented the victory of General George Washington and his colonial army over the British forces, it was also the first step toward creating a republic, albeit an English speaking one. (Crawford, pp.121-126)

In 1789, when the Constitution of the US was adopted, it emerged the first English speaking republic in the world. The Constitution of the US, written in English, did not declare English and any other language as the official language of new country. Many attempts have been made by opponents of official English to explain this refusal of the founding fathers to canonize their native tongue for all official purposes. The most celebrated is the one by Shirley Brice Heath; professor of linguistics at Stanford University, that the nation was conceived in liberty there is no doubt about and freedom of

language choice indeed fell within its own context. However, the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of the American population at the time of writing the Constitution including all fifty five delegates to the Constitutional Convention spoke English. Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson in English and the debate that took place in the convention was even performed in English. Laws and even the Constitution were even in English. (Donahue, pp.99-112)

The official English language movement was started by the opponents when one senator of Republican party of California state launched first ever English Language Amendment (ELA) bill in the US Senate in 1981, which had an aim to modify the central Constitution to make English the official language of the US government. Even though the bill lost its value in committee, Hayakawa launched an organization named “US English” in 1983. Claiming a membership of 650,000 individuals as of 1999; it declared that its purpose was to assign English as ...