English as the National Language of the United States of America

[Dixon Carter Lee]

You leave Killer Muffin out of this.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

I think it would be well to remember that language is a virus from Outer Space.

And viruses mutate.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Wouldn't it be nice if good grammar was "catching"?

 

[Texan]

For most of the history of the world, languages have been "diverging". Just like several languages "diverged" from Latin; and British english has diverged into the english of America, Austrailia, India, the Carribean, and many other places.

I believe that linguistic "divergence" has stopped and linguistic "convergence" has begun. The is primarily due to the smaller world that has been created by television, easy travel, international business, and the export of pop culture. It should surprise no one that languages are "converging" around the english language as spoken in the United States.

All over the world, children born to any level of affluence, are being taught english in school. In the business world (including the internet), english is already the dominant language. Any business person who hopes to do business in the United States, MUST transact that business in english, regardless to which country he is from. HOWEVER, if an American business person wants to conduct business in any other country, it is not necessary (although helpful) that he speak the local language.

I work for a Swiss company. ALL meetings in our Swiss offices are conducted in english, even if all the attendees of the meeting are native speakers of german or swiss-german. All correspondence is done in english. ALL company software (both purchased and produced by our company) is in english.

I sell computer driven systems in the Latin American territory. The software we provide with our systems is in english. We do not even make a spanish or portuguese version of the program. A few years ago, we produced our software in spanish and portuguese, but our customers almost always purchased the english version.

Back to my thesis. I believe it doesn't matter if the U.S. makes english the "official" language or not. The world will VERY SLOWLY "converge" languages to the American english language anyway.

just one man's opinion

 

[coolr]

GO TEXAN!!!! WHOO!!!

 

[Mensa]

Back to my thesis. I believe it doesn't matter if the U.S. makes english the "official" language or not. The world will VERY SLOWLY "converge" languages to the American english language anyway.

just one man's opinion

Do you mean the whole world will soon be going

Yo, bro, whassssupppp?

I axed you a kwestyun?

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Who let the frat party in?

The whole world is not going to go "English". The Chinese markets are slwoly opening up, and they have a hell of a lot more people than we do, with a famously closed society. China isn't going "English" any time soon.

And, again, the point isn't that English is the predominant language of the United States and its laws, but that making it the official language of the country via legislation will open a hell of a Pandora's box about other "requirements" for citizenship, commerce, and liberty.

We also don't have an offical national race, gender, or approved politcal party despite the fact that most of the power in this country is vested in white Republican or Democratic men.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Wouldn't it be nice if good grammar was "catching"?

. . . and usage, too.

 

[coolr]

Who let the frat party in?

The whole world is not going to go "English". The Chinese markets are slwoly opening up, and they have a hell of a lot more people than we do, with a famously closed society. China isn't going "English" any time soon.

And, again, the point isn't that English is the predominant language of the United States and its laws, but that making it the official language of the country via legislation will open a hell of a Pandora's box about other "requirements" for citizenship, commerce, and liberty.

We also don't have an offical national race, gender, or approved politcal party despite the fact that most of the power in this country is vested in white Republican or Democratic men.

of course it will go to english, even when china's leaders has meetings with other countries, they either have translators for each of their own languages, or they speak english, besides i just had the pleasure of having a few conversations with teachers from china, that taught english, that are currently visiting the US, chinese boys and girls are being taught english since their equivalent to elementary grades on up, almost all other countries are doing this also, if that's not a sign that everyone will converge to english in the future, i dont' know what is

 

[Ishmael]

Get real DCL

And, again, the point isn't that English is the predominant language of the United States and its laws, but that making it the official language of the country via legislation will open a hell of a Pandora's box about other "requirements" for citizenship, commerce, and liberty.

You know that isn't true. There maybe some local or state laws, but the truly onerous will be struck down. Further, communities should have a say in what they want. Part of the 10th amendment old chap. Regardless, I'm sure that there is a wording that will satisfy even the most fearful among us.

I think what I find funny is the crowd that is sooooooooo paranoid over the governments intrusion into something as simple as the language of the law, but find it perfectly logical to want the government to intrude on other peoples choices when it comes to things such as, Oh let's see, whether we drive a SUV or not.

It is funny.

Ishmael

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

I hate when people don't read the whole thread...

I didn't say that was my position, I said that's what we're debating.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

I just thought of something -- is there anything in the NAFTA rules about English being the language of commerce? Hmm. A precedent for the North American continent?

 

[Ishmael]

Nope

I just thought of something -- is there anything in the NAFTA rules about English being the language of commerce? Hmm. A precedent for the North American continent?

The NAFTA agreement itself is in English, but as far as I know there is no langauge in the document refering to a prefered "language of commerce".

And perhaps there is somewhat of a model there. A legal document defining and regulating commerce without restricting the language that the commerce takes place in.

Ishmael