Legal Language in Us
After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the United States acquired about 75,000 Hispanics in addition to several Native American populations. Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsylvania German is a Franconian Rhenish-Palatine language traditionally spoken mainly in Pennsylvania, but has spread since the 19th century to the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and other states), where the majority of speakers now live. It developed from the German dialect of the Palatinate, which was brought to America by the Pennsylvania Dutch before 1800. Originally spoken by followers of various Christian denominations (Lutherans, Mennonites, Amish, German Baptist brethren, Catholics), today it is mainly spoken by Amish and Mennonites of the Old Order. The ten most commonly spoken languages in the United States are: Puerto Rican Spanish is the main language and dialect of the people of Puerto Rico, as well as many people descended from Puerto Ricans elsewhere in the United States. “English was pretty much the dominant language in the United States at the time, so there really was no need to protect it. And they didn`t want to offend their fellow Americans who helped in the struggle for independence. Keres has 11,000 speakers in New Mexico and is an isolated language. The Keres Pueblo are the largest of the Pueblo nations. The Keres Pueblo of Acoma is the oldest permanently inhabited community in the United States. Zuni, another isolate, has about 10,000 speakers, most of whom live in the Zuni pueblo. The United States of America does not have an official language at the federal level. They use English as the main language for official documents and publications, laws, ordinances, regulations and judgments.
However, state laws regulate bilingual situations and may require documents to be printed in more than one English, for example, English and Spanish or even French. Dissatisfied with state-level legislation, some members of Congress have proposed amendments to the Constitution that would make English the official language of the nation. Such a change would likely prevail over existing First Amendment objections, but courts may still have considerable leeway in interpretation. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma recognizes Cherokee as an official language with approximately 12,000 speakers. Similarly, Indigenous languages are official or co-official on many American Indian reservations. Hawaiian is an official language of the State of Hawaii, as required by the Hawaiian Constitution. Hawaiian has 1,000 native speakers. Sooner than threatened with extinction, Hawaiian is showing signs of linguistic renaissance. The latest trend is based on new Hawaiian language immersion programs from the Hawaiian State Department of Education and the University of Hawaii, as well as efforts by the Hawaii State Legislature and county governments to preserve Hawaiian place names. In 1993, about 8,000 people could speak and understand; Today, estimates put the figure at 27,000.
Hawaiian is related to the Maori language, spoken by about 150,000 New Zealanders and Cook Islanders, as well as the Tahitian language, spoken by another 120,000 people in Tahiti. There are also hundreds of language immersion and bilingual schools in the United States that teach in a variety of languages, including Spanish, Hawaiian, Chomorro, French, and Mandarin Chinese (e.g., the Mandarin Immersion Magnet School in Texas). However, English is compulsory in all these schools. U.S. English, the nation`s oldest and largest organization that advocates for official English, sums up its belief by saying that “the transition from English as an official language will help expand opportunities for immigrants to learn and speak English, the greatest empowerment tool immigrants need to succeed.” [11] “The sad thing about language debates is that it`s rarely about the language itself, but about the people who speak those languages,” Wright said. An official language refers to the language (or languages) used by a country`s government for official business. The practice of adopting or not adopting an official language can be very controversial. After all, language closely intersects with heritage and national identity, both of which elicit strong reactions and opinions from people. In that sense, what is the official language of the United States? We have the answer and six other facts you probably didn`t know about the official language of the United States. According to an urban legend, in 1776, the decision to make German the official language of the United States instead of English depended on a vote. It`s a myth, but it has different kernels of truth.
Spanish was also inherited from colonization and is officially sanctioned in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where it is the common language of instruction in schools and universities. Spanish is taught as a foreign or second language in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and all territories except Puerto Rico. It is spoken at home in areas with large Hispanic populations: in the southwestern United States along the border with Mexico, as well as in Florida, parts of California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. In Hispanic communities across the country, bilingual signs in Spanish and English may well be common. In addition, there are many neighborhoods (such as Washington Heights in New York or Little Havana in Miami) where entire city blocks have only signs in Spanish and Spanish speakers. Tagalog and Vietnamese each have more than a million speakers in the United States, almost exclusively among the youngest immigrant population. Both languages, along with varieties of Chinese (mainly Cantonese, Taishanese and Standard Mandarin), Japanese and Korean, are now used in elections in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Texas and Washington. [20] In 1929, linguist Edward Sapir, speaking Native American languages, noted:[67] English is the most widely spoken language in the United States with about 239 million speakers. Spanish is spoken by about 35 million people.
[16] The United States has the fifth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, surpassed only by Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and Argentina; other estimates put the United States at more than 50 million, just behind Mexico. In the southwestern United States and Puerto Rico, long-established Hispanic communities coexist with large numbers of recent Hispanic immigrants. Although many Latin American new immigrants are less fluent in English, nearly all second-generation Hispanics are fluent in English, while only about half still speak Spanish. [17] In 2021, a Rasmussen poll found that 73% of Americans thought English should be the official language, with only 18% disagreeing. [14] Many people are surprised to learn that the United States has no official language. As one of the most important shopping centers and an important English-speaking country, many assume that English is the official language of the country. But despite efforts over the years, the United States has no official language. In 1985, Kae T. Patrick, a member of the Texas House of Representatives from San Antonio, was the sole supporter of his unsuccessful attempt to allow English as the official language of Texas. His concurrent House Resolution No. 13 died in the State Affairs Committee. Patrick said his resolution was more important than a “state bird.” In subsequent legislative sessions, the movement to become official English supporters, including Talmadge Heflin of Houston, never gained enough members to agree to pass a bill. [19] As with all sign languages in the world that have evolved organically, they are complete languages that are different from any oral language. American Sign Language (as opposed to Sign English) is not a derivative of English. [147] Some of the languages present here were commercial pidgins, which were first used as a communication system across national and Native American language boundaries, but have since evolved into mature languages as children learned them as a first language. The United States does not have an official language at the federal level, but the most commonly used language is English (especially American English), which is the de facto national language. It is also the only language spoken at home by the vast majority of the U.S. population (about 78.5%). [6] Many other languages are also spoken at home, especially Spanish (13.2% of the population), according to the U.S. Census Bureau`s American Community Survey (ACS); These include native languages and languages imported into the United States by people from Europe, Africa, and Asia. However, the majority of speakers of these languages are bilingual and also speak English. Although 21.5% of U.S. citizens say they speak a language other than English at home, only 8.2% speak less English than “very well.” [7] Several other languages, including creole and sign languages, have developed in the United States.About 430 languages are spoken or signed by the population, 177 of which originate in the region. At least fifty-two languages that were spoken on the territory of the country are now extinct. [8] Younger generations of non-Hispanics in the United States choose to learn Spanish as a foreign or second language in far greater numbers than other second languages. This could be due in part to the growth of the Hispanic population and the growing popularity of Latin American films and Spanish-language music.