It takes more than a language to unify a nation

[David Bowie]

From:    Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
 > <Judith_H_Marie at COMPUSERVE.COM> wrote:

>> When I voted in November in Berkeley, California, I first had to
>> choose which language I wished to use. The choice was between
>> Chinese, Korean, Spanish, English or Tagalog [sic]. It seems to me
>> not unreasonable that since only U.S. citizens vote, and that one
>> has to pass an English language test to become a citizen, the
>> ballet should be in English.

> You're making the assumption that anyone who speaks a language other than
> English had to be naturalised as a citizen.  There are born-citizens in the
> US for whom English is not their first language, and the right to vote is
> their birthright.

There's a lot of shouting going on in the AM radio band here in Central
Florida about the "takeover" of the area by Spanish speakers, and the
nativist crowd seems to be using Judith's line as one of their knockdown
talking points.

This is odd, though, as i see it, since one of the reasons we have so
many native Spanish speakers in this region is that we're a major
destination point for natively Spanish-speaking *US* *citizens* born in
Puerto Rico, all of whom have been US citizens from birth, and have
largely been exercising their right to vote in US elections using
Spanish-language ballots since reaching the age of majority.

If people want to cut Puerto Rico completely loose from the US so as not
to have to worry about the fact that we have US citizens who never, ever
have any need (though there appears to be a widespread desire) to learn
English, then fine--at least that's consistent. However, I haven't heard
the English-only folks making such proposals yet.

David, resisting the cheap spelling flame
--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org