<p>One of the reasons to be afraid of language legislation in the U.S. is, I
believe, precisely that lack of specification in the law. When the law is
unclear, who is to say what is permissible and what is not? These issues may in
fact be left to the courts, which over the last few years have been loaded with
conservative judges (i.e. those more likely to enforce a policy more exclusive
of other languages), to the dismay of liberals. I think it is perfectly
reasonable to be in a tizzy over a vague law that many people support without
knowing exactly what the implications will and will not be.</p><p>Personally,
if the law is to ensure that all government business is conducted in English, I
think it's a useless law as all government business <i>is</i> conducted in
English, and that my government's priorities ought to lie elsewhere, especially
if translation and interpretation services will still be available for voting,
courtrooms, etc. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.</p>Jason F. Siegel<br />
Department of French & Italian<br />
Ballantine Hall 642<br />
1020 East Kirkwood Avenue<br />
Indiana University<br />
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103<br />
USA<br />
siegeljf@indiana.edu<br />
<br />
<br />
Quoting Harold Schiffman <haroldfs@gmail.com>:<br />
<br />
> One of the reasons I sent out the original message about
"official" English<br />
> is that there is no clear definition anywhere that defines what
"official"<br />
> language means, or implies. Some countries have "national"
languages that<br />
> are perhaps more symbolic, but my whole approach to language policy is
that<br />
> officialization often doesn't matter, i.e. language policy usually
consists<br />
> of "official/written/overt<br />
> /de jure/top-down/explicit" policy as well as
"unofficial/unwritten/<br />
> covert/de facto/grass-roots/implicit" aspects. As Dennis Baron notes,
we<br />
> seem to have achieved dominance in English without ever officializing
it.<br />
><br />
> I used to try to make an example of how implicit expectations about the
use<br />
> of English in the U.S., especially in education, were almost never
spelled<br />
> out, by walking into a classroom and holding forth in French for a
while,<br />
> until someone objected. Then I'd ask what the official language of the<br
/>
> university was, to which they had no answer, except that the<br />
> *expectation*was that lectures would be in English.<br />
><br />
> So I'm really not afraid about officialization of English, because if I
know<br />
> our American legislators, they'll pass legislation that has absolutely
no<br />
> provisions for implementation, funding, enforcement, evaluation, or any<br
/>
> other necessary factors to make it actually *work*. Officializaton of<br />
> English in the US would be largely *symbolic*; in fact, interest in<br />
> officialization is found mostly in small rural towns where everybody
already<br />
> speaks English. Calls for officialization are symbolic ways to express
ones<br />
> patriotism, ones value system, and perhaps also subtly express racism,
i;e.<br />
> it's a *proxy *for xenophobia. And it's cheap, too--doesn't cost much for
a<br />
> small town to officialization English, and it may get somebody some votes
in<br />
> the next election.<br />
><br />
> Hal Schiffman<br />
><br />
><br />
> On 6/25/07, rbhatt@uiuc.edu <rbhatt@uiuc.edu> wrote:<br />
>><br />
>> There is a nice piece on this matter, on Official English for the
US,<br />
>> written by my colleague, Dennis Baron, that should be of interest to
this<br />
>> list. The URL is:<br />
>><br />
>><br />
>> <a target="_blank"
href="https://webmail.iu.edu/horde/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebtools.uiuc.edu%2Fblog%2Fview%3FblogId%3D25%26topicId%3D589%26count%3D1%26ACTION%3DVIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS%26skinId%3D286">http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=589&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286</a><br
/>
>><br />
>> Or you can access it from:<br />
>><br />
>> <a target="_blank"
href="https://webmail.iu.edu/horde/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebtools.uiuc.edu%2Fblog%2Fview%3FblogId%3D25">http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25</a><br
/>
>><br />
>> All best,<br />
>> Rakesh<br />
>><br />
>> ---- Original message ----<br />
>> >Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:49:56 +0100<br />
>> >From: "Anthea Fraser Gupta"
<a.F.Gupta@leeds.ac.uk><br />
>> >Subject: RE : What the heck is an "official" language?<br
/>
>> >To: <lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu>,
<lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu<br />
>> ><br />
>> ><br />
>> >Absolutely. We had some discussion about this a couple of months
ago. In<br />
>> actuality, the US, like the UK already has an official language. But
even if<br />
>> English were to be made de jure the official language, I fail to
understand<br />
>> why this designation would entail the proscription of other languages
or a<br />
>> ban on any funding of other languages.<br />
>> ><br />
>> >Anthea<br />
>> ><br />
>> >* * * * *<br />
>> >Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)<br />
>> >School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT <<br />
>> www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg><br />
>> >NB: Reply to a.f.gupta@leeds.ac.uk<br />
>> >* * * * *<br />
>> ><br />
>> >________________________________<br />
>> ><br />
>> **********************************************<br />
>> Associate Professor, Linguistics and SLATE<br />
>> Department of Linguistics<br />
>> University of Illinois<br />
>> 4088 FLB, 707 S. Mathews<br />
>> Urbana, IL 61801<br />
>><br />
>> Email: rbhatt@uiuc.edu<br />
>> Ph: 217-265-6308<br />
>> 217-333-3563 (leave message)<br />
>> Fax: 217-244-8430<br />
>><br />
>><br />
><br />
><br />
> -- <br />
> =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=<br />
><br />
> Harold F. Schiffman<br />
><br />
> Professor Emeritus of<br />
> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture<br />
> Dept. of South Asia Studies<br />
> University of Pennsylvania<br />
> Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br />
><br />
> Phone: (215) 898-7475<br />
> Fax: (215) 573-2138<br />
><br />
> Email: haroldfs@gmail.com<br />
> <a target="_blank"
href="https://webmail.iu.edu/horde/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fccat.sas.upenn.edu%2F%7Eharoldfs%2F">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a><br
/>
><br />
> -------------------------------------------------<br />
><br />
<br />