It takes more than a language to unify a nation

[Wilson Gray]

Not "Why shouldn't we?" but "Why should we?" English is already de
facto so privileged in this country. What requiires that it be made so
de jure? The fact that the E.U., consisting of several different
countries speaking an even larger number of distinct languages, does
so? The fact that the French do so?

-Wilson

On 2/22/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: It takes more than a language to unify a nation
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2/22/2007 09:48 PM, Dennis Baron wrote:
> >King's bill also reveals the paranoia
> >behind all official language legislation. It privileges the English
> >versions of our laws because the bill's sponsors, who surely don't
> >object to translating the Bible into English, insist that translating
> >our laws, not to mention sacred secular texts like the Star-Spangled
> >Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance, will distort or pervert their
> >meaning.
>
> The E.U. privileges the language in which the law of a country is
> written, as being the most accurate rendition of meaning.  Why
> shouldn't Americans privilege the English language verions of U.S. laws?
>
> Joel
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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