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Yo!Chingo
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: Seoul Korea
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 Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 11:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Don Gately wrote: |
I swear to god that if they declare an official language in the States that's the final straw, I'm done with that *beep* country and I'm emmigrating to New Zealand.
I can stand so much and then I can stand no more. |
Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out.  |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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| The problem with declaring English as the official language is that the hispanic population is growing at such a rapid pace that it's very likely Spanish may dominate English in the US within the next 50-75 years. I know it's absurd to like actually consider the future and stuff, though, so let's just declare English the national language and spray a couple aeresol cans at asthmatic cripples because we're Americans damit, we're Americans. |
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Don Gately
Joined: 20 Mar 2006
Location: In a basement taking a severe beating
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 11:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Yo!Chingo wrote: |
| Don Gately wrote: |
I swear to god that if they declare an official language in the States that's the final straw, I'm done with that *beep* country and I'm emmigrating to New Zealand.
I can stand so much and then I can stand no more. |
Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out. |
I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow. |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 3:21 am Post subject: |
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| Qinella wrote: |
| The problem with declaring English as the official language is that the hispanic population is growing at such a rapid pace that it's very likely Spanish may dominate English in the US within the next 50-75 years. I know it's absurd to like actually consider the future and stuff, though, so let's just declare English the national language and spray a couple aeresol cans at asthmatic cripples because we're Americans damit, we're Americans. |
There's little danger of Spanish replacing English in the US despite the growth in the numbers of Americans claiming hispanic heritage. The clear trend that has been maintained over the course of the 20th century and up to now is for children of immigrants to become monolingual English speaking by the second generation born in the US. I don't see this shifting. ( I can't remember the name of the sociolinguist who did this work, but it was published in a rather large, well-documented book.)
This is merely a trend and there are exceptions to it, but many of these are readily explainable. I did my BA honors thesis on the preservation of the Melilli (Sicily) dialect of Italian in the town my university was located in. At the time I wrote, there were fifth generation speakers of the dialect in town. However, they were all fully bilingual. And, these speakers were all members of families that ran certain businesses serving the monolingual immigrant population. With the end of immigration and the deaths of the last monolinguals, I expect that the dialect will die out in the next 20-30 years, replaced by English. (Italian generally died out in other communities on the east coast because immigrants from different parts of Italy were mixed together and couldn't understand each other in Italian; in the situation I looked at, preservation was helped by alomost all immigrants coming from the same village.) I think you will find similar phenomena in the preservation of Spanish in the southwestern US.
The current 'appearance' of a threat from Spanish has to do largely with increased immigration and increased political visibility of the Hispanic community.
I agree with the conclusion that making English the offical language of the US is silly. It ignores the demographic trends I mentioned above and is just another form of scaremongering. It also diverts attention from the fact that so many immigrants who want to learn English cannot get access to classes for it. Where's the legislation to support funding for that? You can tell there's an election coming. This is a perennial. I have a Tom Tomorrow cartoon addressing this issue up in my office and it's conclusion is still true today. It suggests that after Congress gets done enshrining the language already used in over 90% of all interactions in the US, maybe they can get on to other serious legislation, like declaring the sun our official life-giving source of heat and light or making breathing mandatory. |
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