Izvorni znanstveni članak
English as the National Language of the USA?
Thomas F. Magner
; The Pennsylvania State University
Sažetak
English is not the official language of the United States of America, despite wide-spread
belief to the contrary. The 56 signers of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776
were all of British ancestry and for them, all native speakers of English, declaring English
to be the country's national language would have seemed unnecessary. From a 1790 census
of some 4 million inhabitants the country's population has soared to over 265 million in
1996, a number that includes millions of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from
non-English-speaking countries. Immigration, legal and illegal, continues to bring to the
USA large numbers of people whose native language is not English. The cost of providing
remedial and other services for immigrants has evoked a rise in »nativism«, such that many
of the country's 50 states have passed legislation mandating English as the official language
and now legislation is before the U. S. Congress to declare English as the required language
for all government transactions. The author supports such legislation in order to clarify ambiguous
situations but he also supports bilingual education for a limited period so as to
provide a transition for immigrant children from their native language to English.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
24218
URI
Datum izdavanja:
3.6.1996.
Posjeta: 1.386 *