• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Why English Is Not The Official Language Of The US

January 22, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Despite common belief, English is not the official language of the US. In fact, it is one of the exceptional countries on the planet that does not officially recognize any language. To understand why, we must travel back to the genesis of the US and the ambitious ideals of the Founding Fathers.

Across the world, approximately 180 countries have an official language and more than 100 have multiple official languages. The country that currently holds the record for the most is Bolivia, which has 37 official languages including Spanish and dozens of Indigenous languages.

Advertisement

Countries adopt official languages to establish a universal means of communication in their governance, making it easier to outline and define things like laws, rights, etc. It can also be used as a tool to foster national unity and preserve cultural identity.

However, when the US came to fruition during the 18th century, it had other ideas at the forefront of its mind, namely the ideals of individual liberty and equality. 

While English was establishing itself as the most dominant language in the American colonies throughout the 1700s, there were still significant portions of the population who spoke their mother tongue from their homeland: German, Dutch, Flemish, French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Gaelic, Portuguese, Italian, and more. 

As a multicultural country of migrants who spoke an array of different languages, it was deemed unfair to pick one language over any other. In 1780, John Adams proposed that English should be made the official language of the US to the Continental Congress, but it was deemed “undemocratic and a threat to individual liberty.” 

Advertisement

There is an urban legend that Congress came very close to approving German as the official language, but it didn’t pass due to a single vote cast by Frederick Muhlenberg, the first-ever Speaker of the US House of Representatives. However, this story has been thoroughly debunked as a myth. 

The US has no official language at the federal level, but 32 of the 50 US states and all five US territories have recognized English as an official language at a local level. 

Furthermore, there have been continued attempts to install English as the official language of the US in recent decades. Even recently, in 2023, Republican Senators JD Vance of Ohio and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota introduced a bill to declare English as the nation’s official language.

Many of these attempts have been driven out of fear that the English language is dying, but that’s a pretty sensational – and unfounded – claim.

Advertisement

The latest census data indicates that 78.3 percent of the nation speaks only English at home. While that is slightly down from the previous dataset (78.7 percent in 2013-2017), it’s evident that English reigns supreme. The second most commonly spoken language in the US is Spanish, yet 61 percent of Spanish speakers can additionally speak English “very well.” 

Languages are constantly evolving – and the US, for once, is no exception. Linguists have reported several developments in the way people speak in the US compared to decades gone by. For instance, researchers have noted how the classic Southern accent is fading away. Conversely, new accents are being born in other places as a result of cultural intermingling between Spanish and English speakers. 

Parts of the English language may be shape-shifting in the US, but it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. 

All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Soccer – FIFA backs down on threat to fine Premier clubs who play South American players
  2. U.S. House passes abortion rights bill, outlook poor in Senate
  3. Two children killed in missile strikes on Yemen’s Marib – state news agency
  4. We’ve Breached Six Of The Nine “Planetary Boundaries” For Sustaining Human Civilization

Source Link: Why English Is Not The Official Language Of The US

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Bright Northern Lights Across America Expected This Week As 3 Coronal Mass Ejections Fly Towards Earth
  • Brain Implant Enables Paralyzed Man To Feel And Use Objects Using Someone Else’s Hands
  • “This Is A Really Big Deal”: Brain Training Significantly Improves Key Neurochemical Levels In World First
  • “Wholly Unexpected”: First-Ever Fossil Paranthropus Hand Raises Questions About Earliest Tool Makers’ Identity
  • For Centuries, Nobody Knew Why Swiss Cheese Has Holes. Then, The Mystery Was Solved.
  • Scientists Studied The Infamous “Chicago Rat Hole” And They Have Some Bad News
  • Massive 166-Million-Year-Old Sauropod Footprints Become The Longest Dinosaur Trackway In Europe
  • Do Spiders Dream? “After Watching Hundreds Of Spiders, There Is No Doubt In My Mind”
  • IFLScience Meets: ESA Astronaut Rosemary Coogan On Astronaut Training And The Future Of Space Exploration
  • What’s So Weird About The Methuselah Star, The Oldest We’ve Found In The Universe?
  • Why Does Red Wine Give Me A Headache? Many Scientists Blame It On The Grape Skins
  • Manta Rays Dive Way Deeper Than We Thought – Up To 1.2 Kilometers – To Explore The Seas
  • Prof Brian Cox Explains What He Finds “Remarkable” About Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Story
  • Pioneering “Pregnancy Test” Could Identify Hormones In Skeletons Over 1,000 Years Old
  • The First Neolithic Self-Portrait? Stony Human Face Emerges In 12,000-Year-Old Ruins At Karahan Tepe
  • Women Are Diagnosed With ADHD 5 Years Later Than Men, Even With Worse Symptoms
  • What Is Cryptozoology? We Explore The History And Mystery Of This Controversial Field
  • The Universe’s “Red Sky Paradox” Just Got Darker: Most Stars Might Never Host Observers
  • Uranus And Neptune May Not Be “Ice Giants” But The Solar System’s First “Rocky Giants”
  • COVID-19 Can Alter Sperm And Affect Brain Development In Offspring, Causing Anxious Behavior
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version