Why isn't English the official language of the United States?

Answer 1

Because it has never been passed by congress to make English the official language. In the 1780's there was a bill to do this but because of the German speaking population it did not pass. In fact by a 1 vote margin German failed to become the second language of America.

All laws are written in English (other that Latin phrases) and some states require other languages be used as well.

Answer 2

Those people who posted that English is the official language of the United States are wrong. There is, as yet, no OFFICIAL language in the U.S. However...

"Although the United States currently has no official language, English has long been the de facto national language. English is spoken by about 82% of the population as a native language and nearly everyone in the United States uses it as a daily language. On May 18, 2006 the Senate voted on an amendment to an immigration reform bill that would declare English the national language of the United States. The immigration reform bill itself, S. 2611, was passed in the Senate on May 25, 2006, and now has to go back to the House of Representatives in conference to make sure amendments are agreed upon."

I'm not sure how current this article is, but if you want to read the rest of it, follow the link below.

Answer 3

Not sure, but in the countries I've lived in (Canada and Switzerland), the point of having official languages was more to guarantee the rights of the speakers of the second (third, fourth) langauge(s) than to solidy those of the speakers of the main language.

I think France has French as an official language--I gather that was originally meant to increase nationalism by minimizing regional dialects/languages. Not sure if Germany has an official language but it would have been for the same reason. I can't think of any country that has declared an official language in order to discourage or disempower immigrants (although that may well be a by-product in some cases).

Answer 4

English is already the language of power in the United States. There's no need to make that official.

Answer 5

Does it really matter, English is the major language anyway. It won't change your life that much, if at all.

And if you are talking about having to press "1" when getting something over the phone, making English the official language won't stop that. The businesses choose to do that because they are going after the money that immigrants (both legal and illegal) have. Officially calling English the official language won't stop the businesses from trying to make money off of anyone that will buy from them.

Besides, it helps the economy. Those immigrants spend money here, which puts the money they got paid back into the economy. And more importantly into businesses that are staffed by Americans. Those businesses then try to sell more, and to do that they need more products made, so more Americans get a job because they went after the rather large amount of money available from the immigrants (which goes to the businesses because the immigrants are trying to feed and clothe and shelter themselves and their children, and Americans provide that for them, but for a fee). I understand what you've been told, but because you fell for what a few racists told you (and I'm not calling you a racist, just that you care about the economy and a few racists took advantage of that to convince you getting rid of immigrants is the way to fix it) you are on the edge of destroying a large part of the American economy.

Answer 6

It is and always will be, it's just that Americans cater to and feel sorry for non english speaking people, so now they want us to speak there language. I personally think it has a lot to do with the christian moral order, see I think the christians run our government and they are the pathetic people who are making this country what it is, I think all of us who speak english and are non christian need to pack up and move from this country before it goes to hell.

Answer 7

English must be the respected language of u.s.. Spanish ought to in no way be the respected language!!!!!!!!! i do no longer care that many people talk Spanish. This has been an English conversing u . s . a . with the aid of fact it grew to grow to be a rustic. it particularly is insulting to even evaluate Spanish as an respected language!

Answer 8

because it's not written in the constitution, besides German could have become the official language

Answer 9

Unfortunately, it is not and never was. It was recently on the agenda when they were trying to update the immigration laws. It did not get passed. We are too politically correct and may upset some poor foreigner....

Answer 10

Maybe they felt it was a given so they left out declaring it.

Here's a couple things I found on the topic.
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20011107.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html