Why doesn't the United States have an official language in the first place?

Question

-why didn't they simply make English as its official language during its early days?

Answer 1

At the time of the formation of the United States, the notion of "official language" was completely unknown in the world. No country had "laws" to declare an official language because almost all countries were monarchies, where the king decided what to do. If the king spoke French then everyone around him spoke French. "Official language" laws were irrelevent and not needed. All the founding fathers spoke English and English was the language of the streets, so they didn't even think about people in the United States speaking anything else. Not one single moment of their time was wasted in talking about "official language". (The story that German was considered is a complete fairy tale.) In addition, the notion of an "official language" would have been against one of the fundamental principles on which this country was founded--individual freedom. People in the U.S. still speak English. It's not official, but since nearly everything is done in English, it's just silly paranoid fear that drives people to think they need laws to "protect" it. That's like writing a law protecting the 200-pound, six-foot tall bully on the kindergarten playground.

LATER EDIT: German was NEVER considered as a national language for the United States. That is German propoganda and not based in fact. The founding fathers spent not a single breath on the issue. English was the language of everyone and no one even considered changing it or having to make it official.

Answer 2

Because everybody spoke English at that time so they need not.
The need to choice an official language arises when many minor languages are spoken asides the main one.
Not the case of USA in those times

Answer 3

The US was a hodge podge of languages when it formed, but English was the language of commerce and law. It naturally evolved as the dominate language. They did not make it law because the idea was that the natural supremacy would keep English from being taken down as the standard, and to keep individual freedom.

However, times have changed, and more and more Latinos are moving here and not learning English.

Answer 4

English is the official language of the United States. It was voted on and English was the first with German taking a close second.

Answer 5

In u.s., English is the unoffical good language. Making it good might basically be a formality and would not exchange something, via fact there'll basically in no way be a majority of persons from one u . s . a . or one race in u.s. that talk a language different than English.

Answer 6

I heard from several Germans that their language was considered for the official language of the US but one vote prevented that from happening. They learned that in their schools. The founders of this country not only wanted to break away from England but they wanted just about everything to be the opposite from that country, too. That's why we drive on the side of the road we do and why our racetracks go in the opposite direction than theirs. That's also why many words are spelled differently and why they often are pronounced differently.

Answer 7

The short answer is, because it's a free country, or used to be anyway. In a free country it's none of the government's business what language you want to speak in.

Answer 8

As far as i know English is the official language in the U.S.

Answer 9

Perhaps they didn't forsee that some people would hate immigrants so much

Answer 10

Study history...