The fastest way to destroy America: Add multiple languages in order to fracture the nation’s citizens into tense, confused and separate groups that can’t understand each other. (Frosty Wooldridge)

Does America have a national language? Legally no, but English is the de facto national language. “Although 14 percent of Americans speak a language other than English at home, 98% of Americans speak English very well or well,” (Demographics, National Journal, May 1, 1993, p. 1058).

English is the language of the White House, of the Senate and the Congress; it is the official language in most states. The government business is mostly conducted in English. It is the language of science. For all practical purposes, it is the national language, yet, at the same time, it is officially not.

In the light of the ongoing discussions of the ways and means to curb and control the illegal immigration from the southern porous borders, Senator Inhofe introduced an amendment in the Senate to designate English as the national language. It included the language “to require illegal immigrants to learn American history and English before being put on a path to possible citizenship,” (News, RockyMountain.com, May 19, 2006). The amendment passed by a vote of 63-34.

However, shortly afterwards, “the Senate also voted 58-39 to approve an amendment by (Senator) Salazar to recognize English not as an official language but as the country’s ‘common and unifying language,’” (News, RockyMountain).

Thus the status of English remains the same as it was before these two amendments. Although the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and all the constitutional amendments are written in English, the Founding Fathers chose not to declare English as the national language. The American nation consists of immigrants from many diverse countries of the world. For fear of imposing any specific language and the associated culture on the diversity of the American population, the question of a national language is left in limbo. Still, many believe that a single national language will help bind and unify the nation more intimately.

While in many countries of the world, a national language is perceived to be crucially important (it is considered as the emblem of the national culture), it however has been played down in the multicultural milieu of the United States. East Pakistan broke away from Pakistan and one of the prominent reasons of its secession was the language. The East Pakistanis wouldn’t accept Urdu as the national language; they preferred their native language, Bengali. In south India, there was (and probably still is) bitterness among many people regarding Hindi. Hindi is the de facto national language although officially, English is its national language. The south Indians declared that they were Indians and not Hindians.

Although John Adams wrote to the President of Congress in 1780 suggesting that Americans should “force their language into general use,” the Founding Fathers were reluctant to adopt it as the national language after fighting a war of liberation with the British. They also were reluctant to accept any other language as the national language of the republic.

According to English Language Political Action Committee, “On January 13, 1795, the U.S. House of Representatives defeated a bill to print 3,000 sets of the federal laws in German for the accommodation of such German citizens of the United States, as do not understand the English language. The decision vote against bilingual publication was cast by the first Speaker of the House, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, a German-American from Pennsylvania, then the state with the largest German population.” And this ambivalence continues to this day.

President Bush seems to support bilingualism although it is not clear which language other than English he wants to be learned as the second language. Explaining his position, his new press secretary, Tony Snow, said, “What the president has said all along is that he wants to make sure that people who become American citizens have a command of the English language. It’s as simple as that.”

Bush’s Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales said, “The president has never supported making English the national language…I don’t see the need to have legislation or a law that says English is going to be the national language.”

It seems that Inhofe’s amendment was precipitated by the ongoing discussions on illegal immigration. There were demands in some quarters for singing the national anthem in Spanish. There are initiatives also for legislating Spanish as the second national language. Does it imply that English is the first national language?

The situation remains as vague as ever. President Bush in his enthusiasm to defeat terrorism likes to broaden the American perspective on languages. In his remarks at U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education (January 5, 2006), he said, “We’re going to teach our kids how to speak important languages. We’ll welcome teachers here to help teach our kids how to speak languages. But we’re also going to advance America’s interests around the world and defeat this notion about our – you know, our bullying concept of freedom by letting people see what we’re about. Let them see first hand the decency of this country.” He also remarked, “In order for this country to be able to convince others, people have got to be able to see our true worth in our heart. And when Americans learn to speak a language, learn to speak Arabic, those in the Arabic region will say, gosh, America is interested in us. They care enough to learn how we speak.”

This seems to border on simplistic idealism but these are the president’s words.

Before the vote on Salazar’s amendment, Inhofe said, “You can’t have it both ways.” Many including the White House seem to have it both ways. If a language is indeed symptomatic of a culture, America remains multi-culturist in every which way.