ONE LANGUAGE keywords = one national language English U. S. first French Français German Deutsch Hungarian Magyar Japanese Nihongo Chinese
Updated: 08 Apr 2003, 10:00 ET
(Created 08 Apr 2003)
[Ref: This is only-one.html (URL http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/only-one.html)]

S. Berliner, III's

One National Language Page

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
"changing materials with high-intensity sound"
Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology
Rail, Auto, Air, Ordnance, and Model Enthusiast
Light-weight Linguist, Lay Minister, and Putative Philosopher

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PAGE INDEX:

ENGLISH FIRST* - English as the official (and ONLY) national language of the United States.

ONE NATIONAL LANGUAGE

This page is concerned with English as our only national language; please visit my more-general Language page and my DENGLISH - Neutered or Degenderized English page, my CULTURE page (so-called) for literature and such and my fun page for humor (again, so-called).

ENGLISH FIRST*

English is my native tongue, and my father's and his father's, although his father's father was born in Germany. Dad was given a quarter (a lot of money ca. 1910) each weekend to speak his fractured version of German to his elderly paternal grandmother. My mother was born in Hungary into an educated family, so she spoke Magyar and German equally; she also learned English beginning at around 3 years from an English governess and French shortly after from a French governess, each engaged specifically for the purpose. Eventually, my mother became a linguist, speaking at various levels of proficiency some 19 languages, counting classical Latin. As to that latter, she was truly horrified to hear my children say such things as "Awe, Kaisar" instead of "Ave, Caesar"; what could American teachers possibly know about Latin pronounciation? I learned American, English, French, Hungarian, and German nursery rhymes and songs and so have a good ear for languages; unfortunately for me, I grew up during World War II and my father, probably wisely, decreed that only English would be spoken in our home! What a missed opportunity to be raised multi-lingually!

Although by no means a died-in-the-wool conservative or reactionary (hardly!), I do support the move to make English the official (and thus only) national language of the United States of America. However, unlike the apparent-majority of those who propose such, I am 100% against doing so to the disadvantage of ethnic minorities; I propose, rather, to spend whatever it takes to educate same to read, write, and speak English well enough to assume the full responsibilities of citizenship. I further favor making such literacy in English a mandatory prerequisite for citizenship! In no way do I denigrate ethnic desire to maintain a language; I applaud the wish and the practice, but it is a private matter for such minorities, not to be mixed in with the official obligations and requirements of citizenship. Far to the contrary, I feel that, not only should ethnic groups preserve and foster their heritages, second and third languages should be mandatory for college-entrance high school programs and mandatory prerequisites for college degrees of any sort.

Having so declaimed, I applaud California's vote (ca. 03 Jun 98) on doing away with bi-lingual education and providing a year of intensive English training. It's probably politically-motivated and inadequate, but it's the right direction.

Now, at the bottom of each page, I have a little bit devoted to law enforcement and emergency personnel with which I display two current American flags, thusly:

These are the flag of a multilingual nation, torn apart by ethnic differences exascerbated by language, as is Canada; I could, instead, fly the Continental (or Grand Union) Flag of 1775, a flag of English-speaking people:

I had written "Watch here for an even better {?} suggestion to come". How about a new American flag for the 21st Century?

Here's my "English First" variation on the Continental/Grand Union flag that adds the cross of St. Patrick of the current British Union Jack to celebrate the Irish that joined with the English and Scots in founding the United States:

I never realized before but there is good precedent for using the modern Union Jack in the field, witness the flag of the State of Hawaii:

[Older and suggested newer American, and Hawaiian, flag images by,
and © 2000, S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved.]

If you enjoy this flag business (vexilology), you must visit the Old Glory segment on my History page and two fabulous flag sites I ran across:

Rob Raeside's Flags of the World,
which illustrates almost every flag you can imagine, and

Ed Mooney, Jr.'s Flag Detective,
which helps you find flags by visual categories.

* - WARNING! - The term "English First" appears to have been co-opted as a name by a far-rightist conservative group. When I first contacted a group with a similar goal, U. S. English, in 1990, it was the brain-child of the late, loving professor, Dr. S. I. Hayakawa of California, the famous linguist (no reactionary he!) and Chilean immigrant Mauro E. Mujica, an architect. While arch-conservatives have every right to their views and to control a group calling itself "English First", the movement to make English the official language of the United States of America must be free of ideological biases.

Dr. Hayakawa wrote,

"English is the key to full participation in the opportunities of American life."

An astute young Frenchman who traveled widely in the United States in the early 1830s, and whose susequent publications remain insightful and pertinent to this day, was Alexis de Tocqueville; he wrote:

"The tie of language is perhaps the strongest
and the most durable that can unite mankind."

Much later, Teddy Roosevelt wrote:

"We have room for but one loyalty,

loyalty to the United States.
We have room for but one language,

the language of the Declaration of Independence,

and the Gettysburg Speech."."

I had suggested to Dr. Hayakawa in 1990 that perhaps the movement needed a new acronym; I proposed:

ONLY

One National Language - YES!

Now (please promise not to hit me on the jaw, so that I won't bite my tongue),
I propose that all American citizens should

Speak the well English and speak it good!

I'm sorry! {No, I'm NOT!}

Should a police officer pursuing a cold-blooded killer in a face-mask have to call out,

"Stop, halt, arrêtez-vous, halto!"?

Our friendly neighbor to the north is a perfect example of why bilingualism doesn't work, even though they work hard at it (outside la belle Province de Québec, anyway). They do, however, have a beautiful old colonial flag (actually, the 1924 Red Ensign) with the Union Jack in the field, as well as a beautiful new (1965) flag with a maple leaf (their emblem dear):

I like them both; each has its merits and drawbacks (and the generation outraged by, or inordinately pleased with, the newer maple leaf flag is fast dwindling away).

May I also recommend for your amusement Paul Jarvis and Garrett Thomson's pseudodictionary?

And there's always my own Zictionary, a glossary of wordZ in Z-scale (1:220).

THUMBS UP!

THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!

S. Berliner, III

To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.

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