What’s the Official Language of the United States?
Do you know what the official national language of the United States is?
There is none.
That’s right. We have no official national language.
Now some folks have told me in the past, “Well, English is the unofficial national language.”
Right, so that means it’s not the official national language. And, yes, it’s true that some 78 percent of the U.S. population do exclusively speak English at home. About 230 million people. Impressive! So, admittedly, that does make English the sort of de facto national language of these quasi-United States. But it’s not the official national language.
Because we don’t have one. Never have.
That hasn’t stopped some people from trying to make English the official language. In fact, you know how we sometimes joke about certain folks insisting upon others speaking “American”? Well, Illinois once codified that. That’s right: From 1923 to 1969, Illinois actually declared its official language to be, ah, “American.” Sarah Palin once exhorted immigrants to speak “American,” too.
Historically, though, there’s long been a movement to make English our official language. It just keeps failing. In the 1750s, Philadelphians fought over keeping both English and German on street signs to…
