On Making American English the Official Language of the United States

Recent items in the news make this statement topical.

I should like to see an amendment stating that American English is the official language of the United States, the only one to be used in the transaction of all public affairs, including voting. My reasons are as follows:

Language is one of the fundamental bonds by which a people is held together. It is essential to the maintenance of internal peace and external unity. In a democracy particularly, it permits debate in which all can take part, understand what and whom they vote for, reach fair and fruitful decisions.

Making American English official deprives no one of any right to use and enjoy the elements of his or her ethnic heritage; and for those same individuals, the use of the official language opens the way to the highest positions in the land.

In countries where linguistic unity has broken down, hostility, prejudice, and resentment persist and even worsen, despite the adoption of two official languages. With our cultural pluralism, how many languages would have to become official after a second one had been chosen?

— Jacques Barzun, responding to an American Heritage Magazine survey on the U. S. Constitution, May/June 1987