Official Language Status
The United States does not have a national official language; nevertheless, English (specifically American English) is the primary language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements; although there are laws requiring documents such as ballots to be printed in multiple languages when there are large numbers of non-English speakers in an area.
As part of what has been called the English-only movement, some states have adopted legislation granting official status to English. As of April 2011, out of 50 states, 28 had established English as the official language, including Hawaii where English and Hawaiian are both official.
Place | English official | Other language(s) | Note | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | Yes | No | since 1990 | |
Alaska | Yes | No | since 2007; 1998 law ruled unconstitutional | |
Arizona | Yes | No | since 2006; 1988 law ruled unconstitutional | |
Arkansas | Yes | No | since 1987 | |
California | Yes | No | since 1986 | |
Colorado | Yes | No | since 1988 | |
Connecticut | No | No | ||
Delaware | No | No | ||
Florida | Yes | No | since 1988 | |
Georgia | Yes | No | since 1996 | |
Hawaii | Yes | Hawaiian | since 1978 | |
Idaho | Yes | No | since 2007 | |
Illinois | Yes | No | since 1969; "American" official 1923-1969 | |
Indiana | Yes | No | since 1984 | |
Iowa | Yes | No | since 2002 | |
Kansas | Yes | No | since 2007 | |
Kentucky | Yes | No | since 1984 | |
Louisiana | No | No | ||
Maine | No | No | ||
Maryland | No | No | ||
Massachusetts | No | No | ||
Michigan | No | No | ||
Minnesota | No | No | ||
Mississippi | Yes | No | since 1987 | |
Missouri | No | No | ||
Montana | Yes | No | since 1995 | |
Nebraska | Yes | No | since 1923 | |
Nevada | No | No | ||
New Hampshire | Yes | No | since 1995 | |
New Jersey | No | No | ||
New Mexico | No | No | Spanish has had special status since 1912 passage of state constitution |
see article |
New York | No | No | ||
North Carolina | Yes | No | since 1987 | |
North Dakota | Yes | No | since 1987 | |
Ohio | No | No | ||
Oklahoma | Yes | No | since 2010 | |
Oregon | No | No | English Plus since 1989 | |
Pennsylvania | No | No | ||
Rhode Island | No | No | English Plus since 1992 | |
South Carolina | Yes | No | since 1987 | |
South Dakota | Yes | No | since 1995 | |
Tennessee | Yes | No | since 1984 | |
Texas | No | No | ||
Utah | Yes | No | since 2000 | |
Vermont | No | No | ||
Virginia | Yes | No | since 1981 | |
Washington | No | No | English Plus since 1989 | |
West Virginia | No | No | ||
Wisconsin | No | No | ||
Wyoming | Yes | No | since 1996 | |
American Samoa | Yes | Samoan | ||
District of Columbia | No | No | ||
Guam | Yes | Chamorro | ||
Northern Mariana Islands | Yes | Chamorro, Carolinian | ||
Puerto Rico | Yes | Spanish | ||
U.S. Virgin Islands | Yes | No |
Read more about this topic: Languages Of The United States
Famous quotes containing the words official, language and/or status:
“We were that generation called silent, but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the periods official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was mans fate.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)
“Theres a cool web of language winds us in,
Retreat from too much joy or too much fear:
We grow sea-green at last and coldly die
In brininess and volubility.”
—Robert Graves (18951985)
“Recent studies that have investigated maternal satisfaction have found this to be a better prediction of mother-child interaction than work status alone. More important for the overall quality of interaction with their children than simply whether the mother works or not, these studies suggest, is how satisfied the mother is with her role as worker or homemaker. Satisfied women are consistently more warm, involved, playful, stimulating and effective with their children than unsatisfied women.”
—Alison Clarke-Stewart (20th century)