English Should Be America’s Official Language

The English language is common in many places on the world. It is divided into three periods, which were called Old English, Middle English and Modern English. According to some research about history of languages, the earliest of the periods, the Old English, took form from the Viking invaders that was Old Norse and the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class. In 1066, the vocabulary and the grammar of English were impacted tremendously. The twelfth century through the fifteenth was the period of Middle English. (“What Are The Origins Of The English Language?”) During this time, the influence of French and Latin had changed the phonological and grammatical systems of the English language. The last period of English is Modern English. It extends from sixteenth century to today. In earlier of this period, Modern English had completed a revolution in the phonology that organized the vowels to be similar to the present pattern. Thus, because of inclusion the abundant vocabulary, which was from Latin and a little bit of Greek, and the contact and development of English, English should be America’s official language admittedly.  Some people believe that language is uncontrollable, and it is impossible to make a language such as English to be an official language. However, there are three reasons that English should be America’s official language: English is a versatile language, it is the language of several of the world’s most powerful countries, and it is the unofficial language of the internet.

            The versatility of English is one of the reason why English should become official language. Some people claim that the first amendment should prevent America from having an official language. America is one of the countries is multinational country where people from many different countries on the world come, live and work. In 1997, following to some statistics show that the historical linguist Robert D King noted that 94 percent of people in the United States speak English willingly. Following the First Amendment to the United States Constitution: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances’. Because of that, in a freedom of speech country, it is no reason to have an official language. It is unnecessary to make English to be an official language. On the other hand, English should be adjusted to be America’s official language because it is a combination of the world’s languages as French, Latin and Greek. The change about phonology and grammar of English has combined the other languages to be English. Maybe because of that, English has versatility and sophistication. In English, we can say the same thing in many different ways. It depends on the vocabularies, which are slang, formal or informal words, and conversational English. For example, the word “nebulous”, “He gave a nebulous answer that made the asker felt uncomfortable.” we can also say: “His answer was unclear that made the asker felt uncomfortable.”, or “the answer is indefinite that made the asker felt uncomfortable.” Thus, English should become the official language because of its worldliness and versatility.

            English is the language of the most powerful countries on the world is the second reason why English should be America’s official language. There are approximately more than fifty English speaking countries on the world. English is spoken in North America and Europe. Among them, there are a lot of powerful countries, which are the balance of the economy of the world such as United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, etc. Therefore, English today is the Business and Finance language of the world. Businessmen use English as the national language of communication. According Kenneth Blackwell, who is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, a Christian pro-family group, and at the Buckeye Institute, a free-market policy organization, Blackwell asserted that English is a language of business and government, so people who want to participate in either that is necessary to know English well and very well.

            The last reason why English should be America’s official language is that it is the language of the Internet. According the Internet World Starts Website, English is 29.5 percent of the ten most popular languages on the Internet, which are English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Portuguese, Korean, Italian, and Arabic (“1st Century” 392). It’s estimated that more than half of the entire online material is published in English. If people want to have opportunities of good jobs in international area, it is necessary to be able to speak English well and very well because of the abundant knowledge and information by English. Blackwell also declared: “If you care about a child in America today, then you want that child to be able to speak English.” because English is the Internet’s language- the information language.

            Even though language is difficult to control, having an official language is necessary for America. When people speak one language, people communicate and understand each other better. They also have more opportunities of international jobs because America is seemed as a balance economy of the world because of having many powerful international companies such as Boeing, Dell, Apple, etc. On the other hand, being able to speak English is especially necessary for people’s opportunities of works because English is versatile, the speaking of many powerful countries which hold the business area, and the information language of the world.