On Thu, Sep 20, 2018 at 9:55 AM André Pirard <a.pirard.pa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Belgium speaks 3 official languages and their very official borders *have > been* mapped. > This subject was presented several times on this list and "raised" a total > lack of interest. > Especially regarding the need to define a language boundary type. > The most similar country regarding languages is Switzerland. > But they did not care to define borders, AFAIK. > Same for USA, Canada, etc. > "Did not care to define" is an odd way of putting it. USA cannot map official language borders because USA has no official language or languages. The majority language is, obviously, US English, but there is no legislation making it official nor requiring government business to be transacted in English. We also have a long and ugly history of nationalists suppressing minority languages, but generally speaking, the laws that the nationalists claim to be enforcing do not exist. "English as official language" legislation has been introduced in virtually every session of the Congress, and has never passed. The movement to make English official goes all the way back to 1780, even before the war of American independence was concluded. I suppose one could tag 'official languages' of US jurisdictions that sort of have them. Until recently, California and Massachusetts had laws on the books requiring public schools to teach classes only in English. (Arizona still does, but California and Massachusetts repealed their laws in the last couple of years and have reinstated bilingual education.) Dade County, Florida had a well-publicized local law that forbade transportation signage in any language but English, requiring Spanish-language signs to be taken down. About half the states have laws requiring that the edicts of government must be published in English (but not requiring that it be used to the exclusion of other languages). Nebraska's legislation after the First World War had the effect, briefly, of banning all foreign-language instruction in the state's schools (and Heaven help those who wished to prepare for travel abroad!). It is true that in the US, one can expect to find street signs in English (augmented possibly with one or more minority languages), but that is usually a matter of practicality rather than formal policy. I suppose that one could also, as an example, draw an official language border around the Navajo Nation and indicate that Diné bizaad and Spanish, as well as English, are official languages of its government, but that again opens the whole debate about how to domestic dependent nations, and it is accurate to state that I don't care to reopen that debate today. Best regards / meilleurs voeux / (sorry, I don't speak Flemish) Kevin
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