<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 1:26 AM, Luke -Jr <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:luke@dashjr.org">luke@dashjr.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
</div>Get over it. Nothing illegal about not knowing English. Nor about not caring.<br>
English is one of the hardest languages to learn, and since the US has no<br>
official language, there is really no reason to learn it if they can get by<br>
fine without it.</blockquote></div><br>English spelling and pronunciation are really tough to learn, as are some of the finer points of grammar (such as the Subjunctive). This can be observed by a casual perusal of the average email Inbox. But a basic working vocabulary (sufficient to comunicate with the average native speaker) is easier to acquire in English than most other languages, and its Indicative and Imperative moods are quite simple as compared to its nearest linguistic neighbors (German, Dutch, French). Both of these facts result from the influences of other languages -- the grammar of English had to be simpler to allow the King and his noblemen (who spoke Norman French as their first language) to communicate with their Anglo-Saxon subjects. In the process, we picked up a lot of French loanwords, adding to the contributions of the Romans who ruled centuries before. As a result, some linguists consider English to be a member of both the Germanic and Romance families, or at least their bastard child.<br>
<br>I submit that the US ("federal" government) implicitly has an official language. The Colonial charters granted by the British government were written in English. The founding document of the country, the Declaration of Independence from that British government, was written in English, as were both the original Articles of Confederation and the Constitution that replaced it, every law that has ever been enacted by Congress, every executive order of every President, every regulation promulgated by executive agencies as authorized by those laws and executive orders, every opinion of the Supreme Court, and every decision, order, and warrant issued by the inferior courts of the United States. <br>
<br><br><br></div>