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  • The English Language Unity Act: Big government that only a tea partier could love

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s-mufwene@uchicago.edu Sep 23, 2010 4:58 pm

I think this article states some inaccuracy about the immigration status of English in England, unless locally born children should continue to be treated unjustly as second-generation immigrants. The Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic tribes who colonized England in the 5th century did not speak English yet, though the language is associated etymologically with the Angles. English was born in England and is as English by birth as, say, Gullah is American by birth. It is as indigenous to England as the Celtic languages it has displaced or marginalized, though it is an indigenized immigrant to, or naturalized citizen of, Ireland.Salikoko S. Mufwene

Reply to s-mufwene@uchicago.edu at 4:58 pm
pkeditor@aol.com Sep 23, 2010 5:53 pm

As the grandson of a butcher who conducted all his business in Yiddish, and as a resident on a city block with neighbors from 15 countries, I find the notion of an "English-only" America absurd, impractical, prejudices and downright ignorant. I suggest that the Tea Partiers look at their own ancestry, and ask themselves what languages were spoken by the first of their families on American soil.

Reply to pkeditor@aol.com at 5:53 pm