Reply from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver concerning OrphanWorksActof 2008

[Monty J. Harder]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 1:26 AM, Luke -Jr <luke at dashjr.org> wrote:

>
> Get over it. Nothing illegal about not knowing English. Nor about not
> caring.
> English is one of the hardest languages to learn, and since the US has no
> official language, there is really no reason to learn it if they can get by
> fine without it.


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.

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.
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