Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:

> Would the Americans here be offended if I stated that there seems to be a
> considerable sentiment of "linguaphobia" in American society?
It is the truth, alas.

> What do you think of it?
Well, I think it is a relic of barbarism.

>  It just seems pretty
> extreme to me, no, actually quite _disgusting_, to expel a person for
> speaking a foreign language (out of necessity too).
Just so, although it is mild compared to some of what has taken place in
schools: people have had boards hung around their necks or even been beaten
for speaking their own languages, particularly Native American langs,
even outside of class!  From the 1930s to the 1970s it was policy to discourage
the speaking of Native languages, and children were moved thousands of miles
to restrictive boarding schools to achieve this end.

One school system in Missouri even decided that everyone who didn't speak
English like (white) Missourians had a speech defect, and needed remedial
therapy.

> I mean, isn't that an
> outright violation of American law (e.g. the oft-quoted "freedom of speech"
> article)?
Yes.  In 1917 laws were passed in certain places forbidding the teaching,
and even the speaking or publishing, of German, as a consequence of chauvinism
stirred up by World War I; these were quickly found unconstitutional, but they
*were* passed.

In defense of my country (as a whole), it's a big place, and has a great deal
of decentralization and always has had, especially in matters of education.
Inevitably there will be parts of the country where yahoos are in the majority
and reign supreme.

My favorite horror story: my wife was actually taught, by people
claiming to be teachers, that the standard abbreviation "A.D." after dates
(< Latin "anno Domini") stood for "After Death [of Christ]" although the whole
system is based on the supposed year of Christ's *birth*, not his death.

--

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)