Subject: sum : banned german , " english only "

content - length : 12420 a few weeks ago i posted part of some correspondence i received about the banning of german in iowa during wwi . because the responses brought up the matter of " english only " or " official english " ( depending on one 's leanings ) i posted a further query as to whether anyone knew of any recently proposed law in the us that would out and out ban languages other than english . first i ' ll thank everybody , then i ' ll summarize the german ban , then official english . thanks to : seegmiller @ apollo . montclair . edu ( steve seegmiller ) fanshen @ datalab2 . sbs . sunysb . edu ( frank anshen ) kiel @ u-aizu . ac . jp ( kiel t . christianson ) kyeager @ prism . nmt . edu ( deborah yeager ) rwachal @ black . weeg . uiowa . edu ( bob wachal ) smburt @ heartland . bradley . edu ( susan burt ) m200754 @ er . uqam . ca ( michel platt ) ligo523 @ utxvms . cc . utexas . edu ( keith walters ) cnelson @ vm . cc . purdue . edu ( dr . christian k . nelson ) niewboer @ let . rug . nl ( r . nieuweboer ) ffgbc @ aurora . alaska . edu ( cooper gordon b ) anfallen @ ursula . uoregon . edu ( anthea fallen - bailey ) banned german : the original quote i posted ran thus : ) here in iowa where i grew up most household language was a ) foreign language the early part of this century . the public ) schools were english of course . my uncle went to a local ) " german " school which was a parochial school . it was ) necessary because all the german lutheran church liturgy and ) bibles were in luther 's german so the plattdeutsch speaking ) people had to go to school to learn it . world war i ended that . ) the iowa governor issued a proclamation banning the ) speaking of any foreign language in public places . phone ) operators were ) instructed to pull the plug on anynon english ) telephone conversations . party line patrons were to hold the ) telephone receiver up to the mouth piece so the resulting ) whistling would interfere with non english speech . all modern ) language instruction was dropped from school curriculums . a ) blow from which the school system never really recovered . ) newspapers published reports of people arrested on the ) street for speaking german . this was a real hardship on older ) immigrants . all german language newspapers were ) suppressed . our rural county had german papers at one time . ) in fact the editor of one was once elected the county ) treasurer . this day and age it is all somewhat embarrassing . i ) stumbled on to the fact that the state of iowa organized what ) amounted to a secret police agency . the state formed an ) agency whose purpose was to investigate acts of disloyalty . ) they were given the power to levy fines and imprison people ) for the duration of the war without benefit of trial . america 's ) active participation was relatively short lived so the agency ) was not around long . it would make an interesting research ) paper sometime if any records still exist . i got many confirmations that this actually happened , and not only in iowa . references : philip e . webber ( 1993 ) . kolonie - deutsch : life and language in amana . ames : iowa state university press . birgit mertens ( 1994 ) . vom ( nieder - ) deutschen zum englischen : untersuchungen zur sprachlichen assimilation einer laendlichen gemeinde im mittleren westen amerikas . heidelberg : universitaets - verlag c . winter . heinz kloss 's _ the american bilingual tradition _ . baron , denis . 1990 . * * the english - only question : an official language for americans ? * * new haven , connecticut : yale university press . kloss , heinz . 1966 . " german - american language maintenance efforts " . * * language loyalty in the united states * * , edited by j . a . fishman , 206-252 . london , england : mouton & co . liebowicz , joseph . 1985 . " official english : another americanization program ? " * * language loyalties : a source book on the official english controversy * * , edited by james crawford , 101-111 . chicago : university press of chicago . deborah yeager : ) bad news : it definitely happened . most of the laws passed ) against the use and instruction of german were at the very ) end of the war and so came into force _ between _ world wars . > iowa was not the only state . i can't answer to the behavior of ) telephone operators and people on partylines , but i do know ) that teaching german was banned not only in the schools , ) but also on school property after hours , where church groups ) had often held classes . rogier nieuweboer : ) i cannot answer your question on a ban on german in iowa , ) but in fact , in 1914 the canadian authorities issued such a ) ban on german ( which was used in mennonite and many other ) schools ) . this was the reason why many mennonites emigrated > to mexico . anthea fallen - bailey : ) i wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on the subject of ) language histories in the u . s . i include below a pertinent ) paragraph from that work : ) the most severe blow to german language and culture ) maintenance in the u . s . came with world war i when . . . ) " hyphenated americans " were forced to chose between their ) ethnicity and the u . s . nation , despite the fact that the ) majority of german - americans favored neutrality ( kloss ) 1966 ) . the german language in the u . s . has never since ) recovered . from 1917 , when the u . s . joined the war , german ) was banned in private and public schools , in meetings , in ) religious services and even over the telephone ( baron 1990 : ) 111 ) . national organizations disbanded , german music was ) neither playe nor sold , and restaurants changed the names of ) german dishes : " sauerkraut " became " liberty cabbage " ; ) " german fried potatoes " became " american fries " ; and ) " hamburger " became " salisbury steak " ( ibid : 109 ) . in short , ) " german was specifically targeted as an enemy language to be > rooted out " . between 1918 and 1923 many states passed ) anti - german legislations ; two states - - nebraska and ) illinois - - passed english - only constitutional amendments in > 1920 and 1923 respectively ( ibid . : 109 ) . by 1923 thirty-four ) states had passed english - only laws relating to the language ) of instruction in schools ( leibowicz 1985 ) . ohio , which had ) previously supported german instruction in schools , passed a ) law in 1919 rejecting german altogether . ) a footnote here : the ohio 1919 law was eventually struck ) down by the u . s . supreme court via the 1923 case of meyer v . ) nebraska ( very famous case in language circles ) . english " only " some of the things discussed brought up some interesting questions , which i ' ll treat after a couple of quotations . steve seegmiller : ) it may be an unfortunate or misleading choice of terms , but ) " english only " does n't mean banning other languages entirely ; ) it means requiring the use of english exclusively for official ) purposes . that presumably includes governmental functions , ) education , and so forth , but not non-official uses . ) at last count , at least seventeen states had adopted such ) english only laws , and several more are in the works . not one ) of them proposes banning other languages . susan burt : ) karen l . adams and daniel t . brink ( eds ) in their * ) perspectives on official english * ( mouton . 1990 ) have an ) appendix of texts of various language legislation . ) the legislature of arizona attempted an amendment to the ) state constitution which included : ) this state and all political subdivisions of this state shall ) act in english and in no other language . ) no entity to which this article applies shall make or enforce ) a law , order , decree or policy which requires the use of a ) language other than english . ) no govermental document shall be valid , effective or ) enforceable unless it is in the english language . ) there follows a list of circumstances in which the use of ) other languages is exlicitly allowed . ) i think the arizona law was considered one of the most ) restrictive , and i think it was somehow found invalid - - or ) maybe it did n't pass in the first place - - i forget . anyway , ) even it did not " ban " other languages in private contexts . christian k . nelson referred to some research on voters ' opinions on official english laws , and while i find his conclusions hyperbolic , i think his comments are nonetheless worth reading : ) [ i ] was reminded of research reported in a course i took with ) an anthropological linguist ( now at san diego ? ) : katherine ) woolard . she mentioned that in the california " official ) english " push not only were many hispanics in favor of the ) proposed legislation , but so were many supposed liberals in ) the san francisco area . she was doing an analysis of ) discourse in which such liberals justified their positions , ) showing that they were based on hidden assumptions that ) actually ran counter to their claimed liberal beliefs . all this ) points up the fact that oppressed people , with the help of ) their well-meaning supporters , often participate in their own ) oppression . indeed , historical examples indicate that such is ) true even to the point that oppressed groups help organize ) extermination of their own members for oppressing groups . ) so , the results of the polls you cite are not so transparently ) meaningful . a respondent or two drew conclusions from the oft-mentioned hysterical tone of the fundraising materials put out by the " official english " movement . my own thoughts on that , as sent to one respondent : on tue , 13 jun 1995 jpkirchner @ aol . com wrote : ) i ' m convinced there is a certain style to fundraising letters ) that crosses the political spectrum , especially since a lot of ) organizations certainly have their letters written by direct ) marketing agencies that are probably not affiliated with any ) particular persuasion . i get such letters from political ) campaigns on the left , right , and in between , including the ) democratic party , and i see absolutely the same nauseatingly > hysterical , hateful style in all of them , as if they were ) written by the same hand . ( which they sometimes may ) have been . ) in one letter , the boogie man is " liberals who ) want to take away your freedom , " in another it 's " advocates ) for the rich who want to make you homeless , " in another it 's ) immigrants , in a third it 's jingoists . the common ) denominator is always the angry , hateful tone they ' re ) written in . having worked at an ad agency , i know that the ) people in them know their targets , and just how to caress ) them or zing their fillings to get them to act . it has to be an ) established fundraising technique . this whole issue seems to me to be a mix of radical hysteria on both sides , mixed with legitimate questions , which neither side appears willing to address . since linguists , to my experience , are generally terrific at preaching linguistic tolerance , but do n't often deal with pragmatic questions that do n't affect them personally , i ' ll annoy you all with a few questions brought up by non-linguists i know . these people are neither radical conservatives , nor bothered by the use of other languages or dialects in their presence . 1 . how come in us regions where other foreign language groups outnumber hispanics , are safety warnings and federal signage are still only posted in spanish and english ? 2 . a manager , who had previously not minded foreign languages being spoken in the office , is suddenly noticing a lot of discord , backbiting and insubordination among the employees . these are hard enough to quell when everyone is speaking english , but it 's even harder for this manager to monitor what 's happening , because it 's all going on in a foreign language . does the manager a . ) sign up for a beginning language course , b . ) quit the job and give it to someone fluent in the other language , c . ) recruit some of the employees as " spies " , d . ) mandate english , e . ) other _ _ _ _ _ ? if the manager mandates english , will it qualify as linguistic intolerance in this case ? 3 . why should a child who speaks black american english be accommodated in the classroom by court order , while an appalachian kid gets forced to learn ( later changed to " gets the benefit of learning " ) the standard dialect ( i . e . , in addition to his or her own ) ? 4 . " the typists in our company are so incompetent at standard english that even a simple business letter takes them at five drafts , and one whole day , to get into acceptable form . it always comes out in their dialect , and it 's much easier for everybody to do their own typing . why can't they give these people english tests ? " these are linguistic and political questions to these people , to which i have no ready answers . what do other linguists say ? james kirchner
