Date:  Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:48:27 -0400
<br>From:  "M. Lynne Murphy"  104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA 
<br>Subject: official english
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<br>in case you haven't seen this...
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<br>lynne
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<br>------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
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<br>From:      daily[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]chronicle.com
<br>Date sent:   Thu, 10 Apr 1997 08:00:00 EDT
<br>To:       daily[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]chronicle.com
<br>Subject:    4/10/97 Daily Report from ACADEME TODAY
<br>
<br>Academe Today's DAILY REPORT
<br>for subscribers of The Chronicle of Higher Education
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<br>MAGAZINES & JOURNALS
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<br>A glance at the April issue of "The Atlantic Monthly": Is
<br>"official English" a threat to U.S. unity?
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<br>For centuries, countries around the world have been divided over
<br>the disparate languages spoken by their citizens. Language as a
<br>divisive social and political force is a concept alien to
<br>Americans, but is that changing? asks Robert D. King, a
<br>linguistics professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In
<br>spite of many state and local laws designating English as the
<br>"official language," and despite the conservative "English Only"
<br>movement, "America is not threatened by language," Dr. King
<br> writes. Language is a potentially explosive issue in countries
<br>like Canada and Belgium because it is the defining
<br>characteristic of nationality, he writes. But countries such as
<br>Switzerland, which has four official languages, and India, which
<br>recognizes 19, are not divided over language because they have
<br>strong national identities, Dr. King writes. In the United
<br>States, issues such as immigration, the rights of minority
<br>groups, and bilingual education fuel the English Only movement.
<br>"I suggest that we relax and luxuriate in our linguistic
<br>richness and our traditional tolerance of language differences,"
<br>he writes. "Benign neglect is a good policy for any country when
<br>it comes to language, and it's a good policy for America." (The
<br>magazine may be found at your library or newsstand.)
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