Twenty-Eighth Edition - The Politics of Bilingualism

Preserving and safeguarding the integrity of our mother tongue appeals to our sense of national pride. One has only to recall the extent to which France has fought against the infiltration of English into the French lexicon. In 1994, France enacted the Toubon law, which specifies that French should be used in all aspects of supplying goods and services in France. The law would impose hefty fines on businesses using English in their advertising or slogans. More recently, in an effort to safeguard the mother tongue from the Anglophone Internet, the current French Culture Ministry announced a ban on the use of term e-mail in all government ministries, documents, publications or websites. The accepted term for e-mail in France is courriel.

The Anglophone Internet has added Anglicisms not only to French, but also to other languages, such as Spanish; for example cliquear or haga clic (for click) are often used in Spanish language websites.

The French Culture Ministry may be fighting a losing battle. People begin using new terms and many of them seem to find their way into the dictionary eventually. As a matter of fact, France bears some responsibility for the large number of Francophone terms that have been adopted and adapted into other languages; technology terms, such as television (from the: French télévision, from télé- tele- + vision vision, - 1907), aviation (French etymology, from the Latin avis – 1866) and several terms related to diplomacy, such as diplomat (French diplomate, back-formation from diplomatique – 1813. (References: Merriam Webster Dictionary.)

Bilingualism is a controversial subject in the United States. While some colleges and universities have a second or foreign language requirement for graduation, California, on the other hand, passed Proposition 227 in 1998 and ended bilingual education, immersing one million Spanish-speaking students in English-only instruction. Proponents of Prop 227 are of the opinion that this was the right decision and refer to improved scores in reading comprehension as evidence of its success. Opponents point out that well-organized bilingual education is successful in many of the world’s countries, as demonstrated by the scores of international students that come to the United States to attend-ranked U.S. colleges and universities.

Nevertheless, California and other areas of the U.S. are becoming increasingly multilingual, due to a constant influx of immigrants and the growth of the Hispanic population. Various Government agencies, public utilities, elected officials, and those who would be elected, publish bilingual information in documents and websites. Some of these are the Internal Revenue Service, Southern California Edison (with a four language website) and Cingular Wireless. The City of Anaheim distributes their Water Quality Report and various other informative brochures in English and Spanish. California voter registration forms are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Tagalog.

Other countries have been dealing with complex linguistic issues for many decades. Belgium, for example has had to grapple with the fact that forty percent its ten million inhabitants speak French, the official language, while sixty percent speak Dutch and about 70 thousand speak German. Belgium’s Language Law, enacted July 30 of 1963, decreed that the language used in the Belgian education system should be Dutch in the Dutch-speaking area, French in the French-speaking area and German in the German-speaking area. For the capital, Brussels, the same law established that the head of the family would make the decision regarding the language of education. The choices are French or Dutch.

Canada’s linguistic history has been quite volatile. In the 1960’s the Government responded to the growing unrest in Quebec by appointing the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. In 1965, this Commission brought attention to the fact that Canada faced a serious crisis and blamed the Government for its failure to protect the equal rights of French Canadians. The Commission’s final report included one hundred recommendations that formed the basis of the 1969 Official Languages Act, enacted to promote bilingualism across Canada. The law establishes that English and French are Canada’s official languages and establishes that both languages will be used in federal institutions and Crown Corporations. Since this law was enacted, Federal services in Canada are available in English and French in Ottawa, public signs on federal offices are bilingual and Federal Court decisions are published in both languages. In 1974, the Canadian Government introduced the Consumer Packaging and Labeling Act, requiring English and French labeling on consumer products.

In addition to the traditionally bilingual countries, like Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, to name a few, most of the world’s countries may be considered bilingual to varying degrees, with international English as their second language. In fact, in multilingual Switzerland, there has been a discussion over the last few years about whether to consider English, not only an international, but also an intranational language, since French and German speakers within Switzerland frequently use English to communicate with each other. However, in a close vote, the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Directors of State Education decided in favor of giving preference to the national languages (French, Italian and German) over English. In Zurich, however, English has replaced French as the second language of school education.

Belgium, Switzerland, Canada are just some examples of countries where different languages have reached a pact of peaceful and beneficial co-existence. The countries where bilingualism is encouraged are too numerous to list, but many of their citizens can be found roaming the Internet, in two or more languages on a daily basis.

References: Merriam Webster Dictionary,  http://www.lemondebilingue.asso.fr/overview.html;http://www.euroclic.net/english/bulletin/bulletin5/5.htm.

Spanish in the Names of California Cities

Everyday in California we see Spanish words in the names of our towns, streets and freeways. The following are a few examples:

Brea: The name means tar in Spanish. The reason may well be that in the late 1800’s there was an oil boom in the hills of Brea.

Yorba Linda: It means Beautiful Yorba in Spanish. Yorba is the name of one of the members of an expedition that explored the area now known as Orange County. In 1809, Jose Yorba petitioned the King of Spain for a land grant and was awarded 62,000 acres of land.

Escondido: Means hidden in Spanish. The area was originally named Mehel-om-pom-pavo, by the Luiseño Indians. The official naming of Escondido, however, is buried in folklore.

La Habra: From the name of Spanish ranch: Rancho Cañada de La Habra.
Modesto: From the Spanish term for modesty.