What is the Official Language of the United States?

Ask any random person to name the official language of the United States, and you’re bound to get English as the answer. But it’s actually the ultimate trick question. Most countries have an official language – and some have dozens! Bolivia has 37, Mali has 13, South Africa has 11, Zimbabwe has 16, and even relatively small Switzerland has 4.

But until recently, the U.S. has never declared English as its official language, despite hundreds of millions of English speakers. Why did the U.S. go without an official language for most of its history? It all starts back when the country was founded. Let’s take a trip back in time to understand why.

Does the U.S. Have an Official Language?

English is the most widely spoken language in the world, with more than 1.5 billion speakers. As one of the most populous English-speaking countries, that means – quite naturally – that English is the official language of the USA…right?

It’s a bit more complicated than that. Neither of the United States’s founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, specifically calls for or answers the question, “What is the national language of the United States?”Of course, English is by far the most commonly used language in the USA; it’s estimated that more than 350 million people speak the language. Take a road trip anywhere in America, and you can experience all the regional dialects, slang words, and more! But, as we’ll see, the country’s democratic roots and devotion to liberty have worked against the idea of creating an official language of the USA.

What is the Main Language of the USA? Understanding the Country’s Linguistic Landscape

Way before the Founding Fathers signed America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, the U.S. was already a safe harbor for immigrants from all over the world, seeking promises of religious freedom and land ownership.

At the time of the American Revolutionary War, English was already the dominant language in the colonies. So why wasn’t it part of the country’s founding?

A Philosophical Fight for Independence, Not Language

Dr. Dwayne Wright, a professor of language at Purdue University, speculated in an interview that the Founding Fathers “…didn’t see a need to declare one.”

While the Founding Fathers certainly felt the need to declare certain freedoms and privileges, most famously spelled out in the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, they didn’t deem it necessary to answer a question that many colonists probably weren’t asking back in the 18th century, namely, what is the official language of the United States?

Although there were many common languages in the 13 colonies, including Dutch, French, German, and several Native American languages, the Founding Fathers didn’t see a potential threat to the dominance of the English language.

Some also speculate that they would not have wanted to offend any of their fellow countrymen who had bravely fought alongside them to ward off the British in the war for independence.

On the philosophical front – the U.S. as a country was fundamentally built on a set of ideas, that “all men are created equal” and that people are the source of a nation, which was a seemingly radical concept at the time. The idea that “all men must follow these customs, this religion, and speak this language,” didn’t fit in that picture.

Fast forward 250 years to the present, and there are plenty of debates on whether an official language of the USA should exist. In other words, one flaw in the concept of the United States as an “idea,” not a grand undertaking of mostly English-speaking people, is that it could lead to things like – to cite one example – voting instructions in dozens of languages. 

Willi Paul Adams, the late Germanic academic, puts the official U.S. English debate into perspective for us when he says:

“Colonial speakers of English fought only for their political independence. They had no stomach for an anti-English language and cultural revolution.”

That is, until the invention of American football, but that would come over 100 years later.But today, if state-wide official languages can be instituted (and 31 states have already listed English as their official language), why doesn’t the U.S. have an official language?

Why Doesn’t the U.S. Have an Official Language?

Maybe there hasn’t been an official language in the USA due to cultural roots. Look at the USA’s kindred cousins across the pond and the source of English in the United States today – the United Kingdom. Many people are surprised to learn that the UK, where the English language was formed and spread across the world, doesn’t currently declare English as the country’s official language either. While the language is used by natives and learned by immigrants in order to function within UK society, it’s simply the “default” language but not labeled as an “official language.”

So what is the reason for declaring an official language within any country, the Anglosphere aside?

What is an Official Language?

An official language refers to the language used in government (judiciary, administrative, legislative). It does not mean that it is the only language spoken in a country.

Many countries have adopted English as their official language (some via colonization, some by choice), including Singapore, which has a total of five official languages, and India, which has 13.

The problem with naming English as THE official language, however, is that all business carried out in government offices (courthouses, post offices, police stations, federal offices, DMVs, county offices, etc.) would be in English and English only.

So, if someone needed to update their driver’s license but didn’t speak English well, they’d need to hire an interpreter. Same thing for calling government phone lines: you wouldn’t be able to speak to an operator in Spanish, for example.This wouldn’t affect the private sector, but it would affect the public sector significantly in states like California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona, which have large populations of Spanish and Haitian Creole speakers. Court systems are conducted in both English and various tribal languages in Indian Reservations in the U.S.

English is simply their de facto language, meaning it exists and is generally accepted everywhere, but it is not “official”.

If we want to understand why the U.S. only has a de facto language, we should start by understanding the purpose of an official language.

What is an Official Language?

An official language refers to the language used in government (judiciary, administrative, legislative). It does not mean that it is the only language spoken in a country.

Many countries have adopted English as their official languages (some via colonization, some by choice) including Singapore, which has a total of five official languages, and India, which has 13.

The problem with having just one official language, however, is that all business carried out in government offices (courthouses, post offices, police stations, federal offices, DMVs, county offices, etc.) would be in English and English only.

So if someone needed to update his/her driver’s license but didn’t speak English well, he/she would probably have to hire an interpreter. Same thing for calling government phone lines: you would not be able to speak to an operator in Spanish, for example.

This wouldn’t affect the private sector, but it would affect the public sector significantly in states like California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona, which have large populations of Spanish and Haitian Creole speakers. Court systems are conducted in both English and various tribal languages in Indian Reservations in the U.S.

The Role of English as the Main Language

Many English-only proponents have tried bringing laws to Congress for literally hundreds of years, and until recently, it was to no avail.

A handful of these initiatives include anti-bilingual education laws forcing public schools to teach exclusively in English. These laws were enacted as a response to the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, which authorized public funds to educate American students in their native tongues in addition to English.

Many English-only law proposals have exceptions for public safety and health needs, and some proponents simply believe that one official language would save the government printing and translation costs (in Canada, for example, federal and provincial governments spend up to $2.4 billion per year on bilingualism costs).

However, they face some ardent opposition.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) continuously strikes back. They publish papers about the unconstitutional nature of officializing a single U.S. language, using John Adams’ failed attempt at establishing an official academy devoted to English in 1780 as an example, an act that was declared “undemocratic” at the time.

In a country whose national holiday memorializes a ferocious fight for freedom and independence for all, we see citizens divided: some find it patriotic to say, “This is America, and we speak English here,” while others find it fundamentally undemocratic.

The good news? Everyone has the right to think what they please.

Freedom of Language: Celebrating Diversity of Languages in the U.S.

There are over 350 languages spoken in the U.S. today, with the most common languages being:

• English
• Spanish
• Chinese
• Vietnamese
• Tagalog

Although the English language often acts as the linguafranca of the world, more Americans than ever (60 million, around 20%) speak languages other than English at home.

Celebrating the Linguistic Diversity of the United States

As we’ve seen, even in a country where nearly everyone speaks and understands English, it can be helpful and rewarding to have another language or two under your belt! Pimsleur’s unique teaching techniques, based on the Pimsleur Method, are the perfect way for everyone to learn to speak a new language!

You might think learning a new language is a huge challenge. But you can start speaking a new language in just a few days. With Pimsleur, you’ll learn a language by speaking it. You’ll have your first conversation on Day 1.