Language Smorgasbord

   Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina claimed that English is the official language of the United States. Not so. There is no such thing, even though many would like to enforce an "English Only" policy. English is surely the most widely spoken language in America, but it has not been nationally designated as "official." Nearly 35 million Americans speak Spanish at home, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, using U.S. Census data. This makes Spanish the most widely spoken language other than English in America. The next in line are Chinese, with nearly 3 million speakers; Hindi, Urdu or other languages from India, 2.2 million; French or French Creole, 2.1 million, and Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, 1.7 million.
   There are many who feel that English should be the official language of the country (Sarah Palin refers to the country's language as "American"), and even some proponents insist this is different from "English only" proposals. There are other countries that have designated one or more "official" languages (India has 22 of them).
   The English language itself is an amalgam of many other languages, beginning when French-speaking invaders from Normandy dominated the island of Britain with its Anglo-Saxon speakers (themselves invaders from Germany), and earlier Celtic speakers. These three eventually blended to become a new language, known as English. And even though 85 percent of its vocabulary is rooted in the classical languages of Latin and Greek, English is classified as a Germanic language because of its grammatical structure.
   In addition to extensive borrowings from Latin, Greek and French, English also borrows heavily from Spanish, especially in the West, with its many cities of Spanish names -- for example, San Antonio, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, San Diego, as well as the states themselves, including California, Colorado, Montana, Arizona and Texas. Speaking of which, there is the story of the visitor to Texas who complained of the many people of Mexican heritage there. The visitor was reminded that Texas used to be part of Mexico. As were the other states mentioned, as well as the state of New Mexico.
   
   Add to the English vocabulary the many words borrowed from Native American tribal languages, plus terms from other colonial-era settlers from Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and other countries and you have a linguistic smorgasbord -- itself a borrowed word, as are the many terms for food, borrowed from French, Italian, Chinese and other languages..
   Diversity is one of America's great strengths, and this deals with a wide range of cultural, linguistic, ethnic, social, religious, literature, music, and many other areas that make America what it is -- not a melting pot, but a buffet.
   Or a smorgasbord.