Free Republic

A ruling that an activist's language skills are insufficient for a City Council seat unsettles border towns where Spanish is used in day-to-day life. An appeal is before the state Supreme Court. Reporting from San Luis, Ariz.— For almost a decade, Alejandrina Cabrera has had no trouble speaking her mind in this dusty Arizona border town. She's gone door to door campaigning for City Council candidates. She's addressed the City Council. She's even led two recall petitions against the mayor. But when she decided to run for San Luis City Council, she hit a surprising roadblock: her language. Like virtually...

An Arizona judge has ruled that a woman----supposedly a US citizen---running for council---is to be removed from a ballot b/c she has little or no ability to speak English. The woman was rigorously tested and could not even tell testers the name of the US HS that graduated her. She must have had a steady diet of "Raza Studies"..../s REFERENCE "La Raza" is a racist and anti-American organization. It's core goal is to overwhelm the American Southwest with illegal immigrants from Mexico who will eventually cause the region to break away from the US and become Mexican territory. In addition,...

When it comes time for math and phonics at Spring Lake Elementary School, first-graders in an experimental classroom stop speaking English and start learning in a language that's foreign to many of them. For about an hour a day, students at the Seminole County school who have never spoken Spanish will learn their numbers and letters, sing and play games completely in Spanish. The goal is ambitious: Teachers aim to have each student speaking, reading and writing both English and Spanish equally by the end of the year with the hope of giving English-speakers a leg up on a new...

This year, 2011, has marked the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Check out this article: Happy 400th Birthday To The King James Bible -- The Most Influential Book In The English Language The headline of this article is no hyperbola. From a literature standpoint - this translation is one of the greatest piece of literature in the English language. (reference: Why the King James Bible Endures) From a scholarly standpoint - the bar was set very high in making this translation. (reference: An enduring legacy) From a cultural standpoint - no other book has influenced so much of...

A curious vocal pattern has crept into the speech of young adult women who speak American English: low, creaky vibrations, also called vocal fry. Pop singers, such as Britney Spears, slip vocal fry into their music as a way to reach low notes and add style. Now, a new study of young women in New York state shows that the same guttural vibration—once considered a speech disorder—has become a language fad. Vocal fry, or glottalization, is a low, staccato vibration during speech, produced by a slow fluttering of the vocal chords (listen here). Since the 1960s, vocal fry has been...

India has a rich linguistic history with more than 22 different national languages spoken throughout the length and breadth of the country. The 1991 census recognized 1576 mother tongues and grouped them into 114 different languages. Imagine the plight of a linguist trying to study all the languages of the country. So how does English survive in this linguistic caldroun? India’s tryst with its “own foreign language” (English) dates back to the 17th Century, when Emperor Jahangir welcomed the East India Company into the country. Considered a language of the elite in the pre-independence era, English managed to gradually percolate...

According to the criminal complaint, Sule broke into the man's home in the 6800 block of Seventh Street Northeast in Fridley about 8 p.m. Sept. 19, 2010, and made the man go with him to a bedroom. After repeatedly telling the man, "I love you, I want to kiss you," Sule sexually assaulted him, the complaint said. The man, who died earlier this year, told police he tried to fight back but was weak from ongoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. His attorney argued Sule did not know the implications of agreeing to the swab because officers asked him in English,...

A Yuma-area official is pleased that state education officials will no longer force schools to retrain or reassign English immersion teachers because they speak with an accent. In an agreement with two federal agencies, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) will stop trying to single out teachers who they believe do not have a good command of the English language. For example, the federal agencies said, state officials documented instances where one teacher pronounced the word “the'' as “da.'' In a separate incident, a teacher pronounced “another'' as “anuder'' and where “lives here'' came out as “leeves here.''

severed from tradition and reali life, literature as it is taught in universities is strictly an intramural game.

THE LOW POINT of Joey Vento's career probably was facing trumped-up charges that dragged him before the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations. He was accused of discrimination, but no matter how high the kangaroos in the court jumped, they couldn't produce anyone who was discriminated against at his neon-loaded, nurse-clean sandwich shop. At the time of the hearing, Joey told me CHR "violated numerous civil rights of me." The high point of Joey Vento's career was showing up at Geno's before daybreak to prepare his iconic sandwich shop for the day's business. The 5-foot-5, tattooed, gold chain-laden South Philadelphian was...

A new immigration rule requiring people to be able to speak English to move to the UK to be with their spouse is a breach of human rights, a court heard today. A couple have launched a judicial review at the High Court to challenge the rule, which they claim contravenes their rights to a family life, their right to marry and constitutes discrimination. British citizen Rashida Chapti, 54, and husband Vali Chapti, 57, are applying for him to join her in the UK. The couple have been married for 37 years and have six children together. Mr Chapti is...

The university hands down a new edict about punctuation -- but the world's grammar nerds will never back downGrammar lovers today were saddened, shocked, and mightily displeased at the news that the P.R. department of the University of Oxford has decided to drop the comma for which it is so justly famed. As GalleyCat reported, the university's new style guide advises writers, "As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write 'a, b and c' not 'a, b, and c'." Cue the collective gasps of horror. The last time the nerd community was this cruelly betrayed, George...

Another day, another whiny, 'offended' French-Canadian. One wonders when it is all going to stop. The latest example of the plight of the poor, downtrodden French-speakers made news today when a federal court judge ruled in favor of serial-litigator Michel Thibodeau in his latest attempt at becoming a language rights crusader. It seems Thibodeau and his wife were upset when, during several flights in 2009, the Air Canada crew failed to serve him in his preferred language. My God, the horror!

Heard of bobowler, baffies, bishybarnabee, tittermatorter? Well, these are some of the weirdest words used in Britain. For the first time, the British Library is keeping track of the nation's regional words and has developed a word bank of around 4,000 entries. The words were submitted by visitors to the British Library in central London or to a series of events at provincial libraries as part of its Evolving English exhibition. According to experts, many local dialects died off in recent decades, squeezed out by the increasing standardisation of the language thanks to population mobility as well as the influence...

He congratulated the graduating class of 2011, but one but one principal’s commencement speech actually offended some in the crowd. The graduating class at Whittell High School has only 30 students. Just a few weeks ago during graduation their principal gave an encouraging speech congratulating his students and their parents. “Class of 2011, I want to congratulate you for all your accomplishments this year,” said Principal Crespin Esquivel. He then said the same thing in Spanish, making sure his commencement speech could also be understood by his Spanish speaking parents and students who make up the second largest group of...

Video of the testimony of immigrant rights activist Antolin Aguirre, who chose to lecture Texas legislators in Spanish Monday, despite living in the United States for 23 years and taking naturalized citizenship in 2001, was posted on YouTube, and has gone viral after being posted by Drudge. David Paulin brought the shocking display of arrogance to national attention on Thursday on AT. Here is the brief video, demonstrating that Aguirre speaks fine English: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO This can only be described as ethnic chauvinism. A gringo would never get away with this in Mexico. It is...

Yesterday I parked at a Starbucks and while walking to the place noticed a car (no, it was not a Prius) with the stupidest bumper sticker ever. Actually it had two: The first was that COEXIST one which is also stupid. Because the problems we have today aren't because of Christians fighting with Muslims fighting with Jews fighting with Buddhists fighting with Shintos fighting with Zoroastrians fighting with athiests. The problem is freaking Muslims and left-wing socialist-Marxist secular-"progressive" athiests. But I digress. The other bumper sticker was the real stupid one. It said, "It wouldn't kill you to learn Spanish."...

During committee testimony this week in Austin, a Texas senator interrupted a Spanish speaker and telling him he should "be speaking in English" during a committee hearing. Antolin Aguirre of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition was testifying against Senate Bill 9 that would help crack down on illegal immigrants in Texas. Aguirre spoke through an interpreter even though he had been in the U.S. since 1988. Two minutes into Antolin Aguirre’s testimony, Sen. Chris Harris, a Republican from Arlington, interrupted asking Aguirre’s interrupter, "Did I understand him correctly that he has been here since 1988?" Harris asked. "Why aren’t you...

A Texas state senator is under fire for telling a man that his Spanish-language testimony was "insulting" during a committee hearing earlier this week. Republican Chris Harris interrupted Antolin Aguirre of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition just minutes into his statement against the Lone Star State's new sanctuary cities bill. The legislation, which was passed by the Senate Wednesday, allows police officers to verify the immigration status of detained suspects. Harris told Aguirre that he "should be speaking in English." "Did I understand him correctly that he has been here since 1988?" Harris asked. "Why aren't you speaking in English...

"...the U.S. is one of less than a dozen countries in the world without an official language. "Requiring the use of English does not mean that our society does not value the preservation of cultural heritage. However, the ability to communicate in one standard language in the workplace, in our schools, and in official settings not only improves our efficiency as we carry out our daily activities, but it more importantly builds unity among citizens and creates a sense of national pride. That is why I have consistently advocated for making English the official language of the United States. "English...

Good for business: 'No speak English - no service' sign leads to restaurant's sales TRIPLING By Daily Mail Reporter on 20th May 2011 Some chefs spend their lifetimes unsuccessfully slogging away to improve business. But all it took for Reedy Creek Diner chef Greg Simons in Lexington, North Carolina, was to put up a controversial language sign and he’s seen his sales triple. Mr Simons put up the ‘No speak English. No service’ sign in March and says he’s received great support - with some people asking for souvenir copies to take home. ‘All these calls I've gotten from outside...

President Obama invoked immigrant assimilation this week in a speech in El Paso, Texas, praising the notion embodied in the motto E pluribus unum: out of many, one. But it wasn't all that long ago when many liberals eschewed the idea of America as having one language, one culture, and one people. Ironically, it has taken an anti-immigrant backlash to awaken at least some liberals to the dangers of multiculturalism, which they pushed aggressively for decades. It was liberals -- not conservatives -- who originally claimed that today's immigrants couldn't assimilate, or, in their view, shouldn't even try. Liberals insisted...

I’m getting to be a crabby old man and I’m not even fifty. But working at a liberal university for eighteen years has taught me never to accept responsibility for my actions or my disposition. Instead I blame my most recent bad mood (the one I’m in right now) on a student who just asked me a question about the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case United States v. Leon, (1984). Wanting to know the holding, he asked if it meant “that the police can rely upon a search warrant they don’t reasonably no is invalid.” I almost told the student...

Republicans introduce legislation in the House and Senate to make English the official language of the U.S. Republicans in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would declare English the official language of the United States and require the development of English language testing guidelines for those applying for U.S. citizenship.The English Language Unity Act would set out a new chapter in U.S. code that imposes an obligation on U.S. officials to "preserve and enhance the role of English as the official language of the Federal Government." Part of this chapter would include a "uniform English language rule"...

Disgraceful. As he does every year, Sheriff Joe was supposed to read to 6th graders at a Phoenix school as part of 'Read Across America' week. However, his event was canceled. He says a district administrator canceled the appearance -- because it "might upset parents of Hispanic students". The school administrator at Sahuaro Elementary owes a public apology. More info here: http://bit.ly/hPNDra Outrageous. Joe Arpaio reads to kids every single year under this program. But the admin. was afraid "parents of Hispanic kids might complain", so he canceled on the top law enforcement official in the county. Unacceptable: Sahuaro Elementary...

Tennessee governor Bill Haslam is pushing state legislators to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. The Tennessee Republican said Wednesday he is working with state Republican legislative leaders to develop a broad-based bill aimed at addressing illegal immigration. Mr. Haslam says he plans to put forth a number of bills, all of which are meant to address a certain immigration issue. One of the proposals would require the written portion of driver’s license exams be given in English, a proposal that has sparked debate in the past. “What I want to make certain is that those businesses that have located...

After mangling our language for years, Americans are complaining about the invasion of traditional British lingo, says Kath Hinton. New Yorkers always fall for a nice English accent: whenever my well-spoken sister-in-law visits, they trill at her flowing diction and faultless vowels. Coming from Liverpool, I have a trickier time. In fact, I stopped ordering butter after three waiters in one smart restaurant failed to grasp my pronunciation. "Bootta! Bootta!" I pleaded, while my American friends wept with joy at my embarrassment. Now, however, it is the words we Anglo-Saxons use, not how we say them, that is causing a...

State legislators in Indiana and Minnesota are pushing laws requiring public documents and other government business in those states to be done only in English. Minnesota state Senators introduced their bill on Monday; the measure is similar to one introduced in the state House earlier this month. Indiana state House representatives voted 63 to 26 last week to require all business to be conducted in English. Next the bill heads to the state Senate. Like Minnesota, Indiana’s measure allows exceptions to the English-only rule in cases of public health or safety situations. Official English advocates say they feel the momentum...

Over the next few days, here are 2 websites to compare – the Muslim Brotherhood’s English language and Arabic websites. First, the Muslim Brotherhood website in English – complete with the word “freedom” and a cute little girl, and no Islamic green in sight – here at http://www.ikhwanweb.com/:

Insurance companies don't have to make state-mandated offers of certain kinds of coverage in Spanish, even if that's the language the person speaks, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a unanimous decision, the justices acknowledged that state law requires insurers to tell motorists they have the right to purchase protection from situations where another driver is either uninsured or lacks sufficient coverage to pay for all the medical bills incurred. And that notice, they said, must be in writing. But Chief Justice Rebecca Berch said if state lawmakers wanted to require insurance companies to provide that notice in Spanish,...

Freeppers? In the sixties late century I had my first English Course which was Eletronic Teacher (one of this boondozels pseudo-cientific thing that used bone induction subliminar learning techs...) and at end sixties Thomas Gefferson House in Brazilia - Brazil for two years... I do have great difficulty with the double letters in words, as pp, ll, ss and so on... Can you help me with a rule?

BEIJING, Dec 23 (ANTARA) - Chinese newspapers, books and websites will no longer be allowed to use English words and phrases, the country`s publishing body has announced, saying the "purity" of the Chinese language is in peril. The General Administration of Press and Publication, which announced the new rule on Monday, said the increasing use of English words and abbreviations in Chinese texts had caused confusion and was a means of "abusing the language". Such practices "severely damaged the standard and purity of the Chinese language and disrupted the harmonious and healthy language and cultural environment, causing negative social impacts,"...

At a time when most people pick out pine trees, many English professors make plans to travel to the annual convention of the Modern Language Association. Accuracy in Academia is, as usual, sending a correspondent to cover the event. Nevertheless, we thought that we would share with you what promise to be the most intriguing panels and presentations of the 2011 MLA meeting: o Dickens and Psychoanalysis o Queer Ecology o Literary Autism o Intolerance in Queer Cinema o Queer Studies and the future of the profession o Cultural Studies in Post-Socialist Spaces o Queering Lawrence [D. H.] o Queer...

LOS ANGELES – Dozens of Filipino hospital workers in California sued their employer Tuesday alleging they were the sole ethnic group targeted by a rule requiring them to speak only English. The group of 52 nurses and medical staff filed a complaint accusing Delano Regional Medical Center of banning them from speaking Tagalog and other Filipino languages while letting other workers speak Spanish and Hindi. The plaintiffs are seeking to join an August complaint filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Kern County federal court over the hospital's enforcement of a rule requiring workers to speak English. Filipino...

If there is something we learned this year, it’s that anything Palin tweets or writes on Facebook becomes international news and the talk of the nation, especially when it comes to politics.Two nights ago on his program, Lawrence O’Donnell decided to rant on New Oxford American Dictionary for their decision to include Sarah Palin’s word “refudiate� into the English language.Palin’s typo in a tweet about the Ground Zero mosque was the talk on twitter. Palin called it “Shakespearean.� The result: she popularized the word and it is now part of the lexicon. New Oxford wrote about their decision: An unquestionable...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma voters have approved a measure requiring that all official state actions be conducted in English. The author of the official English bill, Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, has said that English and the "melting pot" process it makes possible, "has made the United States the most successful multiethnic nation in history." The measure drew opposition from several groups, including the League of Women Voters of Oklahoma, which says the question discriminates against new citizens who want to do business with the state. Read more: http://www.newsok.com/oklahoma-votes-to-make-english-official-language/article/3510663#ixzz14BXQIFsO

I have been seeing these signs, or ones very similar, at polling places all around the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Can someone explain this to me? Should you really be able to vote if you don't read english?

This is good. Watch this.

The typical English accent didn't develop until after the Revolutionary War, so Americans actually speak proper English. Here comes the science. Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? Reading David McCulloughÂ’s 1776, I found myself wondering: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? If so, when did American accents diverge from British accents? The answer surprised me. IÂ’d always assumed that Americans used to have British accents, and that American accents diverged after the Revolutionary War, while British accents remained more or less the same. Americans in 1776 did have British accents in that American accents and British accents hadnÂ’t...

Unless we measure success by how children perform, we'll have higher standards for pop stars than public schools. Over the past few years, I have often complained about a hidebound culture that prevents many newspapers from responding to the challenges of new technology. There is, however, another hidebound American institution that is also finding it difficult to respond to new challenges: our big-city schools. Today, for example, the United States is home to more than 2,000 dysfunctional high schools. They represent less than 15% of American high schools yet account for about half of our dropouts. When you break this...

About 8,300 students in Boston who are not fluent in English will receive the extra help to which they are legally entitled to overcome their language barriers, under a settlement reached between federal civil rights investigators and the Boston public schools. The agreement, announced this afternoon by local and federal officials, caps off an investigation launched earlier this year by the US departments of education and justice, who were concerned that Boston schools had been denying thousands of students appropriate services to learn English since 2003. The students, starting this school year, now receive specialized instruction in core academic classes,...

Georgia is replacing Russian with English as the country's second language, two years after a major war with Moscow. Two years after the Russia-Georgia war, Tbilisi is aiming to replace Russian with English as the country's second language. English classes have been introduced in public schools across the former Soviet state and the government hopes all children will speak the language by 2014.

Many of us have been raised to think that words mean things. Then there’s Democrats. From those infamous phrases like “It depends on what the definition of what ‘is’ is” of yore to the newfangled “man-caused disasters” of today, Democrats have so abused the English language as to make it completely unrecognizable to Mr. Johnson. Certainly Democrats always upend the English language and warp it to fit their worldview, especially when they are trying to seem like innocents while trying to gain supporters. Perfect examples of this can be seen in Barack Hussein Obama’s turning the war against terror into...

Glenn Beck: Obama Let America Dumped Israel In Front Of Iran Nuclear

On July 24, the secular press in Britain crackled with news that the Jewish community had been aware of for several weeks: At the end of June, a British senior justice, Judge George Bathurst-Norman, virtually instructed a jury to acquit seven protesters who had broken into and vandalized a Brighton factory, even though there was no question they were the culprits. The damage, committed in January 2009, forced the factory, EDO MBM, to shut down for a week and caused about £200,000 (almost $314,000) in damage. But at trial the defendants denied they were guilty of any crime. They argued...

It was first published 126 years ago and is respected the world over. But the Oxford English Dictionary will never appear in print again, its owners have announced. Instead, the 80 lexicographers who have been working on the third edition for the past 21 years have been told the fruits of their labour will exist solely online.   The OED has been available on the internet for the past ten years and receives two million hits a month from subscribers who pay £205 a year, plus VAT, to access it. Oxford University Press says the dominance of the internet...

Medford police were ordered to patrol Joey Vento's home and that's kicked up a new controversy for the owner of Geno's Steaks in South Philadelphia. Vento's last controversy -- his "order in English" signs -- landed him on the Glenn Beck show and made national headlines. He's been a huge advocate and long-time supporter of veterans and local police. In fact he donated a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to the Medford police department this year and that seems to be the real rub here. The motorcycle and the fact that Vento doesn't even live in Medford. He lives in the neighboring township...

Gov. Tim Pawlenty waded into the national debate over immigration Tuesday, saying that Minnesota should consider making English its official state language. Such a measure could spare governments translation costs, but impose a new level of difficulty on the state's immigrant population. At a news conference outside the governor's residence, Pawlenty said that as the country becomes more diverse, some people might question which language to use in official documents. He said it might be helpful to clarify that the official language is English. Spokesman Bruce Gordon said Pawlenty made the comments when asked about his support for so-called English-only...

GLOBISH: How the English Language Became the World’s LanguageBy Robert McCrum Doubleday Canada, 331 pages ($32.95) The word “Globish,” as Robert McCrum uses it in Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language, refers to English as spoken internationally by people whose first language is something else. The term was invented by Jean-Paul Nerriere, who sees English as “the worldwide dialect of the third millennium” from his vantage point in international business. (He’s an IBM executive.) English is the language of international trade (a case of “follow the money,” says McCrum) and is spoken (or partly understood) by perhaps...

Israel's president has accused the English of being anti-semitic and claimed that MPs pander to Muslim voters. Shimon Peres said England was "deeply pro-Arab ... and anti-Israeli", adding: "They always worked against us." He added: "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary." His remarks, made in an interview on a Jewish website, provoked anger from senior MPs and Jewish leaders who said the 87-year-old president had "got it wrong". But other groups backed the former Israeli prime minister and said the number of anti-semitic incidents had risen dramatically...