I think if we're going to have English only we need to purge our country of Spanish words.

I live in Colorado. How can a red, white and blue American state have a Spanish name?

So, let's purge these names from our state and others.

Colorado is roughly the color red.

So, from now, the great state of Colorado shall be known as the great state of Color Red, or red for short. Perhaps even reddish.
"Where are you from?"
"Oh, I'm from Reddish."
"What a stupid name for a place!"
"Well, it used to sound nice before the bigots came along and made us change the name of the state."

Las Vegas will no longer be Las Vegas either. We need to change the names of cities too.
Las Vegas means "the fields" in Spanish. So, instead of taking a trip to Las Vegas, or Vegas, you can just take a trip to, "the fields."
"Where'd you go on your vacation?"
"The Fields."
"Well, now that we have no migrant farm workers, I could see you working there, but where did you take a trip to?"
"The Fields. You know what they say, whatever happens in Fields stays in Fields!"
"OK, then. You sick freak. Remind me never to eat anything you grow in your garden. I don't want any secret ingredients."

Or:
"Man, I lost a shit load of money in The Fields last week!"
"Really, was there a hailstorm at your farm?"
"No, I lost a bunch of money gambling!"
"Oh, you grew the wrong crop?"
"No, I lost it at a blackjack table. I tell you, those casinos are really crooked."
"You have a casino on your farm?"
"No, I went to The Fields."
"On your farm?"
"No, you know, VEGAS!"
"Oh my GOD! Don't say that word, you can't say that without getting fined now! Do you want them to deport us?"

And then again, we'll have to call the US Constitution something different. We don't like anything French in this country, even our fries had to be renamed at one point. If we had to rename fries, we'll have to find a new word for "constitution" because that's from French. Perhaps US Freedom Document would work?

Ooops, sorry "document" comes to us from French as well! Well, at least freedom is from Old English. So we're OK with that. And united and states are both from latin, though there are some references to etat, a French word. Oh, that's OK though, because the Romans are OK, right?

Now, let's go on to the US Freedom's text (um, yeah the word text is from French too, but hey):
"We the People"
Oooh, ummm, yeah. People? OK, that's from French too. How about, we the folks? OK.

"We the Folks of the United States, in Order"
Order? Well, that's Old French too. We'll just have to take that out, can't find a substitute for that...

"We the Folks of the United States, to form a more perfect..."
Well, there we have another problem, because perfect is from Old French, "parfit".

"We the Folks of the United States, to form a more better Union..."
Well, now we sound like the people, um, folks, who want us to change all of this in the first place. And on top of that, union is a word with French origins. Let's change the whole thing at that part.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, establish...”
Damn snail eating bastards. Establish is from Old French too. Create is from Latin and the Romans art OK...

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, create justice...”
Oh my GOODNESS! Not again. Justice too? Yep, used to be justise in Old French. Well, justice is kind of like lawfulness, right? But promote sounds better, so we'll take out create and add promote.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, insure...”
Well, insure is a weird word. Originally it was ensure. And ensure is half French commie pinko and half English, but mostly French because the “sure” comes from seur. And the whole idea of the word might come from "asseurer", a French word too. So, I don't know what to do. Perhaps we could let it slide, right? It is partly English. OK.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, insure domestic...”
Oh no, not this too? Yes, it's a word with a French heritage. But home is OK!

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, insure home tranquility...”
Tranquility too has a French origin. But wait? What about the moon landing? “Tranquility base, here, the Eagle has landed.” In fact, tranquility, base, and eagle all have French origins! Neil Armstrong, Frenchie socialist? Well, it was a state sponsored program after all. Just saying...We'll have to do something about tranquility...

I can't find a good synonym for that one. In fact it seems all the right ones are from French! So, we'll just take that part out. It's probably just sign that it shouldn't be in there in the first place if the French came up with all the words for that part.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, provide for common defense...”
It makes sense that common would be a French originated word. And it is. So is defense, but security is straight from Latin and the Romans were OK; we'll use security and general.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, provide for general security, promote the general Welfare...”
General Welfare? Sounds like some kind of commie pinko superhero who goes around stealing money from the rich to give to the poor. But the words are all OK.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, provide for general security, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...”
Well, liberty and posterity are both French words. Freedom is ok and so is offspring.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, provide for general security, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of freedom to ourselves and our offspring, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
OK, so ordain, establish, and constitution are French. America is from that Amerigo guy, and I think he was Italian. But since we're only cool with the Romans and their original language, and not languages descended from it, we'll have to change it. Interestingly, ordain and establish are synonyms so that was always a redundant phrase, anyway.

“We the Folks of the United States, to form a better thing, promote lawfulness, provide for general security, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of freedom to ourselves and our offspring, do institute this for the United States.”

Well, there's that, only the rest of the document, err, thing to go...

I don't think I have enough energy for the rest of it.


Can we please not be bigoted? It's just a hell of a lot more work!

I guess what I'm trying to prove here is that people who live next to each other, like the English and the French, will eventually merge their languages in some form and that it's OK. Perhaps we should all learn the same language, but really without Spanish or even French, we wouldn't have the Constitution or a lot of the names of the places in America. That's just the way it is.

tomato and chocolate come from the Nahuatl spoken by the Aztecs, as do avocado, guacamole and chile. If we can't use those, how am I going to have lunch? Do I have to say I'm making corn pancakes with mashed green pebbly fruit and diced red fruit? Or should I just have a hamburger - oops, that's German. How about a pizza - nope, Italian. Maybe we can just remain tomatoes Freedom Fruit and be done with it.

on something that proves very little and doesn't address the actual issue.

What, precisely, is your point? That languages borrow words from other languages? Yes, they do.

What does that have to do with the actual issues to which I presume you are referring?

The OP was commenting on the present xenophobia regarding the "English Only" movement.

Their point was crystal clear. Yours? Not so much...

One short hyperbolic statement to go with the OP's long-winded hyperbole.

Nothing hyperbolic about it. Monitor this thread and you'll see how far in the minority you are...

The american english language is constantly evolving. It's always good to learn a new language.

Those who come here seeking a better life, need to learn how to use our system of language and culture in order to receive the benefits of our country. We do provide so many benefits that make life easier here than anywhere else.

Or we can continue to spoon feed those unwilling to adapt. But it is already too easy to take advantage of the medical and social welfare systems.

There is a learning curve to using our system, but that should be planned for in advance.

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Most Americans don't know at least a second language and don't realize that those in other countries often know more than one language. We seem to expect that everyone everywhere knows English, and many times they do. I've been to other countries and never had difficulty being understood because so many people know English...

When I was in Russia, most Russians who were younger than the WWII generation understood and spoke English. Other languages are regularly taught in their schools from an early age. I made friends with a Russian girl who was about my age who obviously spoke Russian and was also fluent in French and Italian. She kept apologizing to me that she hadn't "finished" her English. We managed to get by with what I'd retained from my high school French, LOL.

Rather than trying to discourage bilingualism, I think we should encourage it, since it will give us an advantage that other people already have. Welcome to DU, Islandlife! It's great to have you with us... :hi:

because they are in the minority amount to phililogical bigotry and discrimination?

Coupled with a complete lack of comprehension that part of the greatness of English is its ability to expand and include words from elsewhere.

Every other immigrant group has managed to learn English, but some want a permanent gulf between Spanish speakers and the rest of us. They keep claiming it's too hard, too cruel, too discriminatory for Spanish speakers to learn English so they must be allowed to be forever Spanish speaking. This generosity is a way of making sure they never get out of the gardens or fields.

I don't care how much liberal concern it's cloaked in. It's a mechanism for permanent exclusion and it is disgusting.

I think we use a lot of latin, but I'm not sure the Latinos mind.

LoL

There are some French words we have incorporated, as well.
Like suave and debonair, so we have been pretty tolerant of those Frenchies, too.

Somehow I don't think people will like that very much. Que se jodan.

How about meat filled corn?

lumped under wraps. However, when you call them tortilla wraps, what do you call the tortilla?

Put the words "Meat INJECTED" in any marketing scheme and you'll get attention.;-)

American name..Manitowoc and Michigan are two off the top of my head, but there are many more. In fact, why do most people speak English instead of Native American dialects? They should if the language of this country is to be "pure".

big creek, and my county, San Luis Obispo, means Bishop St. Louis. However the English versions lack that romantic lilt of rolling off the tongue. God knows what California means. One theory is that there was a novel that was popular in Spain at the time about Amazons and the Queen's name was California.

However, Spanish name places aren't the only ones. If you are going to eliminate one language, then you must eliminate all of them in a sense of fairness. For instance, about fifty miles down the road from me is the town of Solvang, Danish for sun meadow. I think there are many non-English name places in the USA. Also, in England, the home of English, there are many places that have Celtic or Roman derived names. So should they insist on English only too?

Just head up El Camino Real - sorry, the Royal Highway - for a couple of hundred miles and you can't miss it (the tree itself is still standing, right next to Little St. Francis Creek). On your way you'll go through the town of St. Claire, home of some great Indian and Korean shops.

I look at the names on the map as the remains of those who came before. You can get an idea of where the French traders went by the place names they left behind, from Eau Claire and Fond du Lac in Wisconsin all the way to Coeur d'Alene in Idaho (those guys got around!). You can trace the Spanish in California by where they left their names: the places they didn't get to or the Americans didn't have large settlements in still have Native American names like Siskiyou, Shasta, Tuolumne, Inyo, Modoc, etc.

My scant knowledge of the Hawai'ian language comes from a pamphlet on place names: after looking at a lot of them it's easy to pick out elements like "wai" for water, "pu'u" for hill, "loa" for long.

Yes, we do leave our language behind in naming places, while we migrate around the planet. I find the names of European rivers and other landmarks fascinating. They seem to point to the tribe or ethnic people that passed through those regions first.

is a fascinating book on naming customs, and the ways old names tend to stick around even after the people who named them aren't there anymore. It's an old book, but well worth looking for.

Between Democrats and Republicans.

If I get a chance I might even be able to get to Colorado this summer for my vacation!!

...is for idiots.

can barely speak, read and write it themselves.

Then you have to lose 'States' (French 'estate'), and 'general' (Middle French 'general') as well. 'Lands' (like the German 'Land'), perhaps? and 'shared'?

But I might be able to give you 'America' back:



The point being that the only first names used to name new discoveries were royal ones, or saints. Commoners who were the explorers, such as Columbus, Magellan, Barents, Drake, Van Diemen etc. all had their surnames used.

And his name was Amerigo Vespucci. ;-)

"I don't know". Story goes that a British chap asked an Australian bushman what that funny looking animal that hopped along was called. His reply was "Kangeroo", which in his language meant, "I don't know". Not sure if this story was true.. but I have heard it dozens of times.

Etymology: Stated to have been the name in an Australian Aboriginal language.

Cook and Banks believed it to be the name given to the animal by the aborigenes at Endeavour River, Queensland, and there is later affirmation of its use elsewhere. On the other hand, there are express statements to the contrary (see quots. below), showing that the word, if ever current in this sense, was merely local, or had become obsolete. The common assertion that it really means ‘I don't understand’ (the supposed reply of the local to his questioner) seems to be of recent origin and lacks confirmation. (See Morris Austral English s.v.)

1770 J. Cook Jrnl. 4 Aug. (1893) 224 The animals which I have before mentioned, called by the Natives Kangooroo or Kanguru.
1770 J. Banks Jrnl. 26 Aug. (1962) II. 116 The largest was calld by the natives Kangooroo.
1777 W. Anderson Jrnl. 30 Jan. in J. Cook Jrnls. (1967) III. ii. 792 The Kangooroo which is found farther northward in New Holland as described in Captn Cooks Voyage without doubt also inhabits here.
1793 J. Hunter Hist. Jrnl. 54 The animal‥called the kangaroo (but by the natives patagorong) we found in great numbers.
1793 W. Tench Compl. Acct. Port Jackson 171 The large, or grey kanguroo, to which the natives give the name of Pat-ag-a-ran. Note, Kanguroo was a name unknown to them for any animal, until we introduced it.
1834 L. E. Threlkeld Austral. Gram. (Hunter's River) 87 Kóng-go-róng, the Emu‥likely the origin of the barbarism, kangaroo, used by the English, as the name of an animal called Mo-a-ne.
1835 T. B. Wilson Narr. Voy. World 211 They distinctly pronounced ‘kangaroo’ without having heard any of us utter the sound.
1850 Jrnl. Ind. Archipelago 4 188 (Kangaroo.) It is very remarkable that this word, supposed to be Australian, is not to be found as the name of this singular marsupial animal in any language of Australia‥I have this on the authority of my friend Captain King.