I’m trying to find a book on the political history of multilingualism in the US; in other words, of why/when it started becoming acceptable (and in some cases required) for government works, electoral ballots, etc., to be written and printed in multiple languages. This is related to some of the talk about mozilla-as-social-movement that a variety of Mozilla folks have been talking and blogging about lately; I’m curious if some of the rationales and arguments used by supporters of multilingualism would be applicable to software. Anyone have any pointers? Thanks!
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Luis –
Perhaps not entirely on point, but the history of multilingualism in New Mexico is fascinating. It’s explicitly enshrined in our state constitution in a number of ways. Here’s a nice short history:
http://www.ped.state.nm.us/BilingualMulticultural/dl09/Language%20Rights%20and%20New%20Mexico%20Statehood.pdf
That is fascinating and all-too-brief, John- thanks for passing it on.
[…] Luis Villa […]
Go to the Maryland state capitol in Annapolis. There you will see a copy of the US Constitution in German, in old-style Gothic font. There was a large German-speaking minority in the 1780s, so the state government ordered up a bunch of copies printed in German so those who didn’t speak English would be informed about what Maryland was being asked to approve.