In France, the language is French and the rules of French are created, monitored, and amended by the L' Academie francaise. The Academie was formed in the early 17th century under the mandate of Louis XIII, directed by Cardinal Richelieu, who is best known for institutionalizing oppression of the press and political discourse through the use of secret police. Richelieu is credited by some critics as the founder of the modern nation-state, by others as a pioneer in authoritarianism (to the extent those two pursuits are separable).
Richelieu instructed the Academie to rid French of "impurities," charging the "immortals" who ran the body to manage how the people of France spoke and wrote to each other. For almost two centuries the Academie stood guard over the language, just as the French royal family protected so diligently the other concerns of the nation. Eventually those protections were realized to be worthless and the people overthrew the regime, abolishing with it the Academie during the French Revolution.
(I have often written here of my concerns about democratic mob rule. Citing Jefferson's claim that governments should not be changed for "light and transient reasons" though, I would argue that if ever there were a time to overthrow a government through populism, late-18th century France was the place.)
First Consul Napoleon brought the Academie back in limited form and several years later Louis XVIII, the autocratic part of the Bourbon constitutional monarchy, re-instituted it in full.
Dictators adore centralization and control.
The Academie continues under the modern Fifth Republic and while it does not actually have full authority of "law," it is subsidized directly by the state. The nation's highly regimented, mandatory education system (wherein mathematics is taught to all nine year-olds at the precise time each day, no matter if they are in Nancy or Lyons) assures the force of the Academie is complete. Charmingly, the Academie does not release its official dictionary to the public, instead passing rules and words to the people via the laws and official publications of the state.
Just as it did four centuries ago, today the Academie attempts to preserve and strengthen the French language. Utilizing state mechanisms such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (and the private but partially subsidized Alliance francaise), the Academie promotes the French language around the world against the seemingly dangerous threat of English. It is losing the war. The Academie aggressively protects the purity of French. It does so in such silly ways as arguing against the word "email" (mandating in 2003 that all government communications instead substitute the word "courriel") and suppressing the use of regional languages such as Basque and Breton.
This point raises a concern regarding a Constitutional Amendment to make English the official language of our country. American English has adapted and grown just fine without federal government oversight. As much as I would like to ensure English be learned and used in the United States, I have tremendous concern that such a change would grant the USG one more reason to insert its ineffective claws into the management of how we communicate.
It is for this reason that I would advise each State to pass, at the state-level, a constitutional amendment requiring only English be used in official communications. Since States are the rightful repository of the education mandate, it would be up to the forty-nine bicameral legislatures and Nebraska (way to celebrate the federalist system, Cornhuskers!) to decide precisely how that requirement is carried out.
And in a correctly sized federal government, where most of the present powers would be devolved to the States, the consequence of the feds not using an official language would be relatively unimportant.
The first step, as with so many USG waste issues, is assuring the federal government constricts to its Constitutionally mandated size. Once the size of the USG is under the control then its importance will decrease and the urge to centralize all authority, all action, will be in check.
Call or courrie your State Representative today.
Sensible libertarian views on nearly everything- except foreign affairs.