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From: crowl@rochester.ARPA (Lawrence Crowl)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Multi-lingual countries
Message-ID: <22329@rochester.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 11-Nov-86 11:44:53 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.22329
Posted: Tue Nov 11 11:44:53 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Nov-86 20:17:18 EST
References: <743@argon.idec.stc.co.uk> <3289@watmath.UUCP> <1001@ptsfb.UUCP>
Reply-To: crowl@rochester.UUCP (Lawrence Crowl)
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 31

In article <1001@ptsfb.UUCP> rob@ptsfb.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) writes:
)In article <3289@watmath.UUCP> credmond@watmath.UUCP (Chris Redmond) writes:
))I have been watching with horror as the English-only advocates in the
))United States point to Canada as an example of what goes wrong in a
))bilingual country. What goes on here isn't a disaster, it's (usually)
))a happy success, in my opinion.  And while Spanish in the United States
))is an immigrant language, French and English here are the "native"
))languages -- well, not native in the sense that Algonquin and Cree are
))native, of course, but they are the languages in which the country grew
))up in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
)
)I don't mean to pick bones, but as for Texas and California (and probably 
)other states inbtween), Spanish is ``more native'' than English.

New Mexico is one of those states "inbetween" Texas and California.
(See map below).  Forty percent of the households in New Mexico speak
Spanish as the primary language.  As a result, New Mexico has two
official state (i.e. province) languages, English and Spanish.  Election
ballots are bilingual, but I do not know if the laws are maintained
bilingually.

 \\  Calif.  |    Arizona    |   New Mexico  |  Texas
  \\_________|_______________|_______________|
   ||________________________________\
   ||                                \\  Texas
   ||              Mexico             \\

-- 
  Lawrence Crowl		716-275-5766	University of Rochester
			crowl@rochester.arpa	Computer Science Department
 ...!{allegra,decvax,seismo}!rochester!crowl	Rochester, New York,  14627