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From: jc@cdx39.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Re: Multi-lingual countries
Message-ID: <476@cdx39.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Nov-86 11:42:13 EST
Article-I.D.: cdx39.476
Posted: Mon Nov 17 11:42:13 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Nov-86 02:26:03 EST
References: <743@argon.idec.stc.co.uk> <3289@watmath.UUCP>
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>                             ...  And while Spanish in the United States
> is an immigrant language, French and English here are the "native"
> languages ...

Boy, are you gonna get flames for that!  In much of the USA, 
including most of the Southwest and Florida, Spanish was in
use long before English.   It is basically English that is
the "immigrant" language, with the immigrants eventually 
taking over and applying for statehood.  The story wasn't
quite this simple in Florida, which was purchased by the
US government from Spain.  In Texas, the Anglos fomented
a revolution against Mexico, and formed a separate republic
that lasted a few years until it became a state.  Much of
New Mexico and Arizona were either grabbed in a war or were
purchased from Mexico; at the time most of the inhabitants
spoke Spanish, Navajo, and Hopi.  And so on.

-- 

	John M Chambers 
Phone: 617/364-2000x7304
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