One example is the country of Nigeria. This African country has hundreds of ethnic groups speaking different languages. Consequently, English has been declared the official language in order to avoid any seeming preference for one group over another. .
More often, declaring an official language in other countries has been an attempt to restrict a minority group or to assert a newly formed country's independence. For example, when Slovakia separated from Czechoslovakia, one of the first orders of business was to declare Slovak as the official language. Now, King says:.
doctors in state hospitals must speak to patients in Slovak, even if another language would aid diagnosis and treatment. Some 600,000 Slovaks - more than ten percent of the population - are ethnically Hungarian. Even staff meetings in Hungarian-language schools must be in Slovak. (The government dropped a stipulation that church weddings be conducted in Slovak after heavy opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.) Language inspectors are told to weed out "all sins perpetuated on the regular Slovak language." Tensions between Slovaks and Hungarians who had been getting along, have begun to arise.
The United States has a long history with regard to restricting the use of languages other than English. Generally, interest in English-only laws flare when there is concern over a growing immigrant group; however, this is primarily as symbolic debate (Headden and Bowermaster 38). During the 1900's, there was a concern over increasing French and Scandinavian immigration, which resulted in English-only laws (gtd. in Santoro 890). This occurred again in the 1900's when there was an influx of eastern and southern Europeans (890). Many of these individuals were not permitted to enter the United States, however, because of the results on intelligence tests that they were given in English (Headden and Bowermaster 40). The non-English speaking individuals were declared feeble when they could not answer the questions.
