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A comment on Almost half of Californians speak a non-English language at home. Parent comment

Re:Almost half of Californians speak a non-English language ... by switch007 on Friday November 24, 2023 @11:10AM (#38405361)
De facto it does

De jure, Wales does

Cambridge Dictionary defines official language as:

> the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc.

There is no debate whatsoever that English meets that criteria in the UK

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Re:Almost half of Californians speak a non-English language ... by jameshart on Friday November 24, 2023 @11:27AM (#38405571)
But by that criterion the US also has an official language.
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Re:Almost half of Californians speak a non-English language ... by switch007 on Friday November 24, 2023 @11:29AM (#38405585)
Yes, the de facto language of the US is English.

What's your argument there?

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Re:Almost half of Californians speak a non-English language ... by sin7 on Friday November 24, 2023 @11:53AM (#38405851)
De facto is not the same as official.
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Re:Almost half of Californians speak a non-English language ... by switch007 on Friday November 24, 2023 @12:44PM (#38406328)
Not much of an argument but when it comes to English it is. “Official” as in widely and universally recognised and accepted by government authorities? English in the UK (and US) absolutely is

Though now we’re just descending in to semantics which is not very entertaining

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Re:Almost half of Californians speak a non-English language ... by hot_gril on Friday November 24, 2023 @03:19PM (#38407790)
California recognizes Spanish quite a bit, including on official forms like the DMV.
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