Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 7, 1 July 1996 — English-only legislation threatens Hawaiian language renaissance [ARTICLE]

English-only legislation threatens Hawaiian language renaissance

by Kelli Meskin ur\ ur native language cannot be eon1 Jsigned to death by this bill," Kauanoe Kamanā, president of 'Aha Pūnana Leo, said in testimony against federal Senate Bill 356. S.B. 356, introduced bv U. S.

Senator Richard C. Shelby (R. Ala), proposes English as the offtcial language of the United States. Both Kauanoe Kamanā and Nāmaka Rawlins, director of

'Aha Pūnana Leo Projects, testified recently in Washington against the legislation and in support of Native American languages. The bill is intended to "preserve unity in diversity, and to prevent division along linguistic lines," by allowing everyone to "communicate with the government in English." This allows the government to save printing costs for government documents in foreign languages. However, English is already used in 99

percent of Government Printing Office publications, says James Crawford of the Department of Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona. Crawford believes that S.B. 356 will restrict the use of other languages, limit access to government services, ban bilingual ballots and outlaw federal spending for bilin-

gual education. "No amouni of fine-tun-Hk ing the current Englishonly legislation would Jr produce a version worthy of passage," says Crawford.

Representative Patsy Mink feels it is imperative to reject S.B. 356 due to the amount of discrimination that it may encourage and the obstacles it might create. "For a bill whieh has no ostensible purpose or meets no urgent need, the piiee is too great," Mink says. "This legislation could also affect the federal government's obligation to help preserve, enhanee, and promote the use of native languages including Hawaiian,"

Senator Daniel Akaka said in opposition to S.B. 356. "Clearly the authors of the bill had not considered the impact of English- only on languages whose use historically precedes that of English." The Hawai'i Council on Language Planning and Policy (CLPP) organized a panel of speakers to address the effects S.B. 356 might have on the Hawaiian language as well as on immigrants in the U.S. "English-only, we've been there, we've done that," Bill Hoshijo of CLPP said. "We've moved ahead and grown richer for it." In 1896 English became the official language of Hawai'i and the Hawaiian language was banned. In 1978, through the State Constitutional Convention, Hawaiian language became an official state language next to English. Hawai'i is the only state in the U.S. with two official languages. In those 62 intervening years the Hawaiian language nearly died. "English only legislation constitutes a thinly veiled form of discrimination against

various ethnic groups," says Dr. No'eau Wamer, the coordinator of the Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Melba Bantay of the Catholic Charities Immigrant Services claims the English only bill will promote more discrimination than unity. "Discrimination against immigrants has always been a part of our history," she says. She cites African-Americans, whose first language is English, as an example of how the English language has not united Americans.They are still not united and integrated equally in our society she says. "Living as a Hawaiian - knowing one's identity, culture, language and history does not in any way preclude Hawaiians from knowing English, knowing Ameiiean eulture or knowing Ameiiean history," Warner said. "It simply means that Hawaiians will have their own identity and will know their own culture, language and history."

1996 ka makahiki o ka 'ōlelo Hawai'i