> Isolating your country language-wise does have some benefits. For example, it tends to create cultural unity and prevents parts of your country breaking off and joining a neighbouring country. […] If both countries used the same language, the border could be more easily moved by groups friendly to one government over another.
Why then have no serious attempts occurred by parts of Canada to join the US or vice versa? Most of both countries speaks English and only English, with extreme cultural overlap and a huge shared border.
I don’t think most of the southern US would want to deal join the mess that is northern Mexico right now, nor would the cartels want to release northern Mexico into the relative safety of the southern US. That matters far more than the different majority language across the US-Mexico border.
> For example, in the USA, the english vs spanish divide pretty much aligns with the US/mexico border.
If you’re talking only about the number 1 language in each country, then sure, but otherwise you’re vastly underestimating how much Spanish there is in the US, especially in states like California, New York, Texas, and Florida among others.
It’s easy for anglophones to ignore “por español, oprima dos” in phone menus or to tune out the daily occurrences of Spanish one passes on the streets or doesn’t quite hear clearly from the front in restaurant kitchens, but it’s all around us to the extent that Spanish-speaking visitors can get around fine with limited or no English in some major cities - and that’s getting only more true, not less.
The US has more Spanish speakers including those of limited competency than any other country except Mexico, including Spain; if you restrict to native-level speakers, the US appears to be number 5 on the global list, behind Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and remarkably narrowly behind Spain.
The same source notes the continuing growth of Spanish language and Hispanic origins in the US. It predicts that by 2060 the US will be the second biggest Spanish-speaking country (I presume they mean natively or at a native level), and that 27.5% of the US will be of Hispanic origin.
To be clear, I don’t mind the growth of Spanish in the US and don’t view English as inherent to the American identity, even though I’m a native anglophone. Hell, German was pretty major in the US too before the world wars last century, and my immigrant great-grandparents probably spoke Yiddish better than English. The foundation of the US is not about linguistics, nor ethnicity.
Why then have no serious attempts occurred by parts of Canada to join the US or vice versa? Most of both countries speaks English and only English, with extreme cultural overlap and a huge shared border.
I don’t think most of the southern US would want to deal join the mess that is northern Mexico right now, nor would the cartels want to release northern Mexico into the relative safety of the southern US. That matters far more than the different majority language across the US-Mexico border.
> For example, in the USA, the english vs spanish divide pretty much aligns with the US/mexico border.
If you’re talking only about the number 1 language in each country, then sure, but otherwise you’re vastly underestimating how much Spanish there is in the US, especially in states like California, New York, Texas, and Florida among others.
It’s easy for anglophones to ignore “por español, oprima dos” in phone menus or to tune out the daily occurrences of Spanish one passes on the streets or doesn’t quite hear clearly from the front in restaurant kitchens, but it’s all around us to the extent that Spanish-speaking visitors can get around fine with limited or no English in some major cities - and that’s getting only more true, not less.
The US has more Spanish speakers including those of limited competency than any other country except Mexico, including Spain; if you restrict to native-level speakers, the US appears to be number 5 on the global list, behind Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and remarkably narrowly behind Spain.
Source (2021), in Spanish: https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/espanol_lengua_viva/pdf/espa...
The same source notes the continuing growth of Spanish language and Hispanic origins in the US. It predicts that by 2060 the US will be the second biggest Spanish-speaking country (I presume they mean natively or at a native level), and that 27.5% of the US will be of Hispanic origin.
To be clear, I don’t mind the growth of Spanish in the US and don’t view English as inherent to the American identity, even though I’m a native anglophone. Hell, German was pretty major in the US too before the world wars last century, and my immigrant great-grandparents probably spoke Yiddish better than English. The foundation of the US is not about linguistics, nor ethnicity.