Puerto Rico being a territory of the United States has two official languages Spanish and English. [185] both statehood for Puerto Rico and English Only legislation for the federal government, the island's legislature voted to repeal Puerto Rico's official bilingualism and replace it with Spanish as the sole official language. "[8] In recognition of the historical defense of the Spanish language and culture, the Spanish Monarchy awarded Puerto Rico the Principe de Asturias' Prize that same year. A 1902 English-only language law was abolished on April 5, 1991. English First is an organization that targets the United States and is dedicated toward making English the official language. ", "2005–2009 Population and Housing Narrative Profile for Puerto Rico", "Table 2. The actual South American/Caribbean-Spanish word that means "street blocks" is cuadras.[26]. Even though there is a English-only language law from 1902. These languages include French, German, Italian, Chinese, Haitian-Creole, and Hindi. On Thursday Mr. Santorum and his aides scrambled to contain the damage, with the candidate saying several times that the local media had misquoted him as saying he wanted English to be the "only" language, whereas he believed that English should be the "primary language. Col. Ab. In total there are about 3.950 million people who live in Puerto Rico, of which it is estimated that about 3.800 million people speak mainly Spanish and only about 82,000 speak English. A U.S. [25] As a result of this exposure, Puerto Ricans often mix elements of the English language into their own Spanish language, developing new linguistic forms. [24] [10], In 2009, the grassroots community cultural organization Unidos por Nuestro Idioma ("United for our language"), whose goal is "defending Spanish in Puerto Rico", expressed concern that the use of English terms on official road signs reading "Welcome to Guaynabo City", and on mass transit ("City Hall" and "Downtown") as well as police cruisers ("San Juan Police Department") were evidence of the English language replacing Spanish in official use. Main Address: PO Box 9020082 San Juan , PR, 00902-0082. Currency: United States dollar ($) (USD). Some interpret this as part of an Americanization process, others as a necessity for the functioning of the Executive Council in charge of Puerto Rico at the time, of which few or none of the mainland appointees spoke Spanish.[6]. Over 95% of the population in Puerto Rico speaks the language in education, business, and daily life contexts. Phone Number: 1-787-721-7000. In 2012, however, there were pilot programs in about a dozen of over 1,400 public schools aimed at conducting instruction in English only. 588–589. 396 (1967), and VIENTOS-GASTON, "Informe del Procurador General sobre el idioma", 36 Rev. Colony at a Linguistic Crossroads: The Decision to Make Spanish the Official Language of Puerto Rico Author(s): Jorge A. Vélez 1 and C. William Schweers 1 View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: 1 University of Puerto Rico, Bayamon It then contrasts that legal ab-straction with a simple sociological fact: Puerto Rico is a monolin-gual society where Spanish reigns and English plays an absolutely minor role. Traditionally, the discourse on language policy in the U.S.has been framed as an either-or choice between English and other languages. New Mexico and the Common Wealth of Puerto Rico have designated both English and Spanish as co-official languages. Revival programs across the country are seeking to popularize the language. The primary language of the country is Spanish and is the only official language of the judiciary system. The elected representatives of the people of Puerto Rico made English an official language of the territory. Phone Number: 1-787-721-7000. 2 0. stiff. Such precedence has been used to predict the language’s growth in the island country of Puerto Rico. The new law was not intended to discriminate against English speakers, whoselanguage rights were largely 2 " John is his name Official languages Spanish, English National language 1904-1907 Other examples of this are the English word pamphlet, said as panfleto instead of folleto, and the English word muffler, said as mofle instead of silenciador. Since then, the Puerto Rican government has declared Spanish an official language on several occasions while removing it from that status on as many occasions. Spanish is also Puerto Rico's official language. [13], The official languages[14] of the executive branch of government of Puerto Rico[15] are Spanish and English, with Spanish being the primary language. Source(s): we were talking about this issue in my spanish class last week. En revisión por la Comisión Estatal de Elecciones de Puerto Rico (CEE) #CEE-SA-2020-3320. The U.S. focuses on reformation of public education in Puerto Rico and implements English as the language of instruction. "Informe del Procurador General sobre el idioma", 36 Rev. The culturally curious can chill in Old San Juan when language learning abroad in Puerto Rico, and meander through the colorful Spanish architecture. Bill 1177 will make Spanish the only “official language” of Puerto Rico. The United States acquired the islands of Puerto Rico in 1898 after the Spanish–American War.In 1950, Congress enacted legislation (P.L. English and Spanish become the official languages of Puerto Rico. ... Official language: Spanish, English. There is a phonological influence of American English on Puerto Rican Spanish, wherein syllable-final /r/ can be realized as [ɹ], aside from [ɾ], [r], and [l]; "verso"' (verse) becomes [ˈbeɹso], aside from [ˈbeɾso], [ˈberso], or [ˈbelso], "invierno" (winter) becomes [imˈbjeɹno], aside from [imˈbjeɾno], [imˈbjerno], or [imˈbjelno], and "parlamento" (parliament) becomes [paɹlaˈmento], aside from [paɾlaˈmento], [parlaˈmento], or [palaˈmento]. By Benjamin Elisha Sawe on August 27 2019 in Society. 6 8 English 596 (1965). The future linguistic state of Puerto Rico has been tied directly to the future political status of the country. The official language in Puerto Rico is Spanish. Unlock this profile with an Essentials plan.. See the details on every language spoken in Puerto Rico, plus: Profiles for every other country in the world; 7,464 profiles covering every language in use today War.In 1950, Congress enacted legislation ( P.L and reject English as it is also a crossroads Hispanic! 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