| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Why many believe Telugu is an official language in the US
Several Facebook users are making the claim based on an article by "The Hans India", whose headline reads, "Telugu language recognised as official language in the USA finds place on American ballot box". Is the claim true?
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
America does not recognise any language as an official language, not even English. But Telugu is one of the fastest-growing languages in the US, and ballots for the Presidential polls will be printed in Telugu and some foreign languages in some states.
During their election campaigns, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have reached out to the Indian diaspora due to their strong presence in certain seats. Amid this, a viral messageon social media claims Telugu has been recognised as an official language in the United States.
Several Facebook users are making the claim based on an article by “The Hans India”, whose headline reads, “Telugu language recognised as official language in the USA finds place on American ballot box”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. America does not recognise any language as an official language, not even English. But Telugu is one of the fastest-growing languages in the US, and ballots for the Presidential polls will be printed in Telugu and some foreign languages in some states.
The archived versions of the viral posts can be seen here, here and here.
Many Facebook users and Telugu websites have made similar misleading claims that Telugu has now been recognised as the official language in the US.
Why US doesn’t have an official language
The United States does not have and never had an official language. On several occasions, Congressmen have tried to push in a Bill to make English the official language, but in vain. English, of course, is the de facto language in the US, but nothing in its Constitution or federal laws supports the concept of an official language in the country.
“The Founding Fathers didn’t see a need to declare one,” Dr Wayne Wright, a professor of language and literacy at Purdue University, Indiana, US, told CNN. “English was pretty much the dominant language of the US at that time, so there really wasn’t a need to protect it. And they didn’t want to offend their fellow Americans who helped fight for independence.”
The Telugu factor
Out of at least 350 languages spoken in the US, Telugu is the fastest growing. As per “BBC News”, according to a study by an American think tank in 2018, the number of Telugu speakers has grown by 86 per cent between 2010 and 2017.
But the confusion and misleading information regarding Telugu as an official language in the US is supposed to have stemmed from “The Hans India” article, which claimed that “the Donald Trump government in the United States of America has recognised Telugu language as the official language for communication in the United States”.
In the US, ballot papers for elections are printed in multiple languages to help voters with limited English proficiency. In states such as Virginia, Texas, Illinois and California, Telugus have significant presence. So in some of these states, the ballots are also available in Telugu, among other foreign languages.
Therefore, it is true that Telugu is the fastest growing language in the US, and ballots in some states will be printed in Telugu and other foreign languages. But the claim about Telugu becoming an official language in the US is not true, because America doesn’t have one.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)