Tennessee Official and Legal Language

English Adopted: 1984

Tennessee Law

Tennessee State Language: English

The following information was excerpted from the Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4, Chapter 1,Part 4, Section 4-1-404.

Title 4 State Government
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Part 4 Miscellaneous
Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-1-404 (2011)

4-1-404. English -- Official and legal language.

English is hereby established as the official and legal language of Tennessee. All communications and publications, including ballots, produced by governmental entities in Tennessee shall be in English, and instruction in the public schools and colleges of Tennessee shall be conducted in English unless the nature of the course would require otherwise.

HISTORY: Acts 1984, ch. 821, § 1.

Sources...

The State of Tennessee. Tennessee Code Annotated. Nashville: The State of Tennessee, 2011. Web. 18 Aug 2011. .
Shearer, Benjamin F. and Barbara S. State Names, Seals, Flags and Symbols: A Historical Guide Third Edition, Revised and Expanded. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 3 Sub edition, 2001.

Additional Information

What are the origins of the English Language?: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated3.

A Brief History of English: by Dr. L. Kip Wheeler 1998-2014.

The History of English: How Englsih went from an obsure Germainic dialect to a global language, by Luke Mastin.

More symbols & emblems: Complete list of official Tennessee state symbols from NETSTATE.COM.

The English Language
by David Crystal

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, by David Crystal. 506 pages. Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (August 4, 2003) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language is one of the publishing phenomena of recent times. Rarely has a book so packed with accurate and well researched factual information been so widely read and popularly acclaimed. This Second Edition now presents an overhaul of the subject for a new generation of language-lovers. The length of the book has increased by 16 pages and there are 44 new illustrations, extensive new material on world English and Internet English, and a complete updating of statistics, further reading suggestions and other references.

The Story of English
McCrum, MacNeil, and Cran

The Story of English: Third Revised Edition, by Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil, William Cran. 496 pages. Penguin (Non-Classics); 3 edition (December 31, 2002) Originally paired with a major PBS miniseries, this book presents a stimulating and comprehensive record of spoken and written English-from its Anglo-Saxon origins some two thousand years ago to the present day, when English is the dominant language of commerce and culture with more than one billion English speakers around the world. From Cockney, Scouse, and Scots to Gulla, Singlish, Franglais, and the latest African American slang, this sweeping history of the English language is the essential introduction for anyone who wants to know more about our common tongue.

A History of the English Language, by Albert C. Baugh, Thomas Cable. 447 pages. Prentice Hall; 5 edition (November 19, 2001) For courses in the History of the English Language (English Composition). Comprehensive and balanced, this classic exploration of the history of the English language combines internal linguistic history and external cultural history--from the Middle Ages to the present. Students are encouraged to develop both an understanding of present-day English and an enlightened attitude toward questions affecting the language today.