It’s Illegal to Speak English in This U.S. State (Yes, Really)

While English is the most commonly spoken language in the United States, it is actually illegal to speak it in this state.

In a bill from 1923, Representative Washington J. McCormick of Montana had tried to pass a bill in Congress that would have declared the official language of the United States to "American" and no longer "English." However, that bill failed and English was kept as the official language of the country.

However, that did not stop a similar bill to be passed in the state of Illinois. Senator Frank Ryan introduced a bill very similar to the previous one to the Illinois General Assembly. The bill passed due to politicians opposition of the British, according to University of Illinois.

"Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: The official language of the State of Illinois shall be known hereafter as the 'American' language and not as the 'English' language," the bill states, according to Language Policy.

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Additionally, in 1969 News Papers, another act of the General Assembly replaced "American" with "English." So, the law that made English illegal was amended and replaced American with the former.

However, there is still the term "American Language" that is used in some legislation from the time period.

In the United States English is the most spoken language, according to USA.gov, but the people in the country speak more than 350 languages the website reports. Some of the most common other languages that are spoken are: Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic.