American English, or United States (U.S.) English, is the set of dialects of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and is the common language used by the federal government, considered the de facto language of the country because of its widespread use. English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. As an example, while both Spanish and English have equivalent status in the local courts of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, under federal law, English is the official language for any matters being referred to the United States District Court for the territory.

The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, American English has been influenced by the languages of West Africa, the Native American population, German, Dutch, Irish, Spanish, and other languages of successive waves of immigrants to the United States.

U.S. English is the umbrella name for two American political advocacy groups founded in 1983 by Senator S. I. Hayakawa to advocate the adoption of English as the official language of the United States.

The group operates two separate nonprofit entities out of its headquarters in Washington, D.C.—U.S. English, Inc. and the U.S. English Foundation.

Leadership

Mauro E. Mujica has been the Chair and CEO of U.S. English since 1993. He was educated at Columbia University and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architecture. A naturalized citizen, Mujica was born in Antofagasta, Chile, and moved to the United States in 1964. An architect by trade, Mujica was the Chairman/CEO of the Pace Group, an international architecture and planning firm, from 1983 to 1987. He is fluent in five languages.

Advisory board members

Early advisory board members included Alistair Cooke, Saul Bellow, Walter Cronkite, Norman Cousins, Gore Vidal, Norman Podhoretz, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Some of them are no longer affiliated with the group. Schwarzenegger is still a board member. The gallerist André Emmerich (d. 2007), Charles Scripps, Togo Tanaka and the Nobel Prize laureate Rosalyn Yalow (d. 2007) were among the other past members of the advisory board.