At least one interesting thing happened during the Super Bowl.

Because the game itself was boring.

Language Log did a little rundown of the languages used as well as the responses. The negative responses seem to be aimed at immigrants but ask speakers of Navajo or Hawaiian or Central Alaskan Yup’ik if it’s un-American to sing America the Beautiful in a language other than English. These languages were in place before the areas they’re spoken in ever became American and they’re still spoken today, perhaps even by monolinguals.

The opinion of one former U.S. congressman, Allen West (R-FL), stood out and is particularly interesting as he cites Theodore Roosevelt’s idea of a homogenous American culture, which, according to folklorist Barry Ancelet, set the stage for the stigmatization of French right here in Louisiana, yet another language which was dominant before and well after this area became part of the United States.

Maybe Coca-Cola could have really given the xenophobes food for thought if they had included one or more of these languages.