Re: What if

Bryan Maloney>>>>>>
On Thu, 18 Nov 1999, abrigon wrote:

> reasons. The US almost did have German as the official lingo by like 1
> or 2 votes of Congress or percents. I forget the whole story. To keep
Citation?

All that I've investigated say that this is utterly false.
<<<<<<

The hot dope on this myth, straight from the sci.lang FAQ:

http://www.zompist.com/lang16.html#votemyth

"German lost out to English as the US's official language by 1 vote."

This entertaining story is also told of Greek, Latin, and even Hebrew.

There was never any such vote. Dennis Baron, in The English Only Question
(1990), thinks the legend may have originated with a 1795 vote concerning a
proposal to publish federal laws in German as well as English. At one point a
motion to table discussion (rather than referring the matter back to committee)
was defeated 41-40. The proposal was eventually defeated.




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