Re: What if

>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.
From www.straightdope.com (Cecil Adam's column)

There was some discussion just after the Revolution about switching to a=20
language other than English, but it's not known how serious this was--
probably not very.   Nonetheless there's a 150-year-old legend that=20
English was almost replaced, not by Hebrew but by German. Supposedly it
lost by one vote, cast by a German-speaking Lutheran minister named Frederi=
ck=20
Muhlenberg. Some say the vote took place in the Pennsylvania legislature an=
d=20
that Muhlenberg voted against it because he didn't want Pennsylvania to be=20
isolated from the rest of the nation. Another version, commonly heard in=20
Germany, says the proposal would have passed except that a German-speaking=20
legislator went to the toilet at the crucial moment.

It never happened, of course. In the 18th century German speakers constitut=
ed=20
a significant fraction of the population only in Pennsylvania (remember the=
=20
Pennsylvania Dutch?), and even the most fanatical British haters weren't=20
crazy enough to think they could change the national language by legislativ=
e=20
fiat. But the story isn't pure invention. Here's what really  happened,=20
courtesy of Dennis Baron, professor of English at the University of Illinoi=
s
at Urbana-Champaign:

In 1794 a group of German speakers in Virginia petitioned Congress to publi=
sh=20
federal laws in German as well as English. The intention was not to supplan=
t=20
English but simply to supplement it. A House committee recommended=20
publishing German translations of the laws, but on January 13, 1795,
"a vote to adjourn and sit again on the recommendation" (apparently an=20
attempt to keep the measure alive rather than killing it immediately) faile=
d=20
by a vote of 42-41. Frederick Muhlenberg (1750-1801) was in fact Speaker of=
=20
the House at the time, but how he voted is unknown. Tradition has it that h=
e
stepped down to cast a negative vote, apparently being the German-speaking=20
equivalent of an Oreo. Not that it mattered. The vote was merely procedural=
;=20
its success would not have guaranteed passage of the measure, and in any ca=
se=20
German translations of federal statutes are a far cry from making the Germa=
n=20
the official language of the U.S. A similar measure came up a month later=20
and was also voted down, as were subsequent attempts in later years.=20

The Muhlenberg story was widely publicized by Franz Loher in his 1847 Histo=
ry=20
and Achievements of the Germans in America. He wrongly set the event in the=
=20
Pennsylvania legislature, over which Muhlenberg had previously presided, an=
d=20
also wrongly claimed that Muhlenberg was reviled by his fellow German=20
speakers for selling them out. Germans did get on Muhlenberg's case for=20
later casting the deciding vote in favor of the Jay Treaty, which was viewe=
d=20
as anti-German; his brother-in-law stabbed him and he lost the  next electi=
on=20
in 1796. Loher conflated this genuine controversy with the trivial language=
=20
debate and the legend has survived ever since.

The truth is that the U.S. has never had an official language. Several stat=
es=20
have declared English official at one time or another, most recently in
response to the influx of Spanish speakers. The so-called English Language=20
Amendment (ELA) to the U.S. Constitution, which would give English official=
=20
status, has been before Congress since 1981, and given the country's=20
sour mood it may yet pass. But even if one concedes the usefulness of a
common language in unifying the country, one might as well attempt to=20
legislate the weather.