German As The Official US Language Myth
An urban legend, sometimes called the Muhlenberg legend after Frederick Muhlenberg, states that English only narrowly defeated German as the U.S. official language. In reality, the proposal involved a requirement that government documents be translated into German. The United States has no statutory official language; English has been used on a de facto basis, owing to its status as the country's predominant language.
In Pennsylvania, which had a large German-American population, German was long allowed as the language of instruction in schools, and state documents were available in German until 1950. As a result of anti-German sentiment during World War I, the fluency decreased from one generation to the next and only a small fraction of Pennsylvanians of German descent are fluent in the German language.
Read more about this topic: German Language In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words german, official, language and/or myth:
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“There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,
Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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