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So we all know the story about
how German missed out on becoming the official language of the USA
by one vote.
But just think how differently things would have worked out.
We would be watching comedy shows like “Die Urknalltheorie” and “Freunde”.
Captain Kirk would have piloted the Starship “Unternehmungsgeist”
on a “Sternenreise”.
And “Kastanienbraun 5” would have had a smash hit with “Sie will geliebt werden”.
Unfortunately, the story begins to fall apart
when you realise that the US doesn’t have an official language.
English is the language used by government and business,
but that’s by convention: it’s not fixed as an official language.
As myths go, it’s not a bad one.
There were lots of German-speaking settlers in America,
and their descendants still speak German to this day —
or something very much like German.
So it’s not unreasonable to assume that language might have been an issue.
What happened was that in 1794, a group of German settlers from Virginia
petitioned the government to have federal laws printed not only in English,
but also in German.
They didn’t want German to be made an official language:
what they wanted was laws translated into their own language.
So this proposal was duly debated,
and in the end it was finally rejected.
But at one point there was a ballot that was decided by a single vote.
After a lot of fruitless debate where nothing could be decided,
a motion was tabled to adjourn.
And that motion was defeated 42 votes to 41.
So no: German was never going to be the official language of the United States.
And neither was English, or any other language.
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