Since 2014, June has been Immigrant Heritage Month in the United States, a time for Americans to remember our status as a nation of newcomers. So celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month along with us, until President Trump cancels it! After all, if you're here and you're not fully Native American, we guarantee that either you or an ancestor qualifies! As an extra bonus, we have Ken Jennings of Jeopardy! fame (and English/Welsh/Scotch-Irish stock) to school us about all the things we thought we knew about our ocean-crossing forebears.
The Debunker: Did German Almost Become the National Language?
There's a legend that's been circulating since at least the 1840s on both sides of the Atlantic, from travel literature to school lectures to Ann Landers columns. According to these authorities, in 1794, Congress came within one vote of making German the official language of the United States. When I heard first heard this story growing up, it seemed strange but not impossible. In the mists of early federal experimentation, we almost had all kinds of weird stuff. Ben Franklin once wrote that the turkey should be our national bird. John Adams wanted to call the president "Your Highness." The American rulebook was still being written back then—why not stick it to the English by bailing on their language? After all, fully nine percent of early Americans were already native German speakers, making them the nation's biggest linguistic minority.
But there was never any such vote in Congress, not really. Here's what actually went down: In 1794, some German-Americans from Virginia petitioned Congress for copies of federal laws printed in German. Note that this wouldn't have given German any special status, it would have just resulted in some bilingual documents. The House of Representatives considered this proposal in January 1795, and during the debate, a motion to adjourn (not a motion on the final bill) failed by one vote. Congress eventually rejected the petition, voting "Nein!" the following month. But in 1847 German historian Franz Löher got the story wrong in his book History and Achievements of the Germans in America, and for well over a century, people believed the story that we were all one vote away from sprechening sie Deutsch.
The weirdest thing about this mythical idea that Germany was almost our national language is that the United States, famously, does not have an national language! America is one of just a handful of world nations (Australia, Chile, Great Britain, and Mexico are others) that has a de facto language, but no official legal one. Since around the time of the Reagan revolution of 1980, an English-only movement has picked up steam in conservative circles, with enough success that thirty-one states now consider English an "official language" statewide. But attempts to enact "Englisch über alles" on a national scale have always failed in the Senate.
Quick Quiz: Because of a burst of anti-German-language sentiment during World War II, what popular food was renamed the "liberty sandwich"?
Ken Jennings is the author of eleven books, most recently his Junior Genius Guides, Because I Said So!, and Maphead. He's also the proud owner of an underwhelming Bag o' Crap. Follow him at ken-jennings.com or on Twitter as @KenJennings.