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  • America’s War on Language

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hapke@illinois.edu Sep 4, 2014 8:34 am

This was a very big thing in my home town of Cincinnati. A number of the larger roads lost their German names and became Victory Parkway, Columbia Parkway, etc., although the smaller ones stayed German, as in Pfeiffer Rd,. etc.

Reply to hapke@illinois.edu at 8:34 am
casparvan@outlook.com Sep 4, 2014 1:15 pm

Hello,

wasn't there a time that not German but Dutch(Netherlands lingua) had a chance of becoming primary language? This might be earlier or it might be the common fault of mixing up Dutch(Netherlands) with Deutsch(German) ??

groeten,

curious Dutchie

Reply to casparvan@outlook.com at 1:15 pm
debaron@illinois.edu Sep 5, 2014 12:47 am

Dear curious Dutchie: It's a myth that German (not Dutch) lost to English by one vote in 1776, or 1795, or any other year. It didn't happen; there was no vote. The US has no official language. Neither does the UK, for that matter. 

Reply to debaron@illinois.edu at 12:47 am
michaelt4two@gmail.com Sep 5, 2014 6:15 am

In view of the WWI promise not to use 'yeah' and (sic!) 'nope' it is ironic that these appear, from a UK perspective, to be two of the commonest words in contemporary casual American speech. 'Yeah' is of course widespread in UK English, while its use of 'nope' tends to be deliberately imitative.

Reply to michaelt4two@gmail.com at 6:15 am
cpfeic@netscape.net Sep 15, 2014 5:29 pm

Delighted to find someone else who's interested in this little-known topic!  My  own research actually turned up someone who was arrested because of a parrot speaking German!  And, I'm sorry to add, many German book-burnings, including at schools.

Also glad to hear there's (still) a Pfeiffer Road in Cinci!

Reply to cpfeic@netscape.net at 5:29 pm