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From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Subject: Re: Esperanto? The EU?
Message-ID: <D5x5CF.2KA@spss.com>
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References: <D5r1r7.5zz@indirect.com> <3klmnn$hk@gryphon.phoenix.net> <donhD5up5H.Iv0@netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 00:29:01 GMT
Lines: 22

In article <donhD5up5H.Iv0@netcom.com>, Don HARLOW <donh@netcom.com> wrote:
>>: Not so very long ago, s_salomo@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Thierry Salomon) said...
>>: >Do you know that at the beginning of the United states there was a vote
>>: >to choose the language they'd use. I heard that for 2 or three more votes
>>: >German would have been chosen instead of English. 
>>
>Laux mia memoro, tiu pseuxdohistorio    As far as I can remember, this 
>aperis en sci.lang almenaux du fojojn   pseudo-history has appeared in 
>en la pasinta jaro. Versxajne temas     sci.lang at least twice in the 
>pri vocxdono en la usona sxtato         last year. It apparently has to 
>Pensilvanio rilate tion, en kiu(j)      do with a vote in the state of 
>lingvo(j) aperu sxtataj dokumentoj.     Pennsylvania about which 
>Aux io simila.                          language(s) state documents were 
>                                        to appear in. Or something like
>                                        that.

This comes up frequently enough that it's in the sci.lang FAQ file
(recently posted; and also available in news.answers).  Briefly, there
was never any such vote on what language to use in the US.  Dennis Baron,
in _The English Only Question_, speculates on possible sources for the
legend, including a vote arising while Congress debated a proposal to
publish laws in German (*as well as*, not instead of, in English).
