Americans, generally speaking, have a reputation for being poor at learning foreign languages. Perhaps that's understandable when English has become the world's dominant international language, but the history of language in the United States is far more interesting than many people realise. The idea that "Americans have always spoken English" isn't really true. The original Thirteen Colonies were multilingual. Alongside English were Dutch, German, French, numerous Native American languages and, later, Spanish in large parts of what is now the United States. After independence, the Founding Fathers deliberately did not declare an official national language. To this day, the United States has no official language at the federal level. English simply became the de facto language because it was already the language of government, law, commerce and education. One of the most persistent myths is that German almost became the official language and supposedly lost by a single vote cast by Frederick Muhlenberg. It never happened. The 1794 vote was merely about whether some government documents should also be printed in German for German-speaking immigrants. Ironically, while English became dominant by convention rather than law, other languages continued to flourish. Today, Spanish is spoken by more than 40 million people, making it by far the country's second language. Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic all have millions of speakers. California's first Constitution (1849) required laws to be published in both English and Spanish, while Louisiana continued to use French extensively after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. In fact, French became so heavily suppressed after the Civil War that modern organisations such as CODOFIL now exist to preserve Louisiana's French heritage. The greatest tragedy, however, was the treatment of Indigenous languages. Hundreds of Native American languages were devastated by disease, forced assimilation, displacement and government policies designed to eradicate them. Many disappeared altogether. One final curiosity: although the new republic quickly abandoned British currency, adopting the dollar and a decimal monetary system under the Coinage Act of 1792, foreign coins remained legal tender until 1857. Yet despite embracing decimal currency more than two centuries ago, the United States still clings to pounds, miles, gallons and Fahrenheit instead of adopting the metric system used by almost every other country. History is rarely as simple as the version we learn at school.
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