WI: German becomes dominant US language

First post!

As in "The USA still has no official language, but German replaces English on official documents and becomes the language taught in public schools". This seems a bit unlikely, but maybe there is a larger influx of German immigrants?

I'm really wondering this: the US was was extremely hostile to Britain for a long time after the Revolution (and vice versa, I understand). Does the Great Reconciliation never occur? Is it at least slowed because the two countries now have much less in common? Does the United States perhaps become more culturally German and thus diplomatically closer to the eventual Germany?
 
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I think this is ASB.

OTOH you could have one or more German-majority settlements in the New World. I believe parts of Pennsylvania and Ontario were defacto German-speaking before WW1. Argentina (and Brazil?) also had German speaking regions.
 
ASB, or, at best, out in the oort clouds at the far reaches of the Plausability solar-system.

I rather thought so. I was just thinking, since there are communities around that STILL speak German as a first language (albeit rather archaic German by now, I'd imagine), that it just might have become prevalent.

Ah, well
 
America did have a massive amount of German immigrants*, but English by that point was already established as the language of government, commerce and the general population in the major population centers in the East. Their was also a good deal of anti-German sentiment as a result and some did use German replacing English as a scare tactic at the time.

Now, that having been said it's possible with different immigration patterns and less pressures that you could get a situation with 1 or even a few states where German and English exist together, sort of like OTL Quebec.



*German is the single largest ancestry group in the United States, with it found in every state and makes up the plurality or majority in most of the Northern half of the country.
 
When's the POD? In the 1770s?
If so, there's probably no such thing as a single German language to adopt (just various dialects).
Maybe if the Hessians somehow side with the revolutionaries... but even that looks very ASBish to me.
 
A worse outcome of the 30 years war and a slower recovery(maybe a German version of the potato famine- not sure how this would be pulled off, though, as I'm no expert on biology) lead to massive german immigration to America in the 1650s and 1660s. When the later generations of immigrants arrive, they are introduced into a german-speaking society, which lead to the further entrenchment of german.

Differences would start to kick in later. The ARW was in part inspired by the Glorious Revolution, which I think would have less impact in a German-speaking colony. However the French Revolution, which would also happen later here(no ARW means less debt means revolution happens around 1800) could probably kickstart an "American Enlightenment", which could also be partly influenced by German Romanticism.
One thought: Would this America receive Italian immigrants as "well"(not saying they were well received, but they managed to integrate to a comfortable extent after a century) as it did in OTL? I think it wouldn't by the simple fact that the average Italian considers the German language to be equal parts language and barking:D So I think they would prefer Argentina, Brazil, maybe even Chile.
 
One thought: Would this America receive Italian immigrants as "well"(not saying they were well received, but they managed to integrate to a comfortable extent after a century) as it did in OTL? I think it wouldn't by the simple fact that the average Italian considers the German language to be equal parts language and barking:D So I think they would prefer Argentina, Brazil, maybe even Chile.

Plenty of Italians went to Germany as well as to Germanic-speaking Netherlands and Sweden in OTL after World War II in the guest worker programs, so if the US is as successful as it was OTL speaking German instead of English probably wouldn't change how many Italians go there.
 
Now, that having been said it's possible with different immigration patterns and less pressures that you could get a situation with 1 or even a few states where German and English exist together, sort of like OTL Quebec.

I agree here.

the crucial point is that, as stated above, English as the language of government, trade, education was already established in the large population centers. You'd need German partly replacing that early on.

I once read a timeline where the Dutch had the idea to offer large estates for those who come over with a number of peasants to settle them. The idea was very popular with wealthy German second sons, particularly during war time, which came over in large numbers and established the middle Atlantic colonies as German speaking.

Another idea is to change the war of independence so that the new US has less English speaking regions. I'm not sure but with the Dutch idea cited above and a Southern American Dominion alla Glen English speakers would be a far smaller fraction of the new US, and the high numbers of German immigrants still to come could turn that around finally.
 
America did have a massive amount of German immigrants*, but English by that point was already established as the language of government, commerce and the general population in the major population centers in the East. Their was also a good deal of anti-German sentiment as a result and some did use German replacing English as a scare tactic at the time.

Now, that having been said it's possible with different immigration patterns and less pressures that you could get a situation with 1 or even a few states where German and English exist together, sort of like OTL Quebec.



*German is the single largest ancestry group in the United States, with it found in every state and makes up the plurality or majority in most of the Northern half of the country.

German as an ancestry group is much smaller than the English speaking ancestry groups as whole (American+English+Other British), and the German plurality is a very recent occurance in many states due to changes in census reporting.

Germans have only ever been a majority in one state at one time - North Dakota in the earlier part of last century.
 
German as an ancestry group is much smaller than the English speaking ancestry groups as whole (American+English+Other British), and the German plurality is a very recent occurance in many states due to changes in census reporting.

Germans have only ever been a majority in one state at one time - North Dakota in the earlier part of last century.

I meant in reported ancestry.

But yes, if you combined the English, Irish and 'American', it would be the largest group, but as we know those are not one group, so ultimately it does'nt really matter.
 
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